Ron Reagan has received quite a bit of media coverage for the claims in his new book that his father showed signs of Alzheimers during his first term in office.  Those claims have now led Barbara Walters to weigh in and in her opinion President Reagan was just fine during the numerous interviews she had with him over the years.

Walters spoke out on The View.

Ron, Jr.’s half-brother Michael said this is not true. This didn’t happen. I’m going to say something that I probably saw more of President Reagan in those years than either of his sons. He was not really close to them. And I did interview after interview. I didn’t see any signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s or whatever until after he left office. Now, this morning, Ron Reagan, who is a very pleasant fellow and I like him a lot, was on ‘GMA’ and he said – he sort of disputed what he said. He said I didn’t say that. I said exactly the opposite. I did not see symptoms of dementia or anything like that when he was in office. I wasn’t thinking, ‘Gee I’m seeing signs of Alzheimer’s here.’ So his half-brother says he said all of this because he’s trying to sell books.

Walters pointed out that she was the moderator during the famous debate with Walter Mondale in 1984 and said that he may have stumbled on occasion but he he held up well for the 1:40 minutes of the debate.

She also mentioned that she interviewed Reagan after he was shot and he seemed fine then as well.

Resident ulta-liberal Joy Behar chimed in that “the right wing has canonized the guy maybe they need to take another look at this.”

We would take another look Joy but there is nothing to look at.

Liberals like Behar have glommed onto Reagan’s assertions about his father though with the Alzheimer claim he has stepped into a slippery slope where neither side comes out a winner.

As the 100th anniversary of Reagan’s birth approaches (February 6)  the younger Reagan should have used this an an opportunity to celebrate the man rather than try and tarnish his legacy even if they didn’t agree with each other politically.