He would have been 97 if he had lived. Considering the dedication he maintained to keeping himself physically fit, one wonders if Alzheimer's had not afflicted him if he would have been hale and hearty to this day.

But as Ed Morrissey reminds us, we can argue about Ronald Reagan's legacy but not his "impact on history:"

Ronald Reagan would have turned 97 today, had he not passed away in 2004 and faded from the political scene a decade earlier due to Alzheimer's. His memory gets invoked constantly by Republicans, 20 years after he left office with his sunny optimism intact and a stronger nation behind him. We'll continue arguing over his legacy, its meaning, and its heirs, but we can never argue about the impact of his leadership on history. Reagan spoke truth to massive power, and he sounded its death knell in four short words: