And Nancy Reagan ran the country in Ron's second term because he was too far gone.And Joe would be able to shrug off complaints about his age if he didn't exhibit frailty and memory loss. Reagan was a master and destroyed Mondale in a debate by saying, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience". Quid Pro couldn't pull that off.