One has written eight book about reagans post presidency, so it seemed appropriate in the idea came when one of my sons, mitchell, was sitting in the kitchen highlighting these big binders of material i got from the Reagan Library in every time reagans name is here he would highlight it for me and he said to me one night, has ended has anyone ever done a book about reagan after his presidency and that was the beginning of last act. Host what do you focus on specifically as far as post presidency . Guest i use the funeral is kind of the baseline and then i do flashbacks and flashforwards, so its really the seven days each chapter represents pretty much one day although, there are other chapters as well of the funeral, but i do a lot of flashbacks over the last several years of his presidency, his retirement and obviously that alzheimer. Host if there is a main message you want the folks to get as far as his post presidency and his legacy what would you wanted to be . Guest i dont know if its the beginning of the dichotomy of American Society or a continuation. I suspect its probably both anyway. For the entire week of his passing, the elites were very rough on Ronald Reagan both personally and professionally in terms of his legacy. Paul krugman, for the New York Times wrote there was no economic recovery when in fact new jobs were created and the Washington Post openly criticized the state of reagan and Nancy Reagans marriage how he had proposed whether women in the point is the elite media and elite academia were very rough on reagan, but the American People that otherwise. There was to menace outpouring that rivaled John Kennedys and president roosevelt outpouring when they passed away both here in washington and in simi valley first when he late not stay, but he laid in the library, the president ial library and over 100,000 people in less than two days came to pay their respects and then here over a day and then again, well over 100,000 people came to pay their respects and back at simi valley as the plane lands appointment do and makes its way ironically on Ronald Reagan highway, 101, back to Reagan Library, is that hundreds of thousands of people turned out just, and every day people turned out along the highway and they had to shut it down because there was just tremendous outpouring. Host to your points a and a clear was emerging after reagans in the National Media were schedule and on the other hand those who got reagan work nearly all complementary. He was a good president and president [inaudible] c2 that was representative of literally thousands of people who either showed up, wrote the newspapers, called up the networks. Every time the networks veered off into being harsh on reagan some switchboards would light up at cbs or abc or nbc of the people call it as saying knock it off. Host Ronald Reagan biographer, Craig Shirley, joining us to talk about his book, last act that takes place in the post presidency and if you want to ask questions headed reagan approach this idea of shaking his shaping his legacy. Guest he very much resisted he once told lou cannon who is probably the official reagan biography and he was you know, buchanan asked reagan about his legacy and he just resisted and said the American People will decide that. I did my job. Im proud of my job. As far as legacy, not to say that he wasnt interested in how people thought of him because he did write his autobiography and his post presidency because i think like Churchill Churchill once said history will be good to me for i intend to write and i think reagan wanted to frame how history judged him as well because he wrote his own biography. Host you write a lot about nancy reagan. How much of a role did she have been shaping his legacy . Guest you cannot be married for over 50 years and someone once described nancy reagan as a she used to say she would set up her, you know, our zone and munching on apple and he would be sleeping soundly and that was because she was worried about him and he how people perceive him and his decisions as president and going back to his time with the president screen actor guild. She took off active interest in not just the life, but also the times of Ronald Reagan. Host not just his image, but policy decisions as well. Guest no, she did not get involved in policy decisions. She had her office on the east wing and he had his office on the west wing and there is a mop a lot of mythology put out there recently that she was the palace guard and she approved a people that entered his office, which is absolutely not true. She said she could. She slept next to the president of the United States and she could offer it, but she didnt get involved in policy, so they had a happy marriage in that they each new what the other was responsible for. Host and so you write in the book as far as him weaving off and dealing with alzheimers and before we go to calls, a bit about alzheimers, what was the initial reaction of the reagan family and the president himself when he found out he was diagnosed with a . Guest the family was devastated. He had mrs. Reagan had been going to the mayo clinic every year like clockwork clockwork for years to be tested both psychologically and physiologically and he passed every with flying colors and alzheimers as i understand it its memorization, series of colors, series of numbers and things like that. It was only until 1994, the spring of 94 