Dick Polman: Should Michelle Bachmann's Headaches Disqualify Her from the Presidency?

Dick Polman is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Michele Bachmann reportedly suffers from "frequent" migraine headaches. She takes lots of pills to lessen the pain and prevent their recurrence. Given the stresses of the presidency, should her chronic condition be a cause for serious concern?...

On the other hand, many high-functioning presidents have been plagued with serious health conditions, in eras when treatment was far less sophisticated than today. FDR ran World War II from a wheelchair, while plagued with hypertension and hardening of the arteries. Abraham Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge suffered from what today would be diagnosed as clinical depression. Dwight Eisenhower had chronic heart disease. Grover Cleveland had mouth cancer, and the operation to remove part of his jaw and palate was performed in secret on a boat.

Perhaps most famously, John F. Kennedy had Addison's Disease (a total failure of the adrenal glands), and he sustained his much-hyped "vigor" with the help of a new miracle drug, cortisone. He also took a slew of pills for other chronic maladies, sometimes every hour. Historian Richard Reeves has written: "As candidate and president, Kennedy concealed his low energy level, radiating health and good humor, though he usually spent more than half of most days in bed. He retired early most nights, read in bed until 9 a.m. or so each morning, and napped an hour each afternoon." Another historian, Robert Dallek, has described Kennedy as "a man struggling to endure extraordinary pain and distress." Yet Kennedy also managed to stare down the Soviets during the Cuban missile crisis....