[RLK]

If Reagan was as prepared as you say he was, why did he surround himself with so many lousy people?

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What the hell are you talking about. Reagan was responsible for the ascendency of Powell. Rumsfeld was a Reagan man. Pearle was a Reagan man. Bush has retreaded Reagan people.

[SamAdams76]

You conveniently left out people like James Watt, Michael Deaver, John Poindexter, etc. Over 100 senior officials from the Reagan Administration were eventually accused of illegal or unethical behavior.

Granted, this is "bush league" stuff compared to what would come later with Bill Clinton, but the fact is, one of Ronald Reagan's major flaws was that he was loyal to a fault and thus did a poor job of rooting out people in his Administration that did him harm. Even his wife Nancy will gladly point that out. After all, she would take matters into her own hands to get some of these people fired, Donald Regan being the most well-known example.

I like Ronald Reagan a lot. But I'm not saying he was without faults.