AMENDMENT XXV TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION was ratified by the requisite number of states more than fifty years ago. It consists of four sections of increasing complexity. Section One and Section Two will be discussed and explained below. SECTION ONE reads: "In the case of the removal of the president...
The 25th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the states in July 1965, and was ratified by the required three-fourths within 18 months in early 1967. It is commonly referred to as The Presidential Disability and Succession Amendment. In subsequent years, both Amendments XXVI and...
Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. For nearly 180 years, a myth circulated that attempted to explain the peculiar fate that affected United States Presidents elected in a calendar year divided by twenty. Presidential mortality (eight US presidents died in office) appeared to follow a peculiar pattern. All but one...
Publishing Update from Ludwig M. Deppisch, Writer and Editor of This Website. The Women in the Life of Andrew Jackson, my third book will be published by McFarland & Company, Publishers, sometime during the next three or four months. Although the book's title may imply womanizing on the part of the...
Joe Biden's mental and cognitive functions have been the fodder for significant commentary and controversy during the 2020 presidential election. In February and May, 1988, then a Senator from Delaware, Biden underwent two brain surgeries to remove "berry" brain aneurysms, one was leaking blood; the second, asymptomatic, was discovered during...
Medical uncertainty continues to follow Joe Biden eight weeks after the November 2020 election. Legitimate questions about his mental fitness for the presidency persist. What is the status of his physical and cognitive functioning today? Opacity, rather than transparency, or even translucency, prevails. Dr. Kevin O'Connor, the presumptive presidential physician to...
Joe Biden's medical status was not transparent prior to the November 3, 2020 election. A continuing topic on this website will be Biden's health. Will his spokesperson's reports be transparent, accurate, and truthful? We shall examine. Biden's first encounters with physicians resulted from an accident at his home on Saturday afternoon,...
As the United States drifts towards the conclusion of the disputed 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden's physician, Kevin O' Connor has remained out of the eye of the public. O'Connor issued a report of his examination of the former vice-president in 2019, a year prior to the presidential election. He...
JOE BIDEN was declared by the unelected media as the 46th president of the United States a few days ago. Readers of this site over the past twelve months are aware that its author was concerned about Biden's mental and psychological fitness for this position. Many, including physicians, have concluded...
It is almost four weeks since President Trump was released from Walter Reed Medical Center after his hospitalization for the Corona Virus. His subsequent activities apparently corroborate his claims of a 'complete recovery.' My book The White House Physician published in 2007 seemingly had relevance in the context of the President's...
Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States is infected by the Virus from China. The sequence of events to the morning of Sunday October 4, 2020 is summarized: Saturday, November 26: Rose Garden ceremony to announce Judge Amy Coney Barrett as nominee to fill the new vacancy on the...
In November 2019 Donald Trump made an unscheduled trip to Walter Reed Army Hospital. Rumors about a medical emergency became rampant since the hospital trip was unscheduled and it was by automobile, not by helicopter as usual. The White House press secretary generally quieted the inflammatory speculation with the explanation...
Dear Readers, Andrew Jackson: The Women Who Influenced Him is my third book. It will be published by McFarland & Company early next year, It is the story of six women who cumulatively molded the personality and behavior of Jackson. Jackson was the stereotypical American hero during the nineteenth century. He was...
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden shrugged off a question (8/04/20) about taking a cognitive assessment test. Black CBS reporter Errol Barnett was the questioner. Biden responded, "No, I haven't taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test?" Biden then challenged the reporter in a peculiar way, "That's...
The matter of Presidential candidate Joe Biden's mental fitness for the presidency festers without resolution. This candidate's official and unofficial spokesmen continue to brush away questions about his mental acuity. As of this posting no recent neurological or psychiatric findings have been revealed. Moreover, no examination has been scheduled that...
Previous posts in the space have discussed the evidence that Democrat 2020 Presidential nominee Joe Biden may have early dementia. It is only fair that his opponent President Donald Trump be subjected to similar scrutiny. Just recently Biden boasted that he would match his cognitive abilities anytime anywhere against those...
Joe Biden remains the presumptive Democrat nominee in the 2020 presidential race. Because of concerns, both medical and political, he has taken to the security of his basement for almost three months. His isolation has allowed him a quarantine from public scrutiny; it has permitted him to issue political charges...
Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic candidate for President, has ongoing unanswered questions about his mental capacity. Two prior posts have examined at length whether the 77 year-old is exhibiting signs of dementia. The available evidence points towards an answer in the affirmative. What are the arguments that support Biden's present...
This is a highly controversial issue. This writer will attempt mightily to be non-partisan in addressing the question, although admittedly not a fan of this candidate. The following post will document speech and behavior patterns that support the notion of the candidate's mental confusion. The excerpts are taken from conservative publications....
It was not too long ago that the mental status of President Donald Trump was called into question by Democrat politicians, newspaper editorialists, and TV pundits. Stories were frequent about cabinet huddles and Dept of Justice meetings in which the invocation of Section IV of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the US...
Bernie's Medical Stonewall was the headline of a lead editorial in Saturday's Wall Street Journal. (2/22/2020). The subtitle read "He pledged to release his health records. Then he had a heart attack." After the 78 year old cardiac patient reneged on his earlier promise of transparency, his press secretary said health...
Two days after this blog's initial health analysis of Senator Bernie Sander's Health was published, the Huntington Post (Feb 10, 2020) issued a follow-up, (Bernie Sanders Walks Back Promise to Release 'Comprehensive' Medical Records). Right after his 2019 heart attack Sen. Sanders said that he would absolutely release his medical records...
This post will continue an intermittent series of analyses of the medical health of candidates for the 2020 American presidential election. Fortunately for this writer, my delay in posting has saved me the trouble of commenting upon the twenty Democrat contenders who already have given up the fight. Bernie Sanders, at...
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is a leading contender for the 2020 presidential nomination of the Democratic party. Warren is seventy years old, but younger by a number of years that her competitors, Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. The life expectancy of a seventy year old white woman living...
Joe Biden, the former vice president, currently is in a strong position to secure the 2020 Democrat nomination for president. Biden is seventy-six years old, and if elected he would be the oldest US president, even older than Ronald Reagan at the conclusion of The Gipper's second term. Therefore a...
Four years ago, prior to the closely fought 2016 United States presidential election, the medical fitness of the candidates was a much discussed topic. Hillary Clinton evinced many physical symptoms - a chronic cough, at least one physical collapse, and occasional mental symptoms, of concern since she had a history...
Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt died seventeen years before her husband Theodore Roosevelt ascended to the presidency of the United States. She is the most recent of the five women who never saw their husbands reach the White House. Martha Jefferson, Hannah Van Buren, and Ellen Arthur were featured recently in...
Ellen Arthur was born in Virginia and grew up in Washington D.C. She was an only child and remained very close to her mother until the latter died. William Lewis Herndon, her father, was a U.S. Naval officer; consequently he was often away on sea duty. His notable achievement was a...
Hannah Van Buren was the wife of Martin Van Buren who became the eighth United States President eighteen yeas after her death. Both Martin and Hannah were residents of the closely knit Dutch community of Kinderhook, New York, a small town near Albany, New York. The Van Burens were members of...
Six United States Presidents entered the White House unmarried; four were widowers - Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and Chester Alan Arthur. Two others were bachelors - James Buchanan and Grover Cleveland. Martha Jefferson was the first woman to die before her husband was elected President. Popular media have linked...
Ellen Axson Wilson was the first of President Woodrow Wilson's (1913-1921) two wives. Ellen Wilson died on August 6, 1914. Her death devastated and profoundly depressed the president to the extent that he became unfocused and indecisive in the presidency, in significant contrast to his determined and brisk decision-making of...
Caroline Harrison was the wife of President Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) who in turn was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison (1841). The later Harrison has the distinction, which probably will remain unique forever, of both defeating and then losing to the same opponent, Democrat Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897). Mrs....
Three American First Ladies died, compared to eight US Presidents who expired while president. The three are Letitia Tyler, Caroline Harrison, and Ellen Wilson. Two died from the delayed complications of childbirth while Mrs. Harrison was a victim of pulmonary tuberculosis. Letitia Tyler was a most obscure First Lady. Little is...
PREVIOUSLY THIS BLOG has discussed First Ladies who served successfully, First Ladies who died in office, and Surrogate First Ladies. This edition will focus on three women who were divorced from their husbands, who later remarried and became President of the USA. The two presidents are Ronald Reagan and Donald...
