The Reagan Diaries

Released May 2007. 784 pages (13 hours on CD).

As someone that wasn't yet a teenager when Ronald Reagan left office, I have never been able to get past the archetypal Ronald Reagan, as characterized by the Left and the Right, to form my own opinion. This book is simply a collection of each of his diary entries while he was President, written in the first person. While it doesn't come close to giving the entire picture of his Presidency, it does go a long way toward understanding what made him click, and why he succeeded and failed.

The thing I hear most from liberal commentators is that Reagan was a dimwit and he and Nancy were weird spooks from old Hollywood. The diaries reveal a different Reagan than that, instead someone with a clear eyed (if naive) view of what he believed in and a firm resolve to work toward that. Crafting public policy and conducting foreign policy is massively complicated, with endless nuance and second-guessing. A president like Reagan that focuses on the big picture and refuses to back down or compromise unnecessarily is what it takes to lead the country in the right direction. My conclusion is that Reagan was no policy wonk, but his focused vision was more effective, and in concert with advisors like Secretary of State George Schultz, exactly what was needed at that point in our history.

The lionizing I hear on the right is that Reagan is responsible for everything good that ever happened. The book reveals that he raised taxes, conducted deficit spending, and likely had his 'big picture' approach abused by certain aides to achieve their own agendas. I still agree with these folks more...he cut the tax rate for the highest earners down from 50% and worked with Gorbachev to make huge strides toward ending the Cold War.

His vanity and desire for accolades was most surprising. Nearly every entry mentions that he had been the first president to do that or gotten more applause than ever before or a speech was the best someone had ever heard. He also calls Nancy 'mommy' and whines every time she left town. The passage regarding a columnist who had likened him to Hitler reveals a temper: his comment back to the columnist was that "If I am, he's the first in the gas chamber" - Ouch.

Reader note: I listened to all 10 CD's of this in my car over the last 2 weeks. I found it a perfect way to read this, especially because each entry is self-contained.