What It Takes

When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan, by Peggy Noonan (Viking, 224 pp., $24.95)

SUCCESSFUL presidents, as Tolstoy somehow neglected to tell us, are all alike, while each failure fails in his own way. Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Jimmy Carter did not fail the same way as Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, but each damaged the country. By contrast, the best ones— Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, the early Cold War presidents, and yes, Ronald Reagan—all shared some pertinent traits: All were able to define and embody the national purpose and character, to name the key challenges of their era and meet those challenges. Reagan, it is becoming more and more evident, met these criteria, and merits inclusion in this roster of notables. What is less obvious is that heisinno way as different from the others as he seems.

About the Author

Noemie Emery

Noemie Emery has also written for the Washington Examiner and The Weekly Standard.

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When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan, by Peggy Noonan (Viking, 224 pp., $24.95)

SUCCESSFUL presidents, as Tolstoy somehow neglected to tell us, are all alike, while each failure fails in his own way. Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Jimmy Carter did not fail the same way as Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, but each damaged the country. By contrast, the best ones— Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, the early Cold War presidents, and yes, Ronald Reagan—all shared some pertinent traits: All were able to define and embody the national purpose and character, to name the key challenges of their era and meet those challenges. Reagan, it is becoming more and more evident, met these criteria, and merits inclusion in this roster of notables. What is less obvious is that heisinno way as different from the others as he seems.