This is inspired by a comment made by tlees2: it's something I had, ironically forgotten about -- Reagan may have remained in office long after he was fit to hold it.  He was our oldest president and, in the latter years of his term, was likely experiencing the early signs of Alzheimer's and dementia.  If it's true that Reagan was mentally impaired and he still held onto his office, or that his his aides manipulated the situation in order to remain in power is one of the great crimes of late 20th century American politics.

Certainly members of the press corps at the time debate Reagan's mental fitness in his later years with Leslie Stahl remembering moments of Reagan's impermanent lucidity.

There's no way we'll settle this one in a blog post.  Reagan's mental condition during his last few years in office might never really be revealed.  But in the discussion of the "Reagan Myth" that was held this week, nobody even approached the topic of Reagan's mental health.

It really is surprising to me that TPM decided to host such a milquetoast review of the Reagan legacy.  There was a lot of Larry King style sycophancy on display, even from some of Reagan's supposed critics.  Fortunately, the commenters stepped in where the featured discussants failed us.

I'll try to bring some sanity and realism to the Reagan's Legacy discussion because so far, Reagan's detractors have gone far too easy on the guy and his supporters are, well, disturbing in their hero worship.  There has been no brainwashing in American politics like the great Reagan brainwashing and it endures today.

Reagan's legacy has a name.  It's George W. Bush and it's everything that Bush did wrong.

It all starts with Iran-Contra and the notion that the president doesn't have to answer to congress and can pursue his own agenda in secret, relying on fall guys to protect him when it seems like he might get caught.  It's this kind of thinking that allowed Bush to rationalize illegally wiretapping American citizens, extraordinary renditions and war crimes.  Oliver North and John Poindexter took the fall for Reagan the same way that Scooter Libby took a fall for Bush and Cheney.

All the crimes that the Bush administration has committed around the world are of the types committed by the Reagan administration in Latin America and elsewhere.

Stephen Knott actually believes that congressional oversight of intelligence activities after Iran-Contra hobbled our intelligence system and kept it from stopping 9/11.  Funny... if I were to place blame for 9/11 I might look at Reagan, the guy who trained and armed him so that he could use him as a proxy against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Then there's the economic legacy -- Reagan convinced America that supply side economics works and that the only good government is a small government.  Bush used this to sell tax cuts as the answer to everything.  He gave us tax cuts at the first sign of a surplus, then at the first sign of a deficit.  He cut taxes as a bubble grew and then after it popped.  Pure one note Reaganism.

The worst of it all is Reagan's social legacy.  Let's start with who he was. He portrayed himself as a likable goof, and he basically convinced America that it's not so important to be smart. Reagan was "the guy you'd like to have a beer with." Sound familiar?   Yes, Ronald Reagan sold us on goofy stupidity and rhetorical trickery in politics.  I have some faith that Obama can move us away from that.

I really am tired of people lionizing Reagan, covering for his crimes and not admitting the truth -- he was never really a nice guy.  Remember, he cooperated with McCarthy.  That's a youthful indiscretion that we were wrong to every forgive.