You know, if you were actually living through that era his sense of "humor" (combined with the suspicion, then widely assumed among leftist, now since medically substantiated) that he was most likely suffering from some form of early-onset dementia -- well, it got old real fast:
"How Close Did Lesley Stahl Come to Reporting Reagan Had Alzheimer's While in Office? Very Close." [1] is one terrifying account of just how far gone he might have been even that early.
In 1987, when Howard Baker became White House Chief of Staff he was advised to be prepared to invoke the 25th amendment. According to PBS [2]:
> What Baker's transition team was told by Donald Regan's staff that weekend shocked them. Reagan was 'inattentive, inept,' and 'lazy,' and Baker should be prepared to invoke the 25th Amendment to relieve him of his duties.
It's worth comparing the follow-up quote in [2] - Baker and his staff saw Reagan animated and "in command of himself" and assumed there was no issue - with Stahl's account, and considering that dementia-patients can go from bad to fully functioning and back again in seconds and can keep at that for years, often frustrating the process of a diagnosis. Both my grandmothers managed to hide their Alzheimers for many years, until it finally got too much.
But it's quite terrifying that someone in his position was not diagnosed officially until '94.
Looks like she missed the story of her career. In addition to a chance at saving us all from nuclear annihilation (had things gone differently, and certain neurons misfired in his brain at the wrong time).
The point is that as the leader of a nuclear power one isn't suppose to joke about certain things -- particularly not a the expense of rival powers one deeply anguished relations with (and which one also happens to have come close to full-on doomsday confrontations with, in the not-so-distant past).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3z3eSVG7A