Should heads of state and candidates to high office pass a cognitive/ mental fitness test?

Shutterstock Is it fair to question a presidential candidate’s mental fitness? (Salon): “My heart sank as he floundered his way through his responses, fumbling with his notes, uncharacteristically lost for words. He looked tired and bewildered,” Ron Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, wrote of his father’s performance during the first 1984 presidential debate. At the time, there had long been rumors that Reagan was suffering from cognitive impairment — perhaps Alzheimer’s Disease — and as he struggled during the first debate against his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Walter Mondale, those concerns threatened his reelection campaign. He recovered during the second debate with a memorable quip, joking that he would not allow age to become an issue in the campaign because “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The audience laughed, the nation moved on… and, a decade later, Reagan announced to the world that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s… I must add that I am not trying to add to the stigma that surrounds mental health issues. I have written before about how mental illness is stigmatized in dangerous and unjust ways, how as an autistic person I am especially sensitive to mental health-based discrimination and how I have been personally impacted by it. At the same time: Whether one likes it or not, there is a difference between a president simply having a mental health issue ...
Source: SharpBrains - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness Technology Alzheimers-disease Cognitive-impairment mental health mental illness mental-fitness Source Type: blogs