Reagan the Man

"They Broke the Mold When they Made Ronnie." - Nancy Reagan

On the last day of Ronald Reagan'south presidency, as he was walking out of the White House to his limousine for the ride to the Capitol, a White House adjutant looked at the President, and with tears in his eyes quietly said: "At that place will never be another 1 like him."

Every president is unique, of course, but there was just something special nearly the man. All the same even people who knew Ronald Reagan well often had difficulty describing him. Optimistic merely not naïve. Articulate only not glib. Intelligent even so guided past common sense. Well mannered but never pretentious. Friendly but not a pushover. Charismatic simply real. Principled simply not intransigent.

He was all of that and then much more than. Perhaps the central to understanding Ronald Reagan is to realize his two defining characteristics – he genuinely liked people, and he was comfortable with who he was. That may not sound like much, simply when you're President, it makes all the difference.

President Reagan never tired of meeting people. He genuinely enjoyed candidature, not merely because he could advocate for his political positions on key issues, but mostly because he enjoyed being with people. Yous could run across it in his eyes. There was a sure sparkle when he shook hands and exchanged a few words. He was not simply "going through the motions." He listened to what people had to say, and idea well-nigh what he could practise to help. Often when he was back in his car or on Air Forcefulness One, he would turn to an aide and say: "There was a human dorsum there who…" describing the person'south plight and asking what could be done about it.

Information technology did non thing to Ronald Reagan whether you were the CEO of a Fortune l corporation, or the janitor who cleaned the CEO's function at nighttime. Station in life, gender, race, physical appearance, age – he did not care about whatsoever of those. What he cared about was people's feelings. One time he made a spoken communication that was not his best. The next day, after reading critical newspaper articles, he told his staff: "They're right. It wasn't a very skillful spoken language, merely the poor fella who wrote it worked his heart out, and I was worried he would feel bad if I inverse it likewise much."

As groovy a speaker as he was, and as inspiring equally his spoken visions could be, Ronald Reagan was equally happy telling a joke to a pocket-size group in a social state of affairs. He would be quite animated, and always laughed heartily at the punch line – eyebrows raised, optics crinkled, head back -- his wide smiling lighting upwardly the room. Maybe it was the Hollywood function of him that fabricated him feel good about having made his audition express mirth. And he was non afraid to laugh at himself. At the almanac White Firm Correspondents' Dinners, no one enjoyed the comedians more when they poked fun at the President than the President himself.

He even plant ways to be friends with political adversaries. Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, an former-time Democratic pol from Massachusetts, would say all kinds of mean things well-nigh President Reagan. But rather than get aroused or carry a grudge, the President invented a rule that Tip could say whatsoever he wanted during the day, just at 6 PM, the politics would stop and they would be friends. Null told the story of Ronald Reagan's magnanimity more than than pictures of those 2 old Irishmen swapping stories and laughing uproariously in the evening afterward a day of pretty intense verbal assaults.

Some would say that it was President Reagan's amore for people that made him comfortable with who he was. It was why he never viewed life as a brunt. On the contrary, he enjoyed it. He smiled easily and often. He took his responsibilities, simply non himself, seriously. Sometimes he winked at aides during ceremonies as if to say "information technology'due south just me." He stood tall and walked purposefully, frequently with a little bounciness in his step. He rarely raised his phonation or gave in to anger. Oh, he could get annoyed from fourth dimension to time, but it was almost always because he was behind schedule and people were kept waiting for him. He never idea of himself as better or more than of import than anyone else. One twenty-four hour period he was running late for a haircut appointment and grumbled well-nigh it to a nearby aide. The aide told the President not to worry because the hairdresser did not mind waiting. In a very firm vox, the President told the adjutant that was not the point. The point was all of the people back at the barber's store who were kept waiting because the schedule was overcrowded. From then on, the Appointments Secretary fabricated certain there were no meetings scheduled immediately prior to haircuts.

Other than when Mrs. Reagan faced breast cancer, he was non a worrier. Ronald Reagan did not demand the Presidency to feel practiced near himself or to shell some deep-seeded doubts. He never pretended to be someone other than who he was. He did non adopt a persona to fit the job. In fact, he made a point of saying that he didn't "become" President, simply rather that he had been trusted with temporary custody of an Role that belonged to the people.

He knew who he was and he was happy.

That'south why he never let ego get in the way. It was not always almost him. On his desk in the Oval Office, President Reagan kept a small plaque with the words: "There is no limit to what a human being can do or where he can go if he does non heed who gets the credit." He lived that in everything he did. Adjacent to it was a sign that said: "It CAN Be Washed." The President kept it there to remind himself and visitors that in America, anything was possible – that we were limited merely by our dreams.

It was Ronald Reagan'due south happiness, his optimism, his enjoyment of life and his undying conventionalities in the inherent goodness and spirit of the American people that got u.s.a. to believe in ourselves again and put our country back on rail. That, more than anything else, is the enduring legacy of the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.