Great communication: Language Log blogger and linguistics professor Geoffrey Pullman observes that Reagan was “truly a master of spoken presentation.”

In fact for relaxed and comfortable yet crystal sharp delivery of political speeches, to either an audience or a TV camera, he may have been the best there ever was. Direct and personal, scarcely ever a hesitation or a flub. And people who knew him well report that this was not just a matter of being a TelePrompter-driven automaton: he displayed similar skills when winging it with no script at all.

Reagan humor remembered: Lou Cannon, the Reagan biographer and reporter most noted for the longevity of his coverage of Reagan both in the White House and while he was governor, wrote a long eulogistic profile appearing in today’s Washington Post. It contains what I believe is the key to Reagan’s success and his ability to confound those who so vehemently “hated” his political stances:

Quote:

“…his amiability and self-deprecating humor softened the hard edge of his ideological advocacies. Reagan poked fun at his age, his work habits and his supposed simple-mindedness. He once said that he knew that hard work never killed anyone, “but I figure, why take the chance?” Much of his humor was spontaneous. Asked while visiting astronauts in Houston before the successful launch of the space shuttle Discovery in 1988 whether he would like to go into space, Reagan quipped, “I’ve been in space for several years.”

Yesterday, for a day-job duty, I interviewed someone who was a longtime acquantance of Reagan and on ocassion, worked closely with him. He said something that didn’t make the story I was writing yesterday, but that captures Cannon’s observation: “President Reagan was serious about being President and took seriously his role as leader of the free world, but President Reagan never took himself seriously.”