Last night I watch Eugene Jarecki's documentary Reagan. The director interviews everyone from Reagan's cabinet members and sons to new reporters and biographers. It's a compelling piece of film making and gives probably the most unflinching view of the 40th president yet. From his beginnings as a nearsighted lifeguard who saved 77 lives and a staunch FDR supporter to his rise as the president of the Screen Actors Guild and spokesman for GE; Jarecki shows the evolution of the man but does not shy away from the hard questions surrounding the Iran Contra scandal.
Jarecki paints a clear picture that Reagan must have known about the arms deals but he seems to lay more blame at the feet of Vice President Bush... At once point the real mystery of Reagan (to my mind) was revealed. While many on the left saw him as an affable dunce, his resolve and calculation was entirely, to quote a phrase from another affable dunce, "misunderestimated." It seems the true genius of Reagan was to disarm his opponents with his likability. Even as he was flouting the Constitution and congress, he addresses the American people with a grandfatherly tone of learning from his mistakes. So even as Reagan destroyed the middle class, labor unions, and increased poverty most people liked him...
Bush Sr. never mastered this technique and always appeared petty and paranoid. Clinton was folksy and likable but George W. truly took the folksy lesson to heart. Despite the fact that he was from east coast money and studied at Yale, he was seen as the guy many Americans wanted to share a beer with; Never mind that he did more to gut our civil liberties than any other president.
Unfortunately, Obama is taking the same cues from Reagan. His tone has taken on a decidedly more folksy air since taking office but I don't think folksy enough to disarm his opponents.
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