Mr. W. bought me the nicest gift:
The Reagan Diaries (he thinks he purchased them for himself,
silly man). My dad already had a copy and called a few weeks ago to say I'd be very interested in Reagan's religiosity, as revealed, for example, in passages like
this (subs. only), when Reagan describes lying on the operating table, very close to death, striving to overcome his hatred for the man who'd shot him:
I realized I couldn't ask for Gods [sic] help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who had shot me. Isn't that the meaning of the lost sheep? I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold.
I don't know how anyone can choose what to excerpt, but I'll offer two minor things. One, the sour gracelessness of a certain former president is revealed to be bipartisan.
Jimmy Carter is another personage Reagan could not warm to. Reagan had presented the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to Robert F. Kennedy, and the entire Kennedy family returned to the White House for the ceremony. But the medal had been struck in 1978, and Reagan shook his head and wondered why President Carter had not awarded the medal himself: "It was voted by Cong. in 1978 and the former Pres. never presented it." Carter also failed to give a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal to Hubert Humphrey, but Reagan presented it to Humphrey's family: "I don't know what was with Pres. Carter--this Medal was voted by Congress in 1979."
And two (
excerpts), just for my pal ninme's enjoyment:
Fri. May 1 • Highlight was noon visit by Prince Charles. He's a most likeable person. The ushers brought him tea—horror of horrors they served it our way with a tea bag in the cup. It finally dawned on me that he was just holding the cup & then finally put it down on a table. I didn't know what to do. Mike [Deaver, deputy chief of staff escorted him back to the W.H. and apologized. The Prince, "I didn't know what to do with it."
