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I had a soft-spot in my heart for Ronald Reagan, if only because he was a sportswriter in his youth.

Several things about Reagan are unusual in a public man. He was not a typical politician at all, but a private man in public life.

Demeanor-wise, Reagan was a conservative, but a pragmatic conservative, and he found silver linings in things. He liked to be a mediator. He didn't like to have enemies around him.

Reagan's dead, and he was a lousy President.

Ronald Reagan, whatever his pros and cons were, was a public servant in the end.

I think Ronald Reagan was one of the great presidents, period, not just recently. I thought he had the demeanor. I thought he had the bearing. I thought he had the thought process.

I don't think Reagan is primarily funny, and I don't think he's primarily marvelous; he's complicated.

Whatever you thought of his politics, Ronald Reagan was a great man, a courageous man. He took an assassin's bullet and joked to the doctors as they desperately worked to save his life.

Ronald Reagan knew audiences. It was a key element of his political genius. One of the things at which brilliant politicians are better than mediocre ones is smelling new public concerns over the horizon before they are picked up by polls - before the public even knows to call them 'issues' at all.