Speedy descent

I'm less interested in whether or not Walter Cronkite was on the short list to be McGovern's VP choice, than I am by this:

How ill was Cronkite in 2007? It's probably unrealistic to expect any 90-year-old to come to the phone when a reporter calls, but it's worth mentioning that the month before Leubsdorf's story appeared, Cronkite [sic] release a statement toasting Jane Pauley for winning the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism at Arizona State University. When I saw Cronkite give an address at Columbia University in February 2007, he apologized for being a little wobbly on stage, but he read his speech perfectly.

According to his recent obituary, the cause of Walter Cronkite's death was "complications of dementia." I have no idea what that means, but in any case, for him to wobbly but ably read a speech perfectly in 2007 and die from dementia in two years is scary.