One has written eight book about reagans post presidency, so it seemed appropriate in the idea came when one of my sons, mitchell, was sitting in the kitchen highlighting these big binders of material i got from the Reagan Library in every time reagans name is here he would highlight it for me and he said to me one night, has ended has anyone ever done a book about reagan after his presidency and that was the beginning of last act. Host what do you focus on specifically as far as post presidency . Guest i use the funeral is kind of the baseline and then i do flashbacks and flashforwards, so its really the seven days each chapter represents pretty much one day although, there are other chapters as well of the funeral, but i do a lot of flashbacks over the last several years of his presidency, his retirement and obviously that alzheimer. Host if there is a main message you want the folks to get as far as his post presidency and his legacy what would you wanted to be . Guest i dont know if its the beginning of the dichotomy of American Society or a continuation. I suspect its probably both anyway. For the entire week of his passing, the elites were very rough on Ronald Reagan both personally and professionally in terms of his legacy. Paul krugman, for the New York Times wrote there was no economic recovery when in fact new jobs were created and the Washington Post openly criticized the state of reagan and Nancy Reagans marriage how he had proposed whether women in the point is the elite media and elite academia were very rough on reagan, but the American People that otherwise. There was to menace outpouring that rivaled John Kennedys and president roosevelt outpouring when they passed away both here in washington and in simi valley first when he late not stay, but he laid in the library, the president ial library and over 100,000 people in less than two days came to pay their respects and then here over a day and then again, well over 100,000 people came to pay their respects and back at simi valley as the plane lands appointment do and makes its way ironically on Ronald Reagan highway, 101, back to Reagan Library, is that hundreds of thousands of people turned out just, and every day people turned out along the highway and they had to shut it down because there was just tremendous outpouring. Host to your points a and a clear was emerging after reagans in the National Media were schedule and on the other hand those who got reagan work nearly all complementary. He was a good president and president [inaudible] c2 that was representative of literally thousands of people who either showed up, wrote the newspapers, called up the networks. Every time the networks veered off into being harsh on reagan some switchboards would light up at cbs or abc or nbc of the people call it as saying knock it off. Host Ronald Reagan biographer, Craig Shirley, joining us to talk about his book, last act that takes place in the post presidency and if you want to ask questions headed reagan approach this idea of shaking his shaping his legacy. Guest he very much resisted he once told lou cannon who is probably the official reagan biography and he was you know, buchanan asked reagan about his legacy and he just resisted and said the American People will decide that. I did my job. Im proud of my job. As far as legacy, not to say that he wasnt interested in how people thought of him because he did write his autobiography and his post presidency because i think like Churchill Churchill once said history will be good to me for i intend to write and i think reagan wanted to frame how history judged him as well because he wrote his own biography. Host you write a lot about nancy reagan. How much of a role did she have been shaping his legacy . Guest you cannot be married for over 50 years and someone once described nancy reagan as a she used to say she would set up her, you know, our zone and munching on apple and he would be sleeping soundly and that was because she was worried about him and he how people perceive him and his decisions as president and going back to his time with the president screen actor guild. She took off active interest in not just the life, but also the times of Ronald Reagan. Host not just his image, but policy decisions as well. Guest no, she did not get involved in policy decisions. She had her office on the east wing and he had his office on the west wing and there is a mop a lot of mythology put out there recently that she was the palace guard and she approved a people that entered his office, which is absolutely not true. She said she could. She slept next to the president of the United States and she could offer it, but she didnt get involved in policy, so they had a happy marriage in that they each new what the other was responsible for. Host and so you write in the book as far as him weaving off and dealing with alzheimers and before we go to calls, a bit about alzheimers, what was the initial reaction of the reagan family and the president himself when he found out he was diagnosed with a . Guest the family was devastated. He had mrs. Reagan had been going to the mayo clinic every year like clockwork clockwork for years to be tested both psychologically and physiologically and he passed every with flying colors and alzheimers as i understand it its memorization, series of colors, series of numbers and things like that. It was only until 1994, the spring of 94 when he was already six years out of office that he showed was considered more than ageappropriate forgetfulness and it was later diagnosed as alzheimers. He was told later that fall, november, the first weekend in november. Mrs. Reagan already knew and of course, she was devastated because its a death sentence