Co-Starring At the White House

Nancy Reagan's clout and causes bring new respect

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Moreover, Nancy Reagan, like many ambitious women caught between feminine upbringing and the feminist times, seems ambivalent about her role. "I'm not really given to sitting down and analyzing myself," she says. Yet for nine years in the 1940s and 1950s, she was an unmarried woman, pursuing a career at a time when other young women of her class became housewives, no questions asked. Today she seems almost embarrassed by that flagrant independence. As First Lady, she resists any suggestions that her job is that of an executive. She will grudgingly admit that she is a hard-charging boss, but her preferred adjective is strong, not tough.

Being First Lady has not exactly raised her consciousness. Yet she says she feels more like her own person, not a presidential appurtenance, when she travels abroad with Reagan. And Nancy Reagan is clearly more assertive in 1985 than she was in 1981. Recently she has even disagreed with her husband, albeit marginally, on a matter of policy: the President is opposed to abortion except when the mother's life is threatened, but the First Lady has said that she has an open mind about abortion in cases of pregnancy caused by rape. Lately she has begun to discuss her role in White House policymaking more openly. Before William Clark announced last week that he was leaving the Government, she told her West Wing confederates that she did not want him to return to the White House.

Of greater concern is the departure of Deaver, who wanted to go back to public relations work a year ago but stayed on at the First Lady's behest. "I'm sad to see him go because we're close, old, dear friends," she said Friday. "I'll miss him but at least I think he'll be near by." Deaver will probably take a job in Washington. He will be out of the White House by spring, though, and unavailable for daily discussions of the First Lady's suggestions and worries. How will she cope with a Deaverless second term? "I'll think about that tomorrow," she says, quoting Scarlett O'Hara.

Nancy Reagan might begin to repair that gap in her West Wing influence by moving closer to the other pragmatists. She and Baker are like-minded, if not yet especially friendly. On the other hand, Nancy Reagan has probably become confident and practiced enough in the ways of Administration powerbrokering to go it on her own. With Deaver and Reagan's old pal Meese both gone, she will become the only true intimate of the President in the White House. The First Lady's word should carry all the more weight.

Nancy Reagan is as determined as ever to protect Ronnie, whatever that takes. These days, on balance, she seems to be protecting him more and complicating his political life less. She may not be introspective, but she has figured out what kind of First Lady she wants to be. She is no longer so likely to flaunt the perquisites of wealth and power. Her politicking has lost its uncomfortable edge. She seems readier to concede that, yes, she is a strong- willed adviser as well as a fashionable First Lady. "If you are here and you don't grow and don't learn, you are pretty dumb," says Nancy Reagan. "I don't think I'm dumb."

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