reagan scored a landslide over walter mon dale. in july, 1986, his approval rating is a goddy 63%. it s the president at the peak of his popularity. but now, let s look at the time magazine cover just five months after that, five months after reagan stood on that ship and tickled america s sweet spot. there it is, it is an ominous photo of the white house. how far does it go in to it there is the iran contra. it was an illegal scheme in which the administration throughouted arms embargo to sell weapons to iran and used the proceeds to illegal war in central america. this time the first line in time story had a different ring to it. washington, it read, is in its full watergate crouch wand that not quite halfway through his second term the momentum behind reagan s presidency stalled out. overnight, his poll numbers plummeteted. you see from 63 to 47%. this became the story of the final two years of reagan s