when he was already six years out of office that he showed was considered more than ageappropriate forgetfulness and it was later diagnosed as alzheimers. He was told later that fall, november, the first weekend in november. Mrs. Reagan already knew and of course, she was devastated because its a death sentence being told youre going to die. We all get up in the morning and part of our ability to go forward is the unknowing of when we will pass, so the getty up each day knowing today we will do this or that whatever, but when you are told you have alzheimers you know you have a finite amount of time left, but so obviously mrs. Reagan was devastated. He was told by the doctors. Took it in, understood it completely and then he went and he sat down and started writing a letter and his chief of staff at the time, brad ryan, said mr. President , what are you doing and he said well, i guess i better tell the American People and the so that was the letter that was released in november of 1994 announcing his alzheimers. Did it with bravery in connection and humility and with very much his christian spirit throughout the letter. Host some of the lines he wrote, and open our heights we hope this will provide greater awareness and will encourage clear understanding of the individuals and families affected by it and now begins the journey that will lead me to the sunset of my life and i know or america there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Guest your reagan and hes think about other people, not think about himself. Hes talking about the future of america, which is bright and he also expresses a lot of concern about, you know what the affliction does to families and his own family including nancy about the slow descent into alzheimers. Host first call comes from Providence Rhode island this morning and this is jack for biographer Craig Shirley, the author of last act looking at the final years of president reagan. Jack, you are on. Caller good morning to you, pedro and a Merry Christmas to everyone there. That the reason why im calling i am a fan, okay. You know, people to realize, yeah, the media detested Ronald Reagan. They were, you know, supporters of okay republican establishment what bothered me too was George Hw Bush during the primary season took Ronald Reagan writing and before he pretty much quit and Ronald Reagan was beating him decisively in that bothers me a lot. Of people dont talk about that. Secondly, heres the key question i want to ask, bill oreilly, i call him a highly intelligent hedge fund or. I will tell you why. Because his book, okay, about killing reagan, he really doesnt really emphasize his greatness as president s when confronting the soviet union and actually defeating them by going on on offense of posture, the only ministration to do that because he really is a fan and he tried to hide this but guest as far as george bush, he is referred to the 1998 contest. Reagan, we dont live in a system of where you inherent the presidency. You have two complete compete port and george bush thought he had every right to compete for the nomination and im sure reagan would have agreed. He fought tenaciously for it, but i think it speaks well, both to Ronald Reagan and george bush that Ronald Reagan selected george bush as his running mate. He served loyally for eight years and reagan gave him a lot more responsibility than most other Vice President scott. He had an office in the west wing, which was a new phenomenon in american politics, American Government and he was selected by ronald and nancy reagan to give the eulogy at the national cathedral. So, what started out as a political rivalry, and in fact sometimes it was very very toughly fought between gorge bush and Ronald Reagan ended up being not only very good friends, but very very respectful of each other and george bush said in his usually eulogy, he said i learned more from Ronald Reagan than any other man in public life for national politics. Did he write that they never even had dinner together in the west wing of the white house. Guest that is true. That is probably another issue, you know, that i cant explain. The reagan had their own privacy in the bushes had their own privacy, so they did not actually dined together, although reagan and bush had lunch together every thursday without fail. Reagan, you know, wrote a number of nodes when he was leaving office to incumbent president bush and they made reference to all miss my thursday lunch, so in some ways they are probably closer personally than any other president and Vice President in American History. Host republican line, dave up next. Hello. Caller good morning and Merry Christmas. You know, there is a widely held promise, that i think the media has helped promulgate that president obama inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression, but im kind of in economics buff and i remember early in reagans first term in office, the Unemployment Rate actually reached 10. 8 , which was four tenths of a percentage point higher than the highest Unemployment Rate under the obama administration. But, the economic recovery under reagan was twice as strong as its been under president obama. The gross to messick product grew at about 4 compared to 2 . There were nearly twice as many jobs created and i can only think of one reason for this and that is that reagans economic policies were the exact opposite not only in his predecessor jimmy carter, but of our current president. Now, i know that sometimes people like to ignore the facts or reinvent the facts for political or ideological reasons , but facts are stubborn things and in this case i think the facts speak for themselves quite quick clearly. Host thats david in california. Guest the color has a good point, reagan inherited an economy that was a negative growth. Unemployment was already at 7. 