Keeping the Nation Mesmerized

Rarely has a President so dominated the national stage as Ronald Reagan has this summer, in both controversy and success. He has Washington spooked. His supporters point to the surging economy. His adversaries cannot forget the 11 million unemployed and gleefully fan the case of the "pilfered" White House papers. In fact, almost everybody interested in the public business seems to have a singular obsession with this fumbling, amiable, enigmatic exactor.

Any President is the constant center of attention. But a Washington visitor on the Fourth of July weekend would have thought Reagan was a kind of laid-back god. The Washington Post on Sunday, July 3, normally a time to print celebrations of purple mountain majesties, scaled new Reagan heights. He dominated the front page in photograph and story, arguing gently with Environmentalist Ansel Adams. He or events around him were the topic of the day for Columnists Haynes Johnson, Mary McGrory, Joseph Kraft, et al. Special Contributors George Reedy and Joseph Califano, both from Lyndon Johnson's White House, weighed in on Reagan. The Style section was a poster of the smiling Reagans on vacation. The paper's Food section explored the wonders of "oatmeal meat" (fried oatmeal patties), something Reagan brought up from his Depression childhood. The biggest business story included pictures of and text about twelve worried economists trying to contrive a Democratic economic policy to counter Reagan's.

Stories from the outside world--Soviet Dissident Andrei Sakharov's letter on nuclear armaments, budget cuts for the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine, the new president of the National Education Association--somehow ended up dragging Reagan into view. Even a tiny item about Ronald Bricker, the unemployed steelworker for whom Reagan got a job at Radio Shack back in April, turned out to be less about Bricker than Reagan. Bricker quit Radio Shack because he was recalled to his better-paying steel job. A double Reagan cheer.

Reagan's prosaic and traditional Democratic opponents were nearly obliterated. Walter Mondale made it into the paper on Page 3, appearing in Detroit at a Hispanic conference. John Glenn's smiling visage was totally absent. The Washington Post is certainly not everything, but it is a fever chart of sorts.

There has been nothing quite like this since Franklin Roosevelt survived the court-packing controversy of 1937 and then entertained the idea of running for a third term, insists Political Specialist Richard Scammon. Then too the nation was mesmerized by the man, either his evil intentions or his genius, depending on one's persuasion. Duke University's astute James David Barber calls Reagan "the great diverter," an actor who plays to television impresarios (who, he says, tend to be gullible) by tossing out distracting ideas like New Federalism, star wars and merit pay for teachers.

Opinion Analyst Richard Wirthlin calls Reagan the only true iconoclast around Washington. Reagan challenges prevailing ideas and traditional methods, takes on powerful interest groups. Reagan alone, in Wirthlin's view, continues to rattle Washington's cupboards, and so the entire Establishment watches transfixed, either cheering or booing but, oddly, never getting really angry because Reagan still is such a nice guy.

What it all means is in question. Those Presidents who have had some success, dominated the news and kept clear of scandal have prevailed. But those Presidents so large onstage who have been shown to be woefully wrong, weak or corrupt have fallen with a mighty crash. Arthur White of pollsters Yankelovich, Skelly & White, Inc., finds that Americans, so disappointed in recent Presidents, have for the moment invested more fragile hope than ever in Ronald Reagan. It is only natural they are watching what he says and even what he eats. Anybody reared on oatmeal meat can't be all bad--or good. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.