The NY Times goes after Ronald Reagan, the diarist, in a Sunday editorial. An excerpt:
Anyone hungering for historical disclosure and nuance in Ronald Reagan’s presidential diaries will have to settle for a prosaic and amiably unrevealing drone in the daily ruminations of the private Reagan. There’s a wisp of tidy news headline reader that summons Reagan the heartland radio announcer. And a tone of that’s-the-way-life-goes utterances worthy of the “Our Town” stage manager, whom the actor Reagan could intuitively play. “A haircut & then over to the Soviet embassy to sign the grief book,” the Great Communicator notes of the passing of Konstantin Chernenko as Kremlin ruler.
The diaries will be released May 22nd and are already number 73 on the Amazon list. I think it’s safe to say NR readers will have a slightly more positivie reaction to Reagan’s private thoughts than the editors of the Times.