Learning from a Master: Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004)

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I learned about principle, I learned about kindness, I learned about humor. Ronald Reagan was unfailingly courteous to the people around him, thoughtful to the little guy, the elevator operator, the butler at the White House." George H.W. Bush is calling up memories from his years as Reagan's political mate, Vice President and friend, a huge and profound segment of Bush's crowded adult life. Yet the only Reagan movie he could remember seeing was the football classic Knute Rockne--All American, in which Reagan starred as the legendary George Gipp (the Gipper) of Notre Dame.

Bush shapes a private picture of a man he learned to love and admire, and the one he finally felt comfortable calling Ron. But in the 1980 Republican presidential primaries, the two men sparred, with Bush landing a punch by labeling Reagan's supply-side nostrums "voodoo economics." And then the vagaries of high-level politics put them in harness for the big campaign. "I remember in Reagan's debate with Carter, when Carter said about me, 'Here's your man, and he calls it voodoo economics, so what are you going to do?' Reagan looks over at me and gives me this big wink and then gave Carter some kind of brush-off."

The relationship held to the end. "I told him early on that you're not going to have me out there doing my own thing, causing embarrassment, which is a great way to get news but a lousy way to be Vice President." Bush adds, "What I thought was important was the personal chemistry, that he could know that anything we discussed would be in total privacy, and I would not be out plowing my own furrow at his expense. I was not a policymaker. I was to support whatever decision he made. And not to disagree with him in debate in the Cabinet Room."

Bush had lunch with Reagan every Thursday whenever they were both in Washington. "It was a wonderful thing to look forward to, and there was never one leak out of it. We hit it off very well. I could say, 'Here's what I think is happening.' He would listen. I would say, Maybe you ought to do this to get this Senator to do that. He did not often comment on my suggestions. There was none of this 'Here's a three-point agenda, and you go out and then report back to me.' He made some tough calls, but there was always this pleasant way about him. He never had any kind of arrogance."

The Great Communicator was also a tutor. "I was in awe," says Bush. "President Reagan went to Normandy and gave those great speeches. When he came back, I asked him, 'How did you ever get through those speeches without breaking up?' He said, 'Here's what you do. You write it out yourself, and then you say it over and over again. And by doing that, it is still personal the way you say it, but you don't feel that you are apt to choke up.'"