I’m glad I’m not the only one looking for a bit of “perspective about the Reagan presidency”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29859-2004Jun9.html. The article calls for a bit more “balance” than I’d allow, but at least it’s more thoughtful than the current love-fest has been.

_Reagan’s growing reputation as the great victor in the Cold War who made Mikhail Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall depends on looking at Reagan and his times through the light cast by subsequent events._

_…To one who covered many of the key international events of that day, Reagan seemed in fact to come late to a realistic view of the Soviet Union and the world, and — like most presidents — to have improvised furiously and not always successfully in foreign affairs._