Portable ReagannLee Edwards: Ronald Reagan: AnPolitical Biography; Revised edition;nNordland Publishing International;nHouston.nThe Reagan Wit; Edited by Bill Adlernwith Bill Adler, Jr.; Caroline HousenPubhshers; Aurora, lUinois.nby John Shelton ReednOther readers will have to draw thenpolitical lessons from Lee Edwards’snbiography of Ronald Reagan. It looks tonme as if his first term as President isnfollowing pretty closely the script of hisnfirst term as governor of California—notnwhat some of us had hoped for, but betternthan his predecessor by a long shot. 1ncame to Edwards’s book to see what Inmight learn about what sort of mannReagan is. Is he really the neo-Babbitt,ncountry-club yahoo that Ms. Joan Didionnimplied he is when she revealed to £fquirenreaders that the then-new Californiangovernor’s mansion contained—anwet bar? If so, so what? Can we separatentaste from intelligence from principle?nThe portrait of Reagan that emergesnfrom this book is not reassuring, but thenproblem may be with the portrait, notnwith the subject. The book is, as its subtitlenindicates, a “political biography,” anchronicle of events in the political life ofnour President—that is, just one damnnthing after another. The result, surelynunintended, is a picture of someone tonwhom things just happen. Nowhere donwe get a sense of Reagan as a consciousnagent, weighing alternatives, choosingnone course of action rather than another.nAlbert Jay Nockwroteoncethat, “Whateverna man may do or say, the mostnsignificant thing about him is what henthinks; and significant also is how hencame to think it, why he continued tonJohn Shelton Reed is professor of sociologynand American studies at the Universitynof North Carolina, Chapel Hill.nthink it, or if he did not continue, whatnthe influences were which caused him tonchange his mind.” Biographers, in mynview, should have those words framed onntheir walls, if not tattooed on theirnchests. Of course, there is no evidence innEdwards’s book that his subject thinks atnall, so he hasn’t much to explain. Reagannappears, in this book, to proceed bynreflex—good reflex, to be sure, but unconsidered.nPassions are absent, too—neven ambition. The result is a veritablenGerald Ford. The figures around Reagan,nincluding his wife and children, arenalso strangely colorless, indeed, hardlynmentioned.nThis is not the type of biographynReagan deserves—indeed, no one deservesnone of this caliber—although itnwill undoubtedly be usefiil to whoevernwrites the right biography, as thenskeleton on which some flesh can benhung. This is essentially a work ofnhagiography: its hero makes no mistakes—ornalmost none. When he does,nEdwards doesn’t dwell on it: JanenWyman is mentioned once and is otherwisena nonperson. On one other occasion,nEdwards presents an error: whennReagan responded to a hostile questionnby denying angrily that he was a bigotnand then walking out. It is a measure ofnthe book’s problems that it is not at allnclear why this was not an appropriate andnnndignified response. Allen Tate once beganna biography of Robert E. Lee, butngave it up in frustration and perplexity.nLee was a great man, but just too simple,ntoo unreflecfive (too unlike Allen Tate).nIt is not clear whether Edwards had ansimilar subject on his hands, or if hensimply did not plumb the man’s depths.nIt will take another Reagan book to tell usnwhere the rest of him is.nvJne thing that Ronald Reaganndemonstrated when he was shot is thatnhe is a man of some courage and humor,nwho doesn’t need a ghostwriter to comenup with some good one-liners. My favoritencame when Lyn Nofziger told thenPresident that he’d be happy to hear thatnthe government was running normally.n”What makes you think I’d be happynabout that?” Reagan shot back. But facenit: Reagan is no La Rochefoucauld—orneven Kissinger—and while a book callednThe Reagan Wit is not as preposterous annidea as one called, say, The Nader Wit, itnwill have to be padded if it is not to invitensnide comparisons to Italian War Heroesnand other apocryphal short volumes. ThenAdlers’ skinny book, with lots of whitenspace and more than a dozen full-pagenphotographs, sdll has to dig pretty deep,nand it does the President no service.nSome of this stuff wasn’t meant to benfunny—it’s just well-phrased, in anReader’s Digest “Toward More PicturesquenSpeech” kind of way—and somenof it was meant to be funny, but fails.nSurely this book is premature. Afternall, the man has a few more years innwhich to be witty, and from the look ofnthings, he is going to need his sense ofnhumor. Lord knows, the book could havenused additional material. Why, onencould reasonably ask, did KAlttpere etnfils rush this into print? In the promotionalnmaterial that came with the book,nwe are told that the younger Adler is “anforeign policy lobbyist for Americans fornDemocratic Action.” The pieces start tonfall into place. Subtle, these liberals. Dn]Vovemberl982n