being told youre going to die. We all get up in the morning and part of our ability to go forward is the unknowing of when we will pass, so the getty up each day knowing today we will do this or that whatever, but when you are told you have alzheimers you know you have a finite amount of time left, but so obviously mrs. Reagan was devastated. He was told by the doctors. Took it in, understood it completely and then he went and he sat down and started writing a letter and his chief of staff at the time, brad ryan, said mr. President , what are you doing and he said well, i guess i better tell the American People and the so that was the letter that was released in november of 1994 announcing his alzheimers. Did it with bravery in connection and humility and with very much his christian spirit throughout the letter. Host some of the lines he wrote, and open our heights we hope this will provide greater awareness and will encourage clear understanding of the individuals and families affected by it and now begins the journey that will lead me to the sunset of my life and i know or america there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Guest your reagan and hes think about other people, not think about himself. Hes talking about the future of america, which is bright and he also expresses a lot of concern about, you know what the affliction does to families and his own family including nancy about the slow descent into alzheimers. Host first call comes from Providence Rhode island this morning and this is jack for biographer Craig Shirley, the author of last act looking at the final years of president reagan. Jack, you are on. Caller good morning to you, pedro and a Merry Christmas to everyone there. That the reason why im calling i am a fan, okay. You know, people to realize, yeah, the media detested Ronald Reagan. They were, you know, supporters of okay republican establishment what bothered me too was George Hw Bush during the primary season took Ronald Reagan writing and before he pretty much quit and Ronald Reagan was beating him decisively in that bothers me a lot. Of people dont talk about that. Secondly, heres the key question i want to ask, bill oreilly, i call him a highly intelligent hedge fund or. I will tell you why. Because his book, okay, about killing reagan, he really doesnt really emphasize his greatness as president s when confronting the soviet union and actually defeating them by going on on offense of posture, the only ministration to do that because he really is a fan and he tried to hide this but guest as far as george bush, he is referred to the 1998 contest. Reagan, we dont live in a system of where you inherent the presidency. You have two complete compete port and george bush thought he had every right to compete for the nomination and im sure reagan would have agreed. He fought tenaciously for it, but i think it speaks well, both to Ronald Reagan and george bush that Ronald Reagan selected george bush as his running mate. He served loyally for eight years and reagan gave him a lot more responsibility than most other Vice President scott. He had an office in the west wing, which was a new phenomenon in american politics, American Government and he was selected by ronald and nancy reagan to give the eulogy at the national cathedral. So, what started out as a political rivalry, and in fact sometimes it was very very toughly fought between gorge bush and Ronald Reagan ended up being not only very good friends, but very very respectful of each other and george bush said in his usually eulogy, he said i learned more from Ronald Reagan than any other man in public life for national politics. Did he write that they never even had dinner together in the west wing of the white house. Guest that is true. That is probably another issue, you know, that i cant explain. The reagan had their own privacy in the bushes had their own privacy, so they did not actually dined together, although reagan and bush had lunch together every thursday without fail. Reagan, you know, wrote a number of nodes when he was leaving office to incumbent president bush and they made reference to all miss my thursday lunch, so in some ways they are probably closer personally than any other president and Vice President in American History. Host republican line, dave up next. Hello. Caller good morning and Merry Christmas. You know, there is a widely held promise, that i think the media has helped promulgate that president obama inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression, but im kind of in economics buff and i remember early in reagans first term in office, the Unemployment Rate actually reached 10. 8 , which was four tenths of a percentage point higher than the highest Unemployment Rate under the obama administration. But, the economic recovery under reagan was twice as strong as its been under president obama. The gross to messick product grew at about 4 compared to 2 . There were nearly twice as many jobs created and i can only think of one reason for this and that is that reagans economic policies were the exact opposite not only in his predecessor jimmy carter, but of our current president. Now, i know that sometimes people like to ignore the facts or reinvent the facts for political or ideological reasons , but facts are stubborn things and in this case i think the facts speak for themselves quite quick clearly. Host thats david in california. Guest the color has a good point, reagan inherited an economy that was a negative growth. Unemployment was already at 7. 