Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power [Hardcover]

I find it interesting that a guy who never went to church would run for President like he was born-again (which of course he wasn't). I suppose you do what you must to win. Still, I liked the old Reagan best, which is why I really enjoyed this book.

What's great about Cannon's work is that he seems to take an even-handed approach to his subject. That's uncommon for writers who usually give Reagan a heavy diet of adulation or scorn.

Cannon contends that Reagan's experience as a union leader gave him the ability to find compromises through negotiation. It helped him a great deal in California with an Assembly led by the opposition. He was ideological sure but Reagan also wanted to accomplish something. He was willing to concede certain points to win the bigger ones. This is a good point that probably isn't made enough when discussing his success.

I found Reagan's six years between offices and how he nearly (and probably) won the Republican nomination in 1976 the most interesting. It was a tough decision to challenge the incumbent President of his own party. He didn't want to alienate fellow Republicans or hurt his future political chances. Therefore, the challenge was full of drama and Cannon writes a roadmap from primary to convention.

The book ends with the 1980 Reagan campaign and his becoming President Elect. If you're interested in Reagan you won't find a more thorough account of his political career before Washington.

By so doing, Morris may have made a ton of money just from the
publicity such an unusual approach generated, but he made
his work utterly worthless, and in no small way, damaged forever
his reputation as a historian (I, for one, will never read
another book by him simply because I would find it hard to
know what is real and what Morris has made up).

Lou Cannon, on the other hand, who has been following Reagan
since his California days, is a student in the old, honored
traditional school of political biography. His research is
copious, his writing compelling (I actually think he becomes
a better writer with each book), and his judgements are
fair; so fair, in fact, that this book will probably
anger those who idolized Reagan as well as those who detested
him. For everyone else, Cannon's book is an instructive
exploration of how one of the most successul American politicians of the American Century worked.

It is hard to come away from this book without the impression
that some political leaders just have sharper political
instincts than others; that it is an art, not a science, and
perhaps cannot be taught.

It is also hard, upon reaching the end of Cannon's latest,
to not feel that the writer represents the best of political
journalism, the kind once defined by Theodore White in his
famous "Making of the President" series, and, today, perhaps
only by David Broder.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand
how effective political leadership in a democratic republic works, and why Reagan (hint: he was often underestimated by
his foes) thrived so well in our particular form of
celebrity-driven politics.