HISTORICAL AMNESIA:

The pure Reagan emerges from diaries: 'The Reagan Diaries' reveals a president who's thoroughly comfortable with himself. (Tim Rutten, May 22, 2007, LA Times)

THERE is a great deal of great interest in "The Reagan Diaries," but what sets the late president's personal recollections of his eight years in the White House apart from the recent spate of tell-all, inside-Washington books is what's absent: You can scour this thick volume from back to front and find not a trace of self-righteousness, self-pity or self-justification — all standard issue accouterments among today's office-holders and political appointees, whether their veins bleed red or blue.

Some of this has to do, of course, with the fact that the former actor and California governor experienced his eight years in office as a turbulent but successful period in his life and that the subsequent reviews of his performance have been good.

Of course, Ronald Reagan presided over a steep recession, barely survived assassination, saw his party get slaughtered in two mid-term elections, and was nearly impeached in his final years, all while being branded a fascist by the American Left and despised in Europe. W's presidency has been far less turbulent--especially economically--and more successful.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 22, 2007 8:01 AM