5 and climbing. Jobs were actually being eliminated from the economy because it was actually contracting. Then, on top of that he also had , which economic textbooks and economists say is possible was a shrinking economy and inflation. Usually when the economy contracts you go into a deflationary cycle, but we had rising prices and falling jobs, which economists would say is impossible and on top of that possibly high Interest Rates which were 18, 19, 21 , so you had double digit inflation, double digit Interest Rate and unemployment rising rapidly. Reagan was in many ways confronted with the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression, but the collar is right. He brought inflation down from 12, 14, 16 down to less than 5 and he brought in just rates down from 18 down to seven and a half, 8 , very much more tolerable levels. He created 19 million new jobs and when he was what he left office the deficit was falling the last two years of his presidency. So, supplyside, tax cuts type monitor of policy and back to work created probably the greatest economic expansion in American History because 19 million jobs created over a series of short years, actually. In fact, it didnt stop until the third year of george bushs administration. Host democrats lied, eureka, california. Hello. Caller good morning. Especially on this special day of the year. People never talk about the one thing that i want to say. I am neither for nor against reagan, but everyone talks about how great reagan was. Movie actor, governor of california, great smile, great person, but one thing he did that really burns my whatever is that he broke the air Traffic Controllers union and no one wants to talk about that. Have your guest to talk about that. Have a nice christmas. Host also talk about why this still resonates. Guest because it was such a momentous decision and by the way, Merry Christmas, color. I have an old friend that lived in eureka for many years that worked in the Reagan Administration. Peter hannaford was a paid greater two reagan and speechwriter. This was the height of the cold war and we needed a safe and secure in her transportation system, both commercially and otherwise. Ironically they had endorsed reagan and they broke the law because they had a signed contract. They had to report to work and they broke the law when they went on strike and reagan was not going to tolerate it, so he gave them a certain amount of time to report back to work and if they didnt, so he quite justifiably fired them replacing them with new air Traffic Controllers in the air transport system remained safe and on time. There is a mythology that the soviets were somehow, you know, its probably true they were paying attention to what reagan did with the unions and i dont know if it got into deep analysis, but George Scholz who is reagan secretary of state said that clearly this was unintimidating factor to the soviets, reagans toughness in dealing with the air Traffic Controllers. Host how do you think that either the immediate or those in washington reactors raza reagan legacy to his ending the cold war . Guest i dont think reagan has ever gotten the credit. I wouldnt say he ended the cold war. I would say he won the cold war and there is a concepting cold war history of that soviets gained ground from the end of world war i they gained ground against every american president up until 1981. No soviet leader ever willingly gave up power. The soviet union basically surrendered because reagan, you know, the mythology as he spend sent them into oblivion which is only partially true. He used all the powers of the presidency. He used the bully pulpit to break the soviets and he used the cia to help the covert operations in nicaragua, and to help the solidarity in poland. He formed a vital pack with Pope John Paul the second and Margaret Thatcher in presenting a united front to the soviet threat. He used many many powers at his disposal, not just the power to increase defense spending. He used all that to break the soviet union and, in fact, he did. When the berlin wall was coming down and hes already a couple years out of office. He went on nightline and later told buchanan he always thought it would happen. He just didnt think it would happen so soon. Host from little rock arkansas, independent line, you are on, go head. Caller i wanted to ask this question, i used to be administrator myself under the bushs bush should ministration and im not really educated on Reagan Administration, but i do know a little bit about him. I just wanted to say why, he under reagan did he put money where it belongs or whatever like that . I said put money where belongs and redistribute wealth. Host okay, call or. We will let our guest responded. Guest reagan believed he used to say the best welfare check with a paycheck every two weeks and he believed a growing economy was the best way to lift people out of poverty in a matter fact, he did all of this in the 1980s and shipped it showed the night party shrunk and wealth grew larger and he also included block grants, instead of the federal government determining how to spend money they would simply give it back to the states to let them decide how best to spend it, so he was very much believed in the federalism, which was that in power of the states and less power in washington and he put it into practice. Host because of his background and previous history as a democrat, did he ever show populist tendencies . Guest very much so. He comes out of the populist midwest, which was a hotbed of anti concentration of power and he was always suspicious of big corporations and big banks and when he announced for president s when he would take on gerald ford in 1976, he specifically mentioned the corporations as part of the problem of washington, big labor, big government, big corporations because he believed in all concentrations of power were inherently dangerous. He was very much a infused with a populace anti washington, anti concentration power world view. Host how did that jive that with those republicans in congress. Of gingrich was coming and playing everything else. How did that relate to republicans generally . Guest most of the new republicans that came in and Newt Gingrich is a great example because he came in as a reagan republican and as a matter of fact, bob michael was less enthusiastic he was a good guy, but minority leader, but, you know, he played colquitt tip oneill in this and that, so in many ways gingrich and jack kemp and bob walker in a couple other young firebrand members did heavy lifting on capitol hill and got it lined up for reagans policy initiatives. Reagan in a way creates new publican a public and party because the republicans rising up in the late 70s and early 80s and even today have a different worldview and saying the republicans new deal era. Host pat from pennsylvania, democrats line. Thank you for holding on. You are on. Caller im really surprised to hear all of this supply side economics reaganomics, trickledown theory, voodoo economics as it was called by opponent simon wasnt that begin maybe there was a boom afterwards, but it seems to me that was the beginning of the state we have now with the tremendous imbalance of, you know, money in the bank with 1 and billionaire class has benefited from all of these Capital Gains tax reductions and didnt it start there and i would like like the tax when reagan took office with the Capital Gains was and has it slowed it down over time to where its really no low now and i just think thats what started was the beginning of this total imbalance now and thats really, you know, killing the middle middle class and really bad thing he did was take the solar panels of the white house i mean what kind of, you know, forward thinking was that . Host thanks, color. Guest he took the solar panels off the white house because they were not working and because they cost more money to maintain them what they saved in terms of electricity, plus a statically they are really really ugly and when people look at the white house they want to see something thats treasured and memorable and important and they should have a certain amount of pride when they look at the white house as the official residence of the United States and carter put the solar panels on, which did not work and were also on top and quite ugly, so reagan quite naturally took them down. As far as its interesting that call or mention Capital Gains and honestly the middle class grew during the right reagan presidency, but the 86 tax bill is that while the institutes three top marginal rates, lowers the top marginal rate from 90 to make any 5 lowers it to 20 , but he also increases slightly Capital Gains tax. That was part of the compromise with the chairman of the house ways and Means Committee who reagan negotiated historic tax bill, which was actually the last time we have had to significant tax or form in this country, but i think also is that this was the populace reagan. He viewed earned wealth as more important than inherited wealth and about so he allowed the marginal rate of Capital Gains to go up while the tradeoff was that the top marginal rate lowered dramatically. Host from tennessee, arthur, democrats line. Good morning. Caller yeah, i think reagan will go down in history as one of the worst president s we have had because the union i think was set up so these Big Companies could union bust all of these people down through the years. He was nothing but a union buster. Guest reagan was the president of the Screen Actors Guild and was the first act president to be in union. He was a card carrying member and when hes became president he still had active membership in the Screen Actors Union and he said in his 66 autobiography that he was a rabid pro union man and he was prounion. He questioned collectivebargaining whether or not that was appropriate and he also believed in the rule of law is that they had signed a contract with the United States and part of the contract included not to going out on strike. They went out on strike and broke the law. Host our guest is Craig Shirley, his latest book, last act the final years and emerging legacy of Ronald Reagan. Did reagan ever feel anxiety in the sense of not being in power are not having Political Office when he left . Guest not at all. Its interesting, because he wrote in his diaries the next to last day and he kept diaries all eight years and hes one of the few president s to keep an active diary all eight years he was president. Although, they were secret and no one really knew about them at the time. He wrote that tomorrow i stop being president and then home to california and the start of a new life. He is 77 years old and he is looking forward to a new life. I think thats remarkable about his personal sunny optimism is that it was always a new day. There were always new opportunities and new optimism. Dont forget had he just not been present he had been governor of california and president of the Screen Actors Guild award, successful actor, successful broadcaster, so he had a lot of successes, not to say he didnt have a lot of failures, because he did. He had a lot of successes and obviously the presidency. He was proud of his presidency and he said so in his farewell address to the nation in january of 1989. But, he was ready to move on. Host you right in the story bill clintons renomination and president reagan looking at that thinking he could get involved a. Guest he was at the ranch watching one night with Dennis Leblanc who is a very close friend of the family and they were watching the Chicago Convention 96, and reagan