George H.W. Bush: Mental Lassitude, 1992

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	The Health and Medical History of President
	George H.W. Bush: Mental Lassitude, 1992

depression?

The listless second half of the Bush presidency, as well as his uninspired campaign for re-election in 1992, raises the question of whether he suffered depressive or other psychological sequelae of his thyroid disease. There is no objective evidence for this yet -- it is pure, weak speculation.

Watching a few semi-candid clips of Bush from October 1992 [8] only strengthens an impression of mental lassitude Asked by Larry King what disease he (Bush) had just had, Bush replied "Crohn's? No, not Crohn's. Uh, just thyroid." An apathetic- and listless-appearing Bush also seemed to think that Halcion (a sleeping pill he had taken) was a decongestant. Comment: Either Bush was amazingly ignorant of his medical issues, or he was not firing on all cylinders.

More...

The movie Spin shows two clips of Bush talking to television host Larry King during short non-broadcast intervals.

The first clip, from October 7, 1992, started with a discussion about Bush's thyroid condition (Graves disease) and also mentioned the sleep drug Halcion, which Bush had taken until he very publicly discontinued it earlier that year [8a]:

King: You feeling well by the way?

Bush: Huh?

King: Are you feeling well?

Bush: Pretty good. Lucky. Running still and played tennis yesterday.

King: What is that disease you had?

Bush: Um, um. Crohn's? No, not Crohn's. Uh, just thyroid. I don't know what...

King: [interrupting] What, they treat it, right?

Bush: Make you take a drug every single morning. A little blue thing. Synthroid or something and it wasn't heart. It's what, it's what the thyroid does to make your heart fibrillate but it's been very good.

King: [interrupting] You know I took Halcion for a long time after my heart surgery.

Bush: Are you off it now? I don't know that it's bad, Larry.

King: It's the best sleeping pill in the world but not daily.

Bush: No oh no. But now it's gotten such a bad rap.

Crohn disease is a gastrointestinal disorder.

In the second clip, four days before the 1992 election, Bush remarks that he had "a darn cold" and fever [8b]. He looked tired, apathetic, and seemed mentally slow. After confessing his cold, King and Bush again discussed Halcion [8c]:

King: ... there is a new pill coming from Israel better than Halcion.

Bush: You mean for sleeping or decongestant?

King: [unintelligible]

Bush: Great.

Halcion has no decongestant properties.

Resources

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Abrams, Herbert L. "The President Has Been Shot": Confusion, Disability, and the 25th Amendment in the Aftermath of the Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992. ISBN 0-393-03042-3 @ Amazon [a] pp. 59-60 [b] p. 261
Associated Press. [no title]. Yahoo! News [on-line]. 3 August 2002, 1:40 pm ET.
Bumgarner, John R. The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician's Point of View. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company, 1994. ISBN 0-89950-956-8 @ Amazon [a] p. 288 [b] p. 289 [c] p. 290 [d] pp. 289-291 [e] p. 292
Devotes one chapter to each President, through Clinton. Written for the layperson, well-referenced, with areas of speculation clearly identified, Dr. Zebra depends heavily on this book. Dr. Bumgarner survived the Bataan Death March and has written an unforgettable book casting a physician's eye on that experience.
Ebner SA, Badonnel MC, Altman LK, Braverman LE. Conjugal Graves disease. Ann Intern Med. 1992 Mar 15;116(6):479-81. Pubmed.
Heimel, Cynthia. Combover Congress: how can we trust our leaders to manage impeachment when they can't even manage their hair?. Salon.com. Feb. 3, 1999.
Caveat emptor: no written source for these statements is known to Dr. Zebra. Available on the web at: http://www.salon.com/news/1999/02/03newsb.html
Jaret, Peter. Blinking and thinking. In Health. July/August 1990; 4(4): 36-37.
Mathews J. The shrinking field. Washington Post. August 3, 1999. Page C1.
Accessed through washingtonpost.com: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/tall080399.htm
Springer, Brian. Spin. [Movie, 1995]. Accessed 6 July 2006. [a] 6:27 into the movie [b] 48:21 into the movie [c] 49:15 into the movie
This movie is largely composed of clips from 1992 television satellite feeds. These feeds are usually not broadcast in their entirety. For example, satellite feeds can include recordings made during commercial breaks or before a show starts. With the proper equipment, anyone can pick up satellite feeds (although they may be encrypted). 57 minutes 26 seconds. Movie accessed at: http://www.brasscheck.com/videos/spin.html
The Thyroid Society. Graves' disease: the heart of the matter. [On line]. Accessed 16 December 2002.
See: http://the-thyroid-society.org/graves.html
Toltzis RJ, Morton DJ, Gerson MC. Problems on Pennsylvania Avenue. N Engl J Med. 1986 Sep 25;315(13):836-7. Pubmed.
White House Press Release. [various topics]. George H.W. Bush Public Papers. (Kept in the Bush Presidential Library, College Station, TX). [a] Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the Results of the President's Physical Examination, May 10, 1989 [b] Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the President's Physical Examination, May 9, 1989 [c] Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the President's Physical Examination, April 12, 1990 [d] Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the President's Physical Examination, March 27, 1991 [e] Question-and-Answer Session With Reporters in Bethesda, Maryland, March 27 1991 [f] Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the President's Health, August 2, 1991 [g] Statements by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the President's Physical Examination, March 26, 1992 [h] Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the President's Hand Surgery, October 6, 1989 [i] Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the President's Eye Examination, April 25, 1990
Downloaded 26-27 November 03 from: http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/papers/
The George Bush web page at the White House.
(6 matches when checked in November 2003)

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