Cast Two Giant Shadows

Campus Report ^ | February 18, 2009 | Heather Latham

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Cast Two Giant Shadows

Heather Latham, February 18, 2009

“Define or be defined; he who wins that debate wins the argument,” said L. Brent Bozell III, founder and president of Media Research Center and nephew of William F. Buckley, Jr., at a Heritage Foundation event. He holds that Ronald Reagan understood this, and nobody could touch him because of it. Nicknames like “the Teflon president” were given to him because no bad press would stick to him. He says, “He understood that there is perception and there is reality, and the perception of reality is all that matters, not the reality itself…genuine good cheer, genuine personality, genuine optimism—it all came natural to Ronald Reagan because that’s who Ronald Reagan was. ”

Bozell also argues that the same could be said of Buckley. He relates, “Bill Buckley knew that there was one thing he had that his opposition never had. He had the ability to slaughter them in a debate. So he let them come after him, and he responded. He responded with a full-frontal assault. He responded with both guns blazing…. But he did it with a smile because he was loving it. And that undid his opposition.”

Buckley’s book, The Reagan I Knew, showed a different side of Reagan, Bozell argues, than any other biography about Reagan: a very personal side. Buckley and Reagan were friends, and corresponded with each other almost regularly. Through their correspondence, Bozell claims, Reagan’s sense of humor shines through like it does not in any other book about him.

The Reagan I Knew goes through Reagan’s and Buckley’s friendship during different periods of time. It posts letters between Reagan and Buckley, but also between Nancy Reagan and Buckley. The letters give a glimpse of the friendship between Reagan and Buckley by showing their correspondence....