grew visibly agitated and frustrated that clinton was being renominated. Dennis said he did not elaborate dennis did not elaborate, but reagan was a republican. He was a loyal republican. Host to the idea he never really wanted rick to reenter some form of politics to the office. Guest no, but he gave a lot of good speeches. He spoke at the Houston Convention 92. He gave a lot of political speeches in southern california. He met with gorbachev twice. He went to the office every day. He was quite active in the post presidency and gave a lot of political speeches. Host tell the story about him after he leaves office, he set up his California Office already. People are calling him to see him and hes the one picking up the phone a. Guest he and mrs. Reagan had gone back to california. The plan was they would they had a new house in bel air, and they would go there basically relax because he had been president for eight years. They were tired. So, they were setting up an office and in century city because they picked up Office Building where the movie diehard had been filled and secret service wasnt really happy about that because they picked on office that had been just been blown apart in a movie by terrorists, but they moved in. I think it was on the top floor of century city. So, staff is opening up a boxes, hanging up pictures, filing and everything to set up an office. Reagan calls in a couple of weeks after being home and says im coming in and they thought they had a couple months to get ready, so they were scrambling around in putting together a makeshift office for him and they were all in taj will dress and reagan comes in, greets his staff goes into his office and just the door. A couple hours later he comes out with a piece of paper and he has a two credit line is as i went meet with these people and fred scans the list and does not recognize any names. He said you could meet with these people, but who are they and reagan says they have been calling. As it turned out when they install the switchboard the lines had been crossed so instead of phones going to the switchboard of the receptionist answering office of Ronald Reagan or president reagan they were going directly to reagans office and so while she was sitting in there twiddling her thumbs not answering the phone, these people are calling and Ronald Reagan answers the phone and says i went to talk to Ronald Reagan and, hey, youre talking to him, so i went to come meet you. He said okay. Anyway, this long list and fred goes ahead and schedules a time for each of these people to come in, meet Ronald Reagan and get their photo taken with reagan and one guy calls to set up the meeting and says says this is great i will bring my neighbor and fred ryan says look, buddy, lightning struck your wants it will not happen a second time. But, everyone everyone who called and reagan answered the phone, they all came in and got to meet the president of the United States and have their photo taken. Host lets hear from lynchburg virginia, democrat line. Caller this is my second time calling. Cspan for many years, the subject of Ronald Reagan, but lets be truthful about a few things about Ronald Reagan. And the one, iran contra, which oliver north took the blame for him. Number two, this is the beginning of the middle class dumbing down during the Reagan Administration. Overall, we have not had a republican president balance the budget since they write the eye has dwight d eisenhower, so i dont know why a lot of people save reagans success, you had to enter 41 marines died in the middle east being bombed overnight and nothing was done about that. I can go on and on with pilfering from Social Security, he took money from Social Security to help pay for tax cuts for the welltodo and this has been a situation go back as far as reagan presidency that the middle class has been really suffering under every republican president. Host okay. We will let our guest response the two i am writing as fast as i can. No one said the reagan presidency was perfect. They were human beings involved and sometimes human beings have the best attention and irancontra remains a blemish on the reagan record. Reagan had nothing to do with it and he said so in his diaries, but he took the responsible before it and went on National Television took the responsibility for it. What oliver north had started covertly in the Ronald Reagan white house. Reagan never would have approved plans that went against the federal law and it went against the federal law. It prohibited the use of American Funds with the nicaragua and contract, so no one said it would be perfect, but i think well, actually the color is wrong. The last president to balance the budget was not dwight eisenhower, it was bill clinton and bill clinton together with new gingrich bowed the budget for several years in a row because essentially clinton had embraced reaganomics, which was less government, more tax cuts, on federal spending and spending of the private economy. Host Craig Shirley joining us. I know you wont have the current day politics, but i went to read something that michael reagan, ronald son, wrote about donald trump because we are talking about donald trump and the nature of the gop. He said trump is nothing like my father. My father United People and thats why he won election. Is in the process of killing whats left of my fathers gop any spends most of the time during people off of the Republican Press bus. Is that a fair statement . Guest its open to interpretation and i agree with michael generally, specifically is that there are two things about trump that i see that are not reagan, but like reagan and what is that he challenges the status quo. Reagan always challenged