The Presidency: A Full-Dress Finale

A Full-Dress Finale

Endit -- 30 -- put it on the spike. A journalistic tradition probably played its last Thursday night, the world allowing. The East Room presidential phantasmagoric press performance, sometimes called a press conference, went out soft-shoe and sotto voce with Ronald Reagan's retreat up the red carpet in the White House foyer. The U.P.I.'s Helen Thomas thanked him for No. 48, a miserly indulgence over eight years. Then she wished him a Merry Christmas and he was gone, muttering, "I heard Sarah ((McClendon)) over there, and I should have called on her." It is safe to say that Reagan probably heard...

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