In today’s installment of my Negroponte interview, there is some Reagan talk — talk about Reagan — and that has stimulated some nostalgia among readers for our 40th president. I’ve been hearing from them; they’ve been sharing thoughts, memories, and, in some cases, videos. The Reagan legacy — the Reagan way — does seem under attack in these present days. The Left has the levers of government — the Left as represented by such people as Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, and, of course, Barack Obama. This is a pretty pass.

One reader sent me a video of Reagan’s convention speech in Detroit, in the summer of 1980. In that speech, the Gipper quoted Tom Paine to the effect that “We have the power within us to begin the world anew.” And across the dais were written the words “A New Beginning.” George Will wrote that the Paine bit was “the most un-conservative statement ever uttered.” (I believe that is an exact quotation.) Surely that is right — but the statement seemed exactly right for those gray Carteresque times. Reagan was asking us to remember who we were. We had been traveling on a collectivizing and defeatist path — and that was not us (he was saying). We needed to start over.

(Good thing he didn’t present a “reset button” with an incorrect Russian word.)

Then, in 1984, he ran for reelection, and Walter Mondale and the old crowd kept talking about change: “Time for a change” (as any challenger says). And Reagan would say, indignantly, “We are the change.” And you could argue we still are, in 2009. Every time the classic American way, as opposed to the traditional European, statist way, makes a thrust, I am a little bit astonished.

I asked Negroponte, “What’d you think of Reagan?” The first thing he said was, “I loved him.” Same with a great many of us. We are told that Reagan nostalgia is not right in our present straits, and that it hinders our ability to adopt the reforms now needed. That may be. Still, it’s nice to revisit the old guy now and then. For one thing, it sort of makes you feel good.

I had forgotten something about the ’80 speech. Reagan is greeted by a big demonstration, of course. And after a while he has had enough. He says, “You’re taking up prime time!” This was a performer who knew what he was doing.

Anyway, enjoy the Negroponte interview, if you’ve got a few minutes, and — if you’ve got about 45 — enjoy the 1980 convention speech. (Carter’s was less inspired and effective, as I recall.)