[Cyrus]

Ronald Reagan apologists try to compensate for the man's colossal ignorance and equally grand lack of leadership qualities with the same old tired cliches about his supposed ability to gather round him competent people and let 'em do their job. The old cliche about extensive delegating to competent people. (I even recall an interview conducted by a business magazine with Reagan about his "managerial style" !)

Which is all fine and good until you take a look at Reagan's record when he chose to veer off the teleprompter. The guffaws he drew! And until you look closer to the kind of "competent" people he chose to surround himself with, men like James Watt or Oliver North or Kissinger-wannabe Al Haig (snicker, mirth). As to Reagan's grand strategy, I have only two words for you: Star Wars. (But I forgot, this was part of the bust-the-Russkies grand strategy too.)

For anyone still clinging to some weird notion that RR "won the Cold War" or any statement of equal value, I can only, if humbly, recommend a perusal of the totally hilarious account offered by Oliver Sachs, the well-known ("Awakenings") doctor of neurology, about aphasic patients watching The Gipper on TV. Read it and weep --- from laughter.