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Originally Posted by flstf
I always thought of Reagan as a great communicator and leader with great vision and knew how to delegate well in order to accomplish his goals. I never thought of him as being overly intelligent, but then intelligence is probably overrated in regards to leadership skills.
Next time I'm at the library, I'll check out his memoirs book.
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Well the interesting thing is that its not really a memoir as it is a collection of notes/thoughts, with edits and corrections as he made them. It gives you an insight to his mind.
When I was in high school we had a very good left leaning history professor (he is still teaching there) who was one of the few democrats I know who 'gets' Reagan. His premise was that Reagan was in some ways emulating Eisenhower. He would feign ignorance, or disinterest when he didn't want you to know what his plans were or what he was thinking.
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Don't worry Jim, if that question comes up, I'll just confuse them.
To Press Secretary Jim Hagerty who pleaded with Eisenhower not to answer any press conference questions about the delicate Formosan Strait crisis, March 23, 1955. (Eisenhower was, indeed, asked if using atomic weapons on China was an option. He delivered a long, confusing reply which was effectively indecipherable.)
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I think my old teacher was correct in his assesment of Reagan.