Not surprisingly, then, when Reagan leaves office later this month, his presidential-approval ratings will stand among the highest end-of-term levels in history. Richard Wirthlin, his pollster and longtime friend, predicts that Reagan ultimately will rank among the top fifth of the 40 men who have served as President. Historian Robert K. Murray of Pennsylvania State University, co-author of a widely recognized presidential-ranking system, is not so sure. Murray, who admits the liberal bias of many of his colleagues, believes that right now a poll of historians would place Reagan in the "average" category. "If the many initiatives Reagan started eventually pan out," says Murray, "if Gorbachev can work his new revolution in the Soviet Union, and if Bush can deal with the deficit, then he could move to the above-average category"–in a class with John Adams, James Madison, James Monroe, Lyndon Johnson, and John Kennedy.
Reagan showed that the office remains an institution of such extraordinary adaptability that it can be molded to fit all manner of individual intellects, temperaments, and governing styles. He also further democratized the office by expanding the potential pool of future Presidents. After Reagan, both American's oldest and its first divorced President, old age and a legally dissolved marriage will no longer be considered political disqualifications for the White House.
Finally, Ronald Reagan proved that the Presidency still works. Though the position has lost political authority, it is still possible to succeed in the Presidency by skillfully exercising its powers of symbol, ceremony, and vision. And he has helped the nation regain its self-confidence. At a time when the power and the prestige both of the Presidency and the nation have been called into question so often by so many, Ronald Reagan convinced most of his countrymen that it was still morning in America. And that may prove the most enduring legacy of all.
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