the status quo. The second thing is that he talks about the future, a brighter future, which again is like Ronald Reagan. Going out of his way to insult women or minorities or hispanics or whatever, no, that was not reagan at all. In that regard i agree with michael. Host as far as the children are concerned, what was the relationship with reagan and his older children and you saw this play out especially during funeral in the event there in california with nancy. Guest i suspect its like most president ial families. They had the high points and theyre not so high points. You know, most families have their problems, but not under the glare of the national spotlight. John adams had his problems with his son. James madison had a stepson who was a compulsive gambler who lost so much that dolly had to sell montpelier to sell of his debts and fdr children said they never knew their parents and bill clinton had his problems with his half brother roger. So, by comparison, the reagans children problems were pretty tame. He loved his children. He grew very close to them i mean, they were always close, but they always had differences and sometimes they played out the National Media, but after his presidency and during the alzheimers, they grew especially he and patty he and maureen had always been close at hand michael had always been close and ron came much closer to his father in that post presidency, so in a way his passing brought them altogether. Host from our independent line, john, chapel hill, north carolina. Go ahead, please, you are on. Caller good morning, pedro and craig, and Merry Christmas to everyone. A couple of comments about my thoughts about what i recall about president reagan. I am 73 years old. Ronald reagan, if i remember went to philadelphia mississippi to dog whistle his way into the white house. I also recall his stand on south africa. He and Margaret Thatcher but like crazy to support the regimes and i remember i believe that he referred to Nelson Mandela as a terrorist. That is the Ronald Reagan i remember. I also remember that he was a bit against big government, but yet the lodges largest building in washington dc has his name on it. That the Ronald Reagan that and there are many other things i can say. I appreciate the gentleman that spoke earlier about the marines. I am a former marine. But, i dont see the Ronald Reagan that you see, craig. I cant forgive him for that because i lived through it, so those are my comments and Merry Christmas. Guest well, let me take the last thing, the easiest thing first. He didnt choose to have a building named after him. That was an act of congress. As far as he didnt go to philadelphia, mississippi, he went to the county fair in mississippi and the campaign or in 1980, but it was the same county fair that Michael Dukakis addressed and jimmy carter addressed and so this idea that, you know, reagan once refused to join a country club in los angeles when he found out they had a policy that did not allow jews. He refused to join, so this was probably them one of the most nonjudgmental men have ever elected president of the United States. Regard to south africa, i mean obviously he a poured apartheid, but he was also fighting the communists, so he had to figure how to thread this meal where he institutes a policy to desegregate south africa while still keeping south africa in the anticommunist hole because it was strategically important. It was important terms of the soviets, so he engages and announces and then puts into place a policy of construction of engagement. Now, apartheid had been in existence in south africa since the time of maybe George Washington. Yet, fdr never did anything about it, john kennedy never do anything about it, harry truman never did anything about it and jimmy carter never did anything about it. Reagan is the first president to Institute Policy to bring about desegregation, so it was a tricky political maneuver. It actually worked, but the idea that reagan was a racist is nonsense, there is no basis on it whatsoever. Host lets here on a republican line, mike, hello. Caller good morning. First of all, we are really picking apart these people. Jesus said that he without sin cast the first stone. You know, until jesus runs on the ticket, we are always going to be voting for the lesser of two evils. You know, isaiah 700 years before the birth and number three celebrate today, he prophesied. He said to us a child is born to us and government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful, almighty god, prince of peace. Do you know one thing i want to point out, there is a Common Thread among our president s, the one to our successful, lets look at lincoln. Lincoln embraced the same scripture that Ronald Reagan embraced. That is found in second chronicles s seven 14. It reads if my people are called by my name and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and we will hear heal their land. Reagan wasnt a perfect guy. When he was in office i was a cardcarrying member of the united autoworkers and i disagreed with a lot of things, but now it that i look back i have to agree with what he did. The firing of air Traffic Controllers, they broke the law. They broke the contract. They were wrong. Ronald reagan was not great. He made a lot of mistakes, but he listened and gave your too many counselors and he listened to the greatest counselor and i believe he listened also to the mighty counselor of whose birth we celebrate today. Host thank you very much. We will let our guest response be to i think america has been unbelievably fortunate because virtually almost all of the president s we have had have been men of Good Intention and men of good faith and that goes from George