Barbara A. Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia, remembers watching late-night host Johnny Carson joke about how Carter was being treated by a physician who happened to be a “rear admiral.” Jokes or no jokes, “you can’t go wrong with transparency,” Perry said. Presidents should release information about any medical problem other than minor matters that can be addressed in the White House physician’s office, she said. This kind of openness should extend to the Cabinet, Perry added. If she were president, she’d tell Cabinet members that “if medical privacy is important to you, and you’re entitled to that as an American citizen, then I can’t appoint you.”
Barbara Perry
