ABC Video - Remembering The Humor Of President Reagan
Say what you will about the man, the Gipper could tell a joke.
I was young when Reagan was first elected and I didn't know him as an actor. I was an older teenager when he was re-elected, and I was an intern for CNN Washington in the Summer of 1987, when his Alzheimer's began to seize control. I mention it because '87 was the Summer of the Iran-Contra hearings and Lt. Colonel Oliver North. We covered the hearings every day, all day for 2 months, and Reagan's fading memory played some part in that political theater. Though he wasn't publicly diagnosed at the time, you can tell by his speech patterns that the disease had been destroying his mind since before he took office in 1980.
ABC took a look back at the wit and humor of the Gipper, our 39th President.
