Reagan Diaries

I finally, finally finished the Reagan Diaries last night. The day after Michael Deaver, part of the troika that so ably contributed to President Reagan's first term success, passed away. First of all, I would love to get the unabridged version once it is published. Douglas Brinkley did an able job editing the volume, but I would still like to comb through the entries he summarized. Can you believe it has been 26+ years since President Reagan was in office? His patriotism, his strongly-held beliefs (anti-communism, free market, pro-life, love for Nancy, his humility, his loyalty, his faith, his empathy) all could be vividly seen in his journaling of his time in office. What a gift it is to read his words again, read his gut reactions to national tragedies (Pan Am flight bombed by Libya, nightclub bombing, Challenger), his impressions of the Soviets (particularly Gorbarchev), his love of film, his celebrity friends of Old Hollywood past, and his love for the ranch. I was tickled at the anecdotes he had of the 1980s and his interactions with kids my age then; I still loved that vignette about getting the friendship pin. Wow, that was 25 years ago already! As candidates today clamor to follow the Reagan, rather than the Dubya legacy, I wonder what the president would have though.

Anyway, now I have to pick my next reading project. Hard to top this.