Reagan the Man

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

On the terminal day of Ronald Reagan's presidency, every bit he was walking out of the White Business firm to his limousine for the ride to the Capitol, a White House aide looked at the President, and with tears in his eyes quietly said: "There will never be another one like him."

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

He was all of that and then much more. Perhaps the cardinal to understanding Ronald Reagan is to realize his ii defining characteristics – he genuinely liked people, and he was comfy with who he was. That may not sound like much, but when y'all're President, it makes all the difference.

President Reagan never tired of meeting people. He genuinely enjoyed candidature, not just because he could advocate for his political positions on key bug, merely mostly because he enjoyed being with people. You could see it in his eyes. There was a certain sparkle when he shook hands and exchanged a few words. He was non simply "going through the motions." He listened to what people had to say, and thought nearly what he could do to help. Often when he was back in his car or on Air Force One, he would plow to an aide and say: "There was a man dorsum there who…" describing the person's plight and asking what could exist washed near it.

It did not affair to Ronald Reagan whether you lot were the CEO of a Fortune fifty corporation, or the janitor who cleaned the CEO'due south office at night. Station in life, gender, race, concrete appearance, age – he did not care about any of those. What he cared near was people'due south feelings. 1 time he made a speech that was not his best. The next twenty-four hours, after reading critical newspaper articles, he told his staff: "They're right. It wasn't a very good speech, but the poor fella who wrote it worked his eye out, and I was worried he would feel bad if I changed it too much."

Every bit great a speaker as he was, and every bit inspiring every bit his spoken visions could be, Ronald Reagan was equally happy telling a joke to a modest grouping in a social situation. He would be quite animated, and always laughed heartily at the dial line – eyebrows raised, optics crinkled, caput back -- his broad smile lighting upward the room. Mayhap information technology was the Hollywood role of him that made him feel practiced virtually having fabricated his audience express joy. And he was not afraid to express mirth at himself. At the annual White House Correspondents' Dinners, no ane enjoyed the comedians more when they poked fun at the President than the President himself.

He even found ways to be friends with political adversaries. Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, an old-time Democratic pol from Massachusetts, would say all kinds of hateful things about President Reagan. Just rather than get angry or carry a grudge, the President invented a rule that Tip could say whatsoever he wanted during the twenty-four hours, but at half-dozen PM, the politics would cease and they would be friends. Nothing told the story of Ronald Reagan's magnanimity more than than pictures of those two onetime Irishmen swapping stories and laughing uproariously in the evening after a day of pretty intense verbal assaults.

Some would say that it was President Reagan'southward affection for people that made him comfy with who he was. It was why he never viewed life equally a burden. On the contrary, he enjoyed it. He smiled hands and often. He took his responsibilities, but not 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, oftentimes with a little bounce in his stride. He rarely raised his vox or gave in to acrimony. Oh, he could get annoyed from time to time, but information technology was almost ever because he was behind schedule and people were kept waiting for him. He never thought of himself as better or more than important than anyone else. One twenty-four hours he was running late for a haircut appointment and grumbled about information technology to a nearby aide. The adjutant told the President non to worry considering the barber did not listen waiting. In a very firm voice, the President told the aide that was not the point. The point was all of the people back at the barber'south shop who were kept waiting because the schedule was overcrowded. From then on, the Appointments Secretarial assistant made sure in that location 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 need the Presidency to experience skillful about himself or to vanquish some deep-seeded doubts. He never pretended to exist someone other than who he was. He did not adopt a persona to fit the task. In fact, he made a bespeak of saying that he didn't "get" President, but rather that he had been trusted with temporary custody of an Office that belonged to the people.

He knew who he was and he was happy.

That's why he never let ego get in the way. It was not always about him. On his desk-bound in the Oval Role, President Reagan kept a small plaque with the words: "There is no limit to what a man can do or where he tin go if he does not heed who gets the credit." He lived that in everything he did. Adjacent to it was a sign that said: "It Tin can Exist Done." The President kept it there to remind himself and visitors that in America, anything was possible – that nosotros were limited only by our dreams.

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