And barely midway through his first term, a January 1983 New York Times editorial pronounced his administration a catastrophe, "The stench of failure hangs over Ronald Reagan's White House. The people know it, judging by the opinion polls. Corporate titans know it and whisper disenchantment with a fellow conservative. Washington knows it when an Administration official calls the budgeting process 'an unmitigated outrage' and when Mr. Reagan's closest friend in the Senate pronounces the President 'as very close to set in concrete.'"
The New York Times revisited the Reagan-as-dummy theme in a January 1986 editorial about Soviet missile strength, "On a . . . vital matter on which he had had to be briefed to the teeth, then, Mr. Reagan confirmed that he still does not have a firm grip." Later that year, a New York Times editorial continued the Reagan-ill-informed-reckless theme, "Previous U.S. administrations have prompted (Moscow) either to explain or desist from questionable activities through the diplomatic channel for resolving arms disputes. Mr. Reagan's solution is radically different: tear up the rule book. In doing so he removes the grounds for complaint -- and for correction. How does that leave America better off?"
Even Reagan's humor and wit apparently failed to impress Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. The book lists 35 entries for Franklin Delano Roosevelt; 28 for John F. Kennedy; six for Jimmy Carter and three for Reagan, who served two full terms. Bartlett's editor, Justin Kaplan, said, "I'm not going to disguise the fact that I despise Ronald Reagan."
But eventually the facts catch up with the rhetoric. Your father, President George Herbert Walker Bush, lost his re-election bid largely because of media-driven perception of a sluggish economy. We now know that his successor, Bill Clinton, inherited a recovering economy. Similarly, your critics accuse you of producing the worst jobs record "since Herbert Hoover." Never mind that you inherited an economy in a recession, or that in recent months the economy produced over a million jobs. For many in the media, it's no longer the economy, stupid.
Reagan's death and growing reputation provide hope. For someday historians will call you a visionary in leading the war on terror, and in lighting a fuse toward democracy in the Middle East.
Reagan's critics didn't get it either. Some never will.