Peter McKay, who as Ephraim Hardcastle is a mischievous diarist, formerly of Private Eye, now of the Daily Mail, is the only reliable chuckle in that gloom-laden paper (apart from Mac, the cartoonist). Yesterday he quoted from Ronald Reagan's newly published diaries.
In 1986 the 40th president complains about George Bush Sr pestering him about finding a job for his useless, idle son, George Dubya. As you can see here, it's a very funny quote, just about believable. But alarm bells rang. Too good to be true? I checked it out. Alas, not quite true, like so many things that cross a diarist's desk. I suspect that McHackey (as he is known to the trade) has too good a bullshit detector not to guess that - but couldn't resist it.
I saw quite a lot of Reagan close up during his second term (1984-88) and he did some awful things, or tolerated others so to do. But he was charming and funny, so that most Americans, those who weren't his political enemies, couldn't help liking him sometimes. He handled his later decline into Alzheimer's with grace and modesty. Here's a better flavour of the diaries from an online Washington Post review from Howard Kurtz, another survivor of the years when Reagan puzzled and infuriated liberals by getting away with it.
As for George Dubya, the reprobate, I confess that I briefly entertained the wholesome notion that the youthful layabout would be transformed by power like Prince Hal in Henry IV (Part II).
Alas, it was not to be, was it ? I should have known when the Texan Prince Hal made excuses and avoided military service at Agincourt.
