At 69, he was the oldest man ever elected president, and he was careful to give himself plenty of time to relax (though that did not prevent him from dozing during cabinet meetings). He took long weekends at Camp David and spent weeks in seclusion at his Santa Barbara ranch every summer. He was criticized for it, but felt it was essential to his success. "The more I go to the ranch," he told a friend early in his administration, "the longer I'll be around." He meant it literally.

After he nearly died from would-be assassin John Hinckley's bullet in 1981, he was more convinced than ever of his own destiny, which further reduced his attention to detail. For Reagan, painting the big picture was enough. "God saved me for a purpose," he told an intimate. His destiny, he said, was to give the country a new, conservative sense of direction and force the demise of communism. He constantly repeated his three mantras: Lower taxes, cut government, and maintain a strong defense. And if many Americans disagreed with individual policies, they admired his adherence to principle.

It is a testament to Reagan's legacy that even President Clinton, who has disagreed with him on many issues, came to admire his upbeat leadership. Writing in Vanity Fair on the occasion of Reagan's 85th birthday in February 1996, Clinton said Reagan's greatest gift to America was "the way his own unwavering hopefulness reminded us that optimism is one of our most fundamental virtues. . . . Ronald Reagan made us feel that he genuinely liked Americans."

The Two of Them
If Reagan had a gift as a public communicator, he rarely shared his personal life with anyone except his wife. Even his children felt excluded from knowing the "real Reagan." Even though he was adept at talking to voters, he rarely had direct contact with them. "He hadn't had much touch with everyday people since he gave speeches for General Electric many years earlier, but he thought like the average guy," says a former adviser. "He and Nancy watched the TV shows of the average guy. They ate the same food. Ronald Reagan would know what the price of a gallon of milk was. He read Look Magazine and U.S. News & World Report. He never mingled with the common people but he understood them. He never thought he was different from average folks."

Fiercely protective, Nancy Reagan was essential to her husband's well-being. "She always felt that she was his anchor," says a family friend. He would spend time with Nancy and forget his problems. Their relationship was a real love story." Mrs. Reagan also played a key role in maneuvering aides like White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan out of their jobs if she felt they were not serving her husband well. And her use of horoscopes to guide her husband's schedule reflected the discomfiting ease with which Reagan let himself be manipulated.

Yet he governed with a rhetorical poetry ordinary people could understand, all of it carefully scripted for TV. His signature phrases resonated with drama and history. When he spoke of the "boys of Pointe du Hoc" at the 40th anniversary of D-Day, two generations grew misty-eyed. When he comforted victims of national tragedy, such as the families of the seven astronauts who died on the space shuttle Challenger or relatives of troops who perished in a plane crash at Gander, Newfoundland, viewers shared his strength. When he called America a "shining city on a hill," jaded voters believed him, at least for a moment.

Previous Page | Next Page