Washington to president obama. I dont question president obamas faith at all. Some republicans would question policies. None should ever question his faith. Abraham lincoln sometimes said that the only way he could find the answers was on his knees. George washington and Franklin Roosevelt when he was here on december 8, 1941, his final words to congress, we shall gain triumph so help us god. All president s, i think, have been men of good faith and we shouldnt question it. May be the policies, but not the faith. Host maybe the mistakes that Ronald Reagan ever expressed a major regret. Guest he had deep regret about they root. He was angry about iran contra and he expressed that in his diaries and expressed outrage of oliver north. Host he did not get invited to his funeral if i read it correctly in his book. Guest yes. Host because of that . Guest yes, because the Administration Major embarrassment and there was talk of impeachment, not that it was serious talk or it would have gone anywhere, but there was talk of impeachment because washington was in a firestorm during irancontra and 87. Yes, he had some regrets. He regretted that tempered deal in 1982 with tip oneill because the deal was that there were supposed be 3 in spending cuts for every 1 dollar and tax increases and the tax increases came and the spending cuts never came and he never did really another deal then with tip oneill after that. Host augusta, georgia, democrats lied. Tommy, hello, go ahead. Caller good morning and thanks for taking my call and Merry Christmas. Host cohead. Caller number one that trickledown economics, we still paying for that now. Number two, the around contra thing, i believe they let the drugs coming through here to. Number three, beirut, over 900 marines were killed and look how they drugged Hillary Clinton out over benghazi. Number four, novel. Caller thats all i had to say. Guest there was debate early in the most of ministration of 1980 about federal assistance for School Lunch Program and some bureaucrat tried to float the idea about labeling catch up its all lost in the sands of time now, mythology has taken hold a 900 marines did not die in beirut. Obviously, 247 men died and he regretted it and regretted going into a. As a matter of fact, he wrote in his diaries that he later came up with five points for conducting military warfare including having it a very defined mission and beirut did not have a defined mission. They were simply there, but he learned. He wasnt static like most men. He learned and adapted to change. Host because you use the funeral as a theme for the book, talk something about how the planning for the funeral when you refer to something called the book. Can you tell that that viewers what that is. Guest early in an administration, early in a presidency they could every modern president and basically says, mr. President , do you want a public or private funeral and if they say a private funeral then they say thank you for your time and they go on their way. If a president says i want a public funeral then they begin the planning, military district of washington begins planning with white house and later staff in retirement whatever it is, library or whatever else, how to comport themselves and how long does it lie in state in the rotunda. Is there a motorcade . What type of flowers . Who selects the speakers . Who is selected as pallbearers . Every imaginable detail that you can imagine including, you know, his Interment Service ceremony at sunset on the cliffs of simi valley at the library of california as the sun is going down, bagpiper playing Amazing Grace and reagan participated in the plane. He met with them once a year or whatever and they would select pallbearers or speakers and then in retirement, so it is constantly evolving document, which Fred Ryan Tommy at one point if you keep changing speakers and pallbearers because reagan kept outliving everyone, but they finally got it set as to planning, motorcade, millet military, flag lowering of the flag, there were events at every military base in the world. There were 21 gun salutes at every military base in the world. Can inspire, all of this, the bell was told for you times for the 40th president , all of this goes into the planning, which by the time of the reagan funeral is literally a playbyplay composition of everything that is supposed to happen, who is supposed to do what, where, why and how. Host from maryland, independent line. Here is robert. Caller howre you doing this morning . Host good, go ahead. Caller i wanted one of the things to disprove about mr. Reagan as well as nixon and George Hw Bush as well as donald trump, they all played nixon talked about the silent majority, which everyone understood was a plate to racism. Mr. Reagan went to philadelphia, mississippi, bush went to willie heart thing and come is doing the same thing playing on the prejudices of people, but really bothers me as during the nixon administration, they imported during the Reagan Administration oliver north and John Poindexter , the largest distributors of cocaine throughout the Minority Community and yet they were on television saying lets, you know, say no to drugs, man. It has caused a tremendous amount of harm and minority communities and this is just some offbase. And another thing about mr. Reagan, one of the things that i disagree that seemed like all of the time he was in the Cabinet Meetings he was always sleeping and he was surrounded by people like mrs. Reagan forced mr. Reagan to fire and these corporate people just literally took over and destroyed our country, man. Right now that economics is having a tremendous negative affect on our government, our country. Host robber, thank you for the