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This innate optimism has enabled Reagan to carry lightly the burdens of his office. The presidency has aged other men decades in years. Reagan's face is still rosy, and if he has more wrinkles, they are not particularly noticeable. For a man of 71, he is in remarkable physical condition. The most prominent change since Inauguration Day is not the scar left by a would-be assassin's bullet in March 1981 but the 1½ in. of new muscle added to his chest by daily workouts with a weight machine in the White House family quarters. Says Presidential Assistant Richard Darman: "He is fantastically resilient."
Nancy insists that Reagan does worry, specifically now about the budget. Says the First Lady: "You sense a preoccupation. Sometimes he'll talk about it and sometimes he won't." To just about everybody else, though, the President seems as breezily affable as ever and in fact appears to be enjoying the job. "He is at peace with himself," says White House Chief of Staff James Baker.
For all of Reagan's sense of conservative mission, his ego appears oddly detached from his office: his career as a movie actor and Governor of California gave him enough of a sense of accomplishment that he did not need the presidency to consider himself a success. Accordingly, he shows no trace of the driven behavior that manifested itself in Richard Nixon's dark humors, Lyndon Johnson's frequent tirades and Jimmy Carter's agonizing self-doubt. Reagan feels no need to brood alone over decisions. Says Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver: "I think it is interesting that he does not have a hideaway office like Nixon and Carter." The intensity of his conservative tenets frees him from worry over whether his decisions have been correct. Says one key aide: "I have never heard him say, 'I was wrong.' "
Bright optimism and deeply held beliefs are great strengths for a President. Reagan's engaging personality has been rewarded by phenomenal patience among the public; many people who are troubled by his policies genuinely want him to succeed. His conservative principles have given his Administration exceptional drive and consistency, whether you like its direction or not.
But at midterm, the troubles accompanying Reagan's virtues are increasingly apparent. Even his successes, most notably a far more rapid reduction in inflation than most economists would have thought possible two years ago (from 13.5% to 5.5%), are in a way dangerous because they reinforce one of the President's most distressing tendencies. He has a propensity to seize on one comforting truth and magnify it into the whole truth, blocking out all evidence of continuing or looming trouble. Says one former aide: "You have to be careful with him. If you had nine bad items to tell him and one good one, he would latch on to the tenth favorable item and discount the other nine. The blind spots are very troubling."