Melania Trump is only the second United States First Lady to be born abroad. Louisa Caroline Johnson Adams, the wife of the sixth US President was born in London, England. Two hundred years later, Melania Knavs Trump, a native of Novo Mesto, Slovenia, the wife of the Nation's forty-fifth president,...
Presidents Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump possessed many similarities both before and during their respective presidencies. Both would be considered macho men- - tall and imposing, proud, boisterous, accomplished, and triumphantly elected from backgrounds beyond politics. However, the two differed in two significant respects - fertility and women. Donald Trump is the...
Donald Trump, the 45th US president made it known that Andrew Jackson, the 7th US president, was his favorite predecessor. This affinity is the likely reason that the scheduled replacement of Andrew Jackson's visage on the twenty dollar bill has been delayed until at least 2029. I am often asked about...
Melania Trump is the 49 year old wife of the country's 45th president, Donald J. Trump Her striking appearance seems to preclude any significant medical problems. Moreover, her penchant for privacy further beclouds any significant history of illness or physical disability. It was a sudden surprise when Mrs. Trump was hospitalized in...
Dear Friends, This blog has been inactive even moribund for many months, a situation that this author is determined to correct. First an explanation - many interesting and rather long travels, to the Panama Canal, along the Danube, Vienna, and most recently a cruise from Sydney to Singapore. Another, and more than satisfying,...
FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP WAS HOSPITALIZED TO UNDERGO A COMPLICATED MEDICAL PROCEDURE ON MONDAY MORNING, MAY 14, 2018. The American public was notified only subsequent to her hospital admission and the completion of the procedure. President Trump did not accompany his wife to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in order...
Barbara Bush, the former First Lady of the United States, died on April 17, 2018. Many well-deserved tributes for this remarkable lady will appear on cable, on broadcast news, and in print over the following days. Recollections and obituaries there will be far better written and more comprehensive than anything that...
John Eaton was President Jackson's Secretary of War. This cabinet choice was controversial and ultimately disruptive. Not the first time that a president, upon reflection, would want a 'do over,' as President Trump retrospectively regrets his selection of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Eaton (1790-1856) had much to recommend him for...
Please check out my blog: Firstladiesofamerica.com Six women had profound effects upon Andrew Jackson, affecting his behavior, his character, his emotional and physical well-being, and the success or lack thereof of his actions. This is the topic of my next book, which is about one-third completed. Elizabeth Jackson was the mother who...
First Lady Laura Bush departed the White House nine years ago. Although far less flamboyant than Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama, her immediate predecessor and successor as First Lady, she remains active in educational and social causes. She, like Rosalynn Carter, does what she does quietly, not vociferously. She serves as...
ROSALYNN CARTER'S MANY CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES CONTINUE INTO HER TENTH DECADE At present, five former United States First Ladies are still living. Three appear often in the media: Barbara Bush, who will be ninety three in June, 2018 attracts attention because of her outspoken comments; Hillary Clinton, because of her political activities;...
A PRIMER TO THE 25th AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION Donald Trump recently completed his first comprehensive medical examination as United States President. Before and immediately after this event, the mainstream media made a big fuss over the applicability of the 25th Amendment to his ability to function as president....
From Policy Allies to Political Enemies John Quincy Adams, the sixth United States President, was succeeded in 1828 by Andrew Jackson, its seventh president. Their rivalry during both the 1824 and 1828 presidential campaigns became both politically intense and personally hateful. Jackson blamed Adams for the death of his beloved wife Rachel...
A Few Weeks Ago, the following news flash illuminated my computer screen: Former President George H.W. Bush is now the longest-living president in U.S. history at the age of 93 years and 166 days. Bush on Saturday surpassed the previous record held by Gerald Ford, who lived to be 93 years and 165...
ANDREW JACKSON WAS AN ANGRY AND VIOLENT MAN. THE NATION WAS FORTUNATE THAT HIS VIOLENCE DISSIPATED PRIOR TO HIS PRESIDENCY, BUT HIS ANGER TOWARDS BOTH HIS OPPONENTS AND THEIR CORRUPT POLICIES CONTINUED. Jackson fought two duels, acted as a second in a third, and challenged his adversaries, including the incumbent governor...
AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS DOES NOT SPARE PRESIDENTIAL WIVES Recent history has taught that the wives of Presidents and of presidential candidates do not escape collateral damage when their husbands are under fire from political enemies. The opposition tactic was to damage the target by inflicting pain on his closest ally, his...