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Of course, wives have pull with husbands. In the Reagans' case, her impact & may be greater because the bond is stronger. After 33 years together, they are, by all accounts, rapturously fond of each other. "She has always had more influence than people generally realize," says Michael Deaver, the departing White House deputy chief of staff and long her principal ally in the Administration. Even when she does not make her position known on an issue, Administration officials have learned to anticipate her potential support or opposition and proceed accordingly. "The threat of her influence," says one White House aide, "is as important as her real influence."
Just what is a First Lady supposed to do? In the late 20th century the very phrase has an anachronistic scent, musty and perfumed like Great Grandmother's sachet. Yet Presidents' wives still face criticism for fiddling with the affairs of state, for doing anything much more than looking well groomed and making bland statements on behalf of unexceptionable philanthropies. The day- to-day duties of the job are no snap. Nancy Reagan plans and presides over some 20 big White House dinners each year, and makes an official appearance just about every day of the week.
The other requirements of the role are trickier, more fluid, shifting with the times. The First Lady has no constitutional or statutory duties at all, but she is almost constantly on display, and held to the ephemeral ideals of the moment. Since Eleanor Roosevelt, Presidents' wives have been expected to show some interest in good works, and recent First Ladies have taken that to mean an active concern for the sick or the helpless. Nancy Reagan has devoted her energies to the Foster Grandparents Program, a volunteer child-care organization, and, even more emphatically, to a crusade against drug abuse among the young.
Her work on behalf of these causes helped salvage her public image after an awful stretch at the start of Reagan's presidency. "The first year was a terrible year," she says. "That year is almost wiped out for me. There were all of those personal things that happened." First and foremost was the attempt to kill the President. "The little episode that happened to me on March 30th," says Reagan, "she didn't get over it as quickly as I did." Then, in 1982, her beloved stepfather died, devastating her. That winter she had a cancer removed from her lip.