call. Guest i dont know where to attack this. Reagan left office in january of 1989, with a 40 approval among africanamericans, which is astronomical for a republican when backed eisenhowers. When he left california, one of the things he noted was that he had appointed more africanamericans to highlevel positions in his government in california than any previous governor in california history not included pat brown, local democrat who was predecessor, rural warren, liberal who was predecessor, so this idea that reagan again, he did not cut of philadelphia. He did not go to philadelphia. Host the falling asleep story. Guest its just not true. There was a picture of him working at a Cabinet Meeting and he later assigned it to his chief of staff, jim baker, and he signed it dear jim, ci do other things besides falling asleep in Cabinet Meetings. I dont know if he did, maybe he did, but in his defense were probably pretty boring affair. Host for our last call this more, this is georgia, ken, on our republican line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I would take issue with a lot of the callers who dispute Ronald Reagans trickledown economics and its with great dismay, even these many years later that people think of their entitlement of that which comes from the government and remember that government cannot give you anything. At first as to take something from you and Ronald Reagans policies were great policies during his president to put this Company Country on its right track and i would maintain that many of the policies and i watch this program and i wish i could remember where i saw and who was documenting it. It was like a public broadcasting station one night, that many of the conservative republican policies that reagan instituted were largely dismantled by the succeeding presidency of George Herbert walker w bush and i believe today with the increased deficit and think about trickledown economics, trickledown economics with Ronald Reagan was that my money being spent by my choice would help grow the economy and that rising tide would lift our ships. Host we are running short on time. Guest this is a theme running through about trickledown economics. A created a 2 million new jobs. It eliminated inflation as a threat, which is a threat to the american republican countries have been destroyed in the past by inflationary spirals. Trickle down economics led to a dramatic lowering of Interest Rates. Trickle down economics led to a turnaround in the american faith in their government and the future, which in 1980, and a lot of told pollsters that their childrens future would be worse by 1989. In every measurable way whether you call it reaganomics or trickledown economics or conservative economics or whatever else, it worked. It worked. I dont know how many times i can say it. Host other themes are laid out in the book, last act the final years and emerging legacy of Ronald Reagan written by biographer Craig Shirley. Thanks for your time this morning and Merry Christmas. This week and on the tv on afterwards, fox news correspondent james rosen looks at the life and political career of james dick cheney. Former Alaska Governor sarah palin on family, faith and community. William jones recalls the march on washington, plus the additional effect of the american workforce, the federal rivalry between our exam to and for complete television schedule, visit book tv. Org. Book tv, 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. Television for serious readers. Well, they told stories about their labor and they told stories about the ways they were hired, about the kinds of treatment that they got from their employers. And they told stories about history. One woman who i write about is named geraldine miller, who lived in the bronx. She was an organizer and Domestic Worker here in new york city and worked lived in the bronx. She told stories about something called the bronx slave markets and these were street corners during the Great Depression where africanamerican women stood while they were waiting to be hired as day workers. Miller told a story about women who were waiting on the street corners and employers would come up and look for the women with the most scarred knees and she told the story because women would look for the most scarred knees because those were the women who scrubbed floors down on their hands and knees and miller told the story is a way to, i think, highlights the exploitation and occupation, but it also became a platform for report reform, so i she told the story, she told the women, we are never ever again going to scrub floors down on all fours. Fascinating story because of course, we associate what sounds like a shape up. We call it a slave market when it has to do with women, but the shape up was a common way of hiring unskilled men to do manual labor and now you have uncovered a moment where women go through exactly the same ordeal, so what looked like a gender difference for a lot of years turns out not to be one. Absolutely. Ended the term a slave that market was actually given to those street corners by ella baber ella baker and marble cook which were to africanamerican organizers here in new york city who wrote an expose about the treatment of Domestic Workers during the Great Depression and its interesting because that name stuck and it stuck for Women Organizers in the 1960s who probably had never read anything about the slave markets of the 30s, but had certainly heard those stories and those stories became part of their organizing tool box. You can watch this and other programs online at book tv. Org. How columnists and cartoonist and the one is an Award Winning rapid novelist and author of nonfiction books about