I have a friend, a brilliant corporate lawyer, retired from a high-pressure career and now an officer in an important humanitarian foundation. He's a real high-level guy, active throughout his life in the power stratosphere. He's one of the most decent men I have ever known. I feel for him today.
A Republican of the old school, he always, I think, considered me, if not naive, at least a non-serious person politically. After a family dinner in 1980 the TV came on, a speech by Candidate Reagan. My friend and the older members of the family watched, approving.
I stood in the back of the room, aghast as the Old Ham rolled out the shtick that had served him so well as the host of Death Valley Days in 1952. The horrifying thing was it was exactly the same! He didn't look much older, hadn't become wise or acquired any gravitas. It was a gig, and he did it well enough to get by, just like he always had. If JFK, as Norman Mailer put it, was America's Leading Man, Reagan was America's TV Host.
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