Reagan biographer kicks off lecture series

Biographer Lou Cannon said he believed Ronald Reagan’s death didn’t much change the former president’s reputation, if at all.

Even in a time of political polarization, Cannon said, people respect Reagan, even if they loathe his politics.

“We, being Americans, like big leaders and people who are big people,” Cannon said. “I think Reagan fit that bill, whether you agree with him or not.”

Cannon, who is widely regarded as Reagan’s most authoritative biographer, has been spending a lot of time lately talking about Reagan’s legacy since the former president died June 5 at age 93.

Cannon will share his recollections and theories in Lawrence this week, during a speech at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lied Center.

He has written about Reagan for more than 30 years, starting as a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News during Reagan’s first term as California’s governor. He later spent 26 years at The Washington Post.

In all, he has written five books about the former president.

“I’d say nobody known as much about Reagan as Lou Cannon,” said Bill Lacy, a former Reagan aide who now directs the Dole Institute. “I think the most important thing is Cannon covered him for essentially his entire career. He experienced all these things, instead of going back after the fact and doing interviews.”

Reagan’s reputation

Though the spotlight turned to Reagan’s presidency after his death, Cannon said he thought Reagan’s legacy was cemented before the attention.

Lou Cannon, who has written five books about Ronald Reagan, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lied Center. Free tickets are available through the Lied Center box office, 864-2787.Cannon also will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Kansas University Edwards Campus, in Overland Park. Reservations to that event can be made by calling (913) 897-8400 or e-mailing aliciak@ku.edu.Cannon’s appearances are the first installment of this year’s Presidential Lecture Series sponsored by the Dole Institute of Politics. Other events, also beginning at 7:30 p.m. but at the Dole Institute:¢ “Stagecraft Stories: How Advance Work Builds Presidential Image,” Feb. 17.¢ “Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended,” Feb. 24.¢ “Electing Reagan: The Presidential Campaign,” Feb. 28.Tickets to those three events are available through the institute, at 864-4900.

“I’m one of those people who thinks the achievements and disabilities of a president become known over time,” Cannon said during a recent phone interview. “After an administration, what happened during those years of a presidency have a life of their own. It doesn’t really matter whether somebody was too celebratory or too critical when he died.”

He said he thought history would judge Reagan favorably, especially on the issue of arms control and helping end the Cold War. Economic policy is more “muddled,” he said, in large part because of the budget deficits of the Reagan years.

He said Reagan’s favorable portrayal in the press was generally attributed to the former Hollywood actor’s mastery of stagecraft when giving speeches or having events. But Cannon said he thought the good press could be traced to something more basic than that: He was nice to reporters.

“We’re not Robocops,” Cannon said. “Generally speaking, people who are friendly and who value our role as reporters get better treatment. It’s as unmysterious as night follows day.”

Bush not dumb

Cannon said he thought President George W. Bush’s press tactics fell somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

“He certainly doesn’t have the warmth of an FDR or a Kennedy, or the ability to say the one-liner the way Reagan could do it,” Cannon said. “But he is cheerful and optimistic and not like Nixon was, all cramped-up and afraid of the press.

“The problem with this president, as far as the media is concerned, is he knows he’s not as articulate as he’d like to be. I think the notion he’s dumb is really silly and has helped Bush a lot. He just has to be adequate, and he looks brilliant.”

Looking back on his time with Reagan, Cannon said his favorite moment covering the president was during his 1988 trip to Moscow to meet with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

“That was the defining moment for me,” Cannon said. “You have all this propaganda set up, with people still thinking (the Soviet Union) is an evil empire. And Reagan was saying, ‘That was a different era, another time.’ You have the leader of the United States walking with the leader of the Soviet Union as friends through Red Square.

“That, to me, was a big deal.”