Ronald Reagan was around 74 years of age in 1985 when he began his second term in office as U.S. president. No one would deny that by that time he’d “lost a step or two,” both physically and cognitively. He certainly was no longer the young, vibrant, charismatic, swashbuckling star of stage and screen that he’d been in the 1940s. However, voters didn’t write him off as being unable to serve a second term of office.

It’s also true, during his second term of office, that he moved slower and at times would stumble literally and fumble…