The 61st Anniversary Of His 39th Birthday

If there had to have a Reagan centenary, one thing about it was good: Paul Slansky's book became available again.


The book covers politics—and what passed for culture—in the 1980s. And contains a page of listings under "Reagan, Ronald Wilson," including such subheads as "ignorance defense employed by"; "inability to answer questions of"; "respects paid to dead Nazis by"; "disbelief by public of."

Ronald Reagan may not have been able to pronounce it—

7/28 [1987] A careless speech writer includes the word "paradigm" in President Reagan's speech on superconductivity. Yes, he pronounces it "paradijum."

—but he certainly left us one.

After the federal deficit had reached its first trillion in October 1981—

11/23 President Reagan vetoes a stopgap spending bill, thus forcing the federal government—for the first time in history—to temporarily shut down. Says House Speaker Tip O'Neill, "He knows less about the budget than any president in my lifetime. He can't even carry on a conversation about the budget. It's an absolute and utter disgrace."

And there was the constant abetting by certain witnesses—

6/14 [1984] At his 25th press conference, President Reagan claims that his tax policies—which have produced a windfall for the wealthy—"have been more beneficial" to the poor "than to anyone else." Though this would seem to be a difficult claim to get away with, no one challenges him."

Speaking of which, I didn't notice much media play for the anniversary. Another good thing, although it may only reflect how settled a place Reagan has in mainstream narrative.

This year it's mainly been left to the presidential hopefuls of Reagan's party to invoke his name—over, and over, and over...

Pygmies those candidates might be, but they are not so different from their idol—just less slick and (so far) less well stage-managed. A Herman Cain on foreign policy; a Rick Perry on governance; they and the rest have sounded little more moronic than the original, considering how low the bar was for The Great Communicator.

In his typical press conferences, Reagan deflected questions or referred them to any convenient official present. More than once, he was seen turning to Nancy for a whispered cue.

Of Reagan's diligence in office, just a few of Slansky's assorted examples—

8/19 [1981] Ed Meese sees no need to wake President Reagan just to tell him the Navy has shot down two Libyan jets. Defending Meese's decision, Reagan explains, "If our planes are shot down, yes, they'd wake me up right away. If the other fellows were shot down, why wake me up?"

8/31 [1981] "He acted like there was nothing else in the world he had to do, nothing else on his mind."
—Former movie actor Rex Allen, who spent 45 minutes with President Reagan after presenting him with four pairs of free boots

"There are times when you really need him to do some work, and all he wants to do is tell stories about his movie days."
—Unnamed White House aide on President Reagan's detachment from his job

9/1 A Soviet fighter mistakenly shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after it strays into Soviet airspace, killing 269, including right-wing congressman Larry McDonald (D-GA). George Shultz calls Tip O'Neill to tell him about the incident.

"What does the President think about this?" asks O'Neill.

"We'll tell him when he wakes up," says Shultz.

Dan Rather returns instantly from his vacation upon hearing the news and—after CBS shows him on horseback at the ranch as the crisis unfolds—so does President Reagan.

6/7 "It was really funny. I was sitting there so worried about throw weight, and Reagan suddenly asks us if we've seen War Games."
—Unnamed congressman describing a White House meeting about arms control at which the President revealed that averting a movie nuclear catastrophe was far more interesting to him than the nuts and bolts of preventing a real-life one

10/2 [1984] At a White House briefing with Caspar Weinberger, President Reagan is asked how his MX missiles will be deployed. "I don't know but what maybe you haven't gotten into the area that I'm gonna turn over to the, heh heh, to the Secretary of Defense," he says sheepishly.

"The silos will be hardened," Weinberger says, then nods approvingly as Reagan volunteers, "Yes, I could say this. The plan also includes the hardening of silos."

10/5 [1985] Larry Speakes is asked if President Reagan has read the House report on the latest Beirut truck bombing. "I don't think he's read the report in detail," he says. "It's five-and-a-half pages, double-spaced."

2/4 [1985] Addressing a convention of religious broadcasters, President Reagan defends his arms build-up, citing Luke 14:31 to verify that "the scriptures are on our side in this." Then, for the benefit of the Jews in the audience, he describes how much he liked looking out over Lafayette Park at "the huge menorah, celebrating the Passover season."

9/1 [1986] "Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere."
—President Ragan, as quoted in a Fortune interview for its cover story "What Managers Can Learn from Manager Reagan"