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Title: When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan ISBN: 0-14-200168-6 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.16 (131 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: He¿s here ¿ his heart, his mind, his soul
Comment: Thank you, Peggy Noonan.
She brought him back to me. I could feel the presence of Ronald Reagan in every chapter. (Which is no great surprise - she wrote many of his most powerful presidential speeches.)
The book's title is precise. It isn't about history, or the presidency, or his life, or even about the man. It's about Ronald Reagan's character. The man who astounded everyone (and appalled most) by always speaking the truth as he saw it - even if that meant calling the Soviet Union an evil empire.
Her description of the "failure" of the Reykjavik summit with Gorbachev, and her compelling reasoning that it inevitably led to real arms reduction, the end of the Soviet Union, and the fall of the Wall, are fascinating. Most especially, you can trace Reagan's frustration, when he knew beyond any doubt that if he had given in, all the media would have praised him. But he couldn't do it, because he thought it was wrong.
And so he took the heat and was excoriated by the press, and in the passing of time he won, and America won, and freedom won, and peace won.
And the media keeps excoriating him.
But that's all right. The book also tells about what he said to William Bennett when the press came after him. "You know, they like to criticize me for being in show business. But one thing you learn in show business, there's a difference between the critics and the box office. Just do your job, and don't worry about the critics."
The book feels right, with details you've never heard, old stories you've heard put in a new light, and overall a delightful, warm, nostalgic, loving appraisal.
All in all, not bad. Not bad at all.
Rating: 4
Summary: "To Preserve, Protect And Defend... So Help Me God."
Comment: When I started to read "When Character Was King" by former White House speechwriter, Peggy Noonan I thought how apropos then candidate Reagan's quote from his debate with then President Jimmy Carter "there you go again" would be to this work. No book written about Ronald Reagan escapes the broadsides hurled from the liberals and intelligentsia who hate to admit they had it wrong in the 80's. Then again, there are the supply-siders, conservatives and exiled pundits who close their eyes to the cracks in the myth of the Reagan presidency. So I wondered, what could this book contribute to the debate over the Reagan legacy? Instead of trying to convince the reader that those were the "good ol' days," Ms. Noonan attempts a different slant - what about the "character" of the person occupying the Oval Office - does it count for anything? Does it affect the way history will record that presidency? With a deft pen and quick moving account of the life of the former actor, governor and President, Ms. Noonan delivers a knockout blow to the fallacy that history doesn't care about the character of the person in the highest elected office. Ms. Noonan makes the case well that the "something" that distinguishes presidencies and makes some great is the 'character' of the man in the Oval Office. As Noonan says, "No one is ever trained to be president, and usually a president either walks in getting it or he doesn't. Some learn the role along the way, some never do. Reagan always comported himself as if he got it so easily, so effortlessly, that he didn't even notice that he had it."
Noonan traces Reagan's peripatetic early life; his college days, his acting career and involvement with the Screen Actors Guild. She recounts well known facts and some new ones too that formed the foundation for much of Reagan's core, his personality and his vision. She uses anecdotes from former staffers, friends and even Nancy Reagan to show how Reagan evolved into the man America saw on the campaign trail and elected twice to the White House. Noonan asserts that time and again during his presidency, in dealing with the Soviets and with the Congress, Reagan's character counted for something.
Noonan recalls that Reagan delivered on all the big promises he had made when running for office: cut taxes, get the economy moving, name a woman to the Supreme Court, cut interest rates. She doesn't duck the Iran-Contra scandal or the "Star Wars" controversy, but hits them head on. There are many tomes on the Reagan years; some that provide much more detail than this work. This is, however, a well written book that should earn a place of distinction in the debate over the Reagan years. Noonan closes the book by touching on the recent war on terrorism, its effect on the current occupant of the Oval Office and his views of the Reagan years. It does in the end give its readers something to think about on the way to the ballot box. It is very good reading.
Rating: 2
Summary: Makes Reagan seem too wimpy
Comment: Peggy Noonam probably means well, but she makes Reagan out to be rather soft. Reagan was a good man, and he wasn't the kind of person who let laws get in his way. That's why we elected him. Carter was about as goodie-two-shoes as you can get. Carter was nothing *but* character. That was the problem.
Reagan had a dark side and that is *why* he was great. Reagan could be calculating: he was a pretty pro-choice as Governor of California, but he Mr. Pro-life when he ran for President. Why? Any republican who wants to be Gov of California had better be liberal on social issues (like Arnold) but no pro-choice Republican will ever win the primaries.
Give Reagan his due. He led our country against the commies and he didn't let "character" get in the way of winning. He didn't let "character" get in the way of funding the Contras against the communist foothold in Nicaragua. For God, for country, but not some mommas boy who always told the truth. That was the real Reagan.
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