A 20th century giant

NY Daily News ^ | June 06 2004 | Michael Goodwin

[knighthawk]

Ronald Reagan leaves such a grand legacy that it is almost impossible to single out one achievement over the others. Until, that is, you remember the three Presidents who preceded him. If Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter had made a movie together, it would have been called, "Honey, I Shrunk the Presidency." They did that with eight years that veered from corruption to bumbling and dispiriting performances that left the White House a place of international scorn and derision. Americans were losing faith not only in their government, but faith in the ability of any President to make them feel proud again.

It fell to Reagan to right-size the job, to put the office of the President back in its proper place at the center of American political life.

That he did so in such spectacular fashion will, I believe, earn him history's highest marks.

It's worth revisiting those dismal days of yesteryear, before Reagan was first elected in 1980, if only to remember how the nation felt about its leaders.

In one sense, of course, those three Presidents were collectively not a hard act to follow. The downward spiral started with Nixon's second term. In less than two years, he would be gone, the first President ever to resign.

Watergate ushered in Gerald Ford, an accidental vice president after Nixon's veep, Spiro Agnew, had resigned in a bribery scandal.

Ford was a decent and able man, but any chance he had of claiming the White House for himself ended when he pardoned Nixon. It was an unforgivable act.

Carter was America's response, but he was no solution. He was clearly and fundamentally honest and ethical, which was the antidote to corruption the nation craved. Alas, he wasn't much of a President, and even Democrats ran away from him at the end.

Then came Reagan, a man whose history did not suggest greatness was in the offing. An actor, a TV pitchman, an uninspiring governor - he hardly seemed ready to usher in a new era. Even when he won 44 states to Carter's six, it seemed more an anti-Carter election than a pro-Reagan one.

But history is the story of the big picture, and it quickly became clear that no American President in modern times had a better grasp of the big picture than Reagan. And no President could match his ability to express his vision in ways that ordinary Americans could understand - and agree with.

The Great Communicator earned and deserved the title.

It didn't hurt, of course, that Reagan happened to be right about nearly all the big issues.

Take his take on the Soviet Union: he called it the Evil Empire. It was a bumper-sticker view, but it captured his sincere belief. As such, it was a refreshing contrast to Carter, who had been so naive about the Bear's intentions that he was blindsided when Russia invaded Afghanistan.

And taxes. Reagan truly believed in the ideals of American freedom, right down to the notion that the best government is the one that governs least. Letting people keep more of what they earned was the practical expression of that ideal, and he embraced it with gusto. That federal deficits ballooned and helped keep the economy in a hole for years was undeniable.

But Reagan himself never seemed to doubt his beliefs. The humor, the soft chuckle, the sense of comfort in his own skin - all combined to give him that sunnyside-up disposition that every politician since has tried to copy.

"He put a smiley face on American conservatism," said columnist Mark Shields.

But it wasn't just conservatives who were smiling. It was Americans of every persuasion who came to appreciate a singular presence in our grand history.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[facedown]

But Reagan himself never seemed to doubt his beliefs.

He didn't need to.

[Smile-n-Win]

It was Americans of every persuasion who came to appreciate a singular presence in our grand history.

Not only Americans; freedom-loving people around the world have appreciated President Reagan's admirable leadership. After all, this thread has been posted by a Dutchman and is being responded to by a Hungarian!