Robert Gilbert

“How do you demonstrate someone is psychologically unsound?” Robert Gilbert, a professor at Northeastern University and an authority on the 25th Amendment, told CBS News last year. This is still an open question, and unless Mr. Trump submits to a thorough examination by a team of unbiased mental health professionals, it’s not one with an […]

There has been considerable speculation about Trump’s physical and mental health, in part because few facts are known. During the campaign, his staff reported that he was six feet three inches tall and weighed two hundred and thirty-six pounds, which is considered overweight but not obese. Secrecy about a President’s health has a rich history. […]

Bush remained acting president until after 7 p.m. that evening while Reagan remained under the effects of the anesthesia and postoperative painkillers. But was that long enough, and did Reagan rush his recovery in a way that could have compromised his presidency in the ensuing days? Robert E. Gilbert, a political scientist at Northeastern University […]

Similarly, after Calvin Coolidge’s 16-year old son, Calvin Jr., died in 1924 from blood poisoning that set in when a blister on his foot went untreated, the president was consumed by grief and virtually disabled by clinical depression for the remainder of his presidency. “His son’s death did not change his viewpoint on the substance […]

This over-coverage creates the perception for the viewer that we are a “presidential nation,” as Robert Glibert of Northeastern University puts it. Gilbert maintains that that understanding “is affecting both popular perceptions and power relationships on the national level.”

To his admirers, like Reagan and the business site CheckWriters, this shows that Coolidge “was no micromanager,” and his famous habit of “empowering his Cabinet officials” meant his “Roaring ’20s White House was never bogged down by process” and therefore “functioned like a well-oiled Model T Ford.” And that was probably true in his first […]

Clinton’s campaign, in fact, already misled the public about her diagnosis — first she was overheated, then dehydrated, then, oh yeah, we forgot to mention that little pneumonia diagnosis from last week. “I think they would have been smart to disclose it (immediately),” said Robert Gilbert, professor emeritus of political science at Northeastern University and […]

2. The End of the Presidential ‘Stroll’ Before JFK’s assassination, presidents had much more freedom to travel around the capital without extreme protective detail. President Coolidge was known for his regular constitutionals around Washington, D.C., most often only accompanied by one body guard. Additionally, President Truman was also famous for his frequent walks around the […]