The Presidency: It Takes Some Getting Used To

It Takes Some Getting Used To

Ronald Reagan last week was talking to leaders at the U.N., the same folks who used to curse him and whom he in turn used to vilify. But this time there was warmth and friendship, and the President was fantasizing. Suppose this old world were subjected to an extraterrestrial threat, he said. Then people would band together, forget petty differences and grievances, and face the common enemy.

It is the oldest political law known to man: nothing like a good war to get the populace behind you. Maybe Reagan had on his mind the fact that there really is not a...

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