How Reagan Stays Out of Touch

Serene. Instinctive. Visionary. Determined. Eternally optimistic. Such adjectives are regularly used to form a word picture of Ronald Reagan. They are all true, as far as they go. But each has a less sunny flip side, like a photographic negative of the bright, familiar image. Serene: intellectually $ passive. Instinctive: unreflective. Visionary: oblivious to troubling details. Determined: rigid. Optimistic: detached from reality and unwilling to wrestle with complex issues.

The events surrounding the Iran arms deal reveal how disengaged Ronald Reagan is from the operation of his Government, a Chief Executive who is not only uninformed but chooses not to know...