5 and climbing. Jobs were actually being eliminated from the economy because it was actually contracting. Then, on top of that he also had , which economic textbooks and economists say is possible was a shrinking economy and inflation. Usually when the economy contracts you go into a deflationary cycle, but we had rising prices and falling jobs, which economists would say is impossible and on top of that possibly high Interest Rates which were 18, 19, 21 , so you had double digit inflation, double digit Interest Rate and unemployment rising rapidly. Reagan was in many ways confronted with the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression, but the collar is right. He brought inflation down from 12, 14, 16 down to less than 5 and he brought in just rates down from 18 down to seven and a half, 8 , very much more tolerable levels. He created 19 million new jobs and when he was what he left office the deficit was falling the last two years of his presidency. So, supplyside, tax cuts type monitor of policy and back to work created probably the greatest economic expansion in American History because 19 million jobs created over a series of short years, actually. In fact, it didnt stop until the third year of george bushs administration. Host democrats lied, eureka, california. Hello. Caller good morning. Especially on this special day of the year. People never talk about the one thing that i want to say. I am neither for nor against reagan, but everyone talks about how great reagan was. Movie actor, governor of california, great smile, great person, but one thing he did that really burns my whatever is that he broke the air Traffic Controllers union and no one wants to talk about that. Have your guest to talk about that. Have a nice christmas. Host also talk about why this still resonates. Guest because it was such a momentous decision and by the way, Merry Christmas, color. I have an old friend that lived in eureka for many years that worked in the Reagan Administration. Peter hannaford was a paid greater two reagan and speechwriter. This was the height of the cold war and we needed a safe and secure in her transportation system, both commercially and otherwise. Ironically they had endorsed reagan and they broke the law because they had a signed contract. They had to report to work and they broke the law when they went on strike and reagan was not going to tolerate it, so he gave them a certain amount of time to report back to work and if they didnt, so he quite justifiably fired them replacing them with new air Traffic Controllers in the air transport system remained safe and on time. There is a mythology that the soviets were somehow, you know, its probably true they were paying attention to what reagan did with the unions and i dont know if it got into deep analysis, but George Scholz who is reagan secretary of state said that clearly this was unintimidating factor to the soviets, reagans toughness in dealing with the air Traffic Controllers. Host how do you think that either the immediate or those in washington reactors raza reagan legacy to his ending the cold war . Guest i dont think reagan has ever gotten the credit. I wouldnt say he ended the cold war. I would say he won the cold war and there is a concepting cold war history of that soviets gained ground from the end of world war i they gained ground against every american president up until 1981. No soviet leader ever willingly gave up power. The soviet union basically surrendered because reagan, you know, the mythology as he spend sent them into oblivion which is only partially true. He used all the powers of the presidency. He used the bully pulpit to break the soviets and he used the cia to help the covert operations in nicaragua, and to help the solidarity in poland. He formed a vital pack with Pope John Paul the second and Margaret Thatcher in presenting a united front to the soviet threat. He used many many powers at his disposal, not just the power to increase defense spending. He used all that to break the soviet union and, in fact, he did. When the berlin wall was coming down and hes already a couple years out of office. He went on nightline and later told buchanan he always thought it would happen. He just didnt think it would happen so soon. Host from little rock arkansas, independent line, you are on, go head. Caller i wanted to ask this question, i used to be administrator myself under the bushs bush should ministration and im not really educated on Reagan Administration, but i do know a little bit about him. I just wanted to say why, he under reagan did he put money where it belongs or whatever like that . I said put money where belongs and redistribute wealth. Host okay, call or. We will let our guest responded. Guest reagan believed he used to say the best welfare check with a paycheck every two weeks and he believed a growing economy was the best way to lift people out of poverty in a matter fact, he did all of this in the 1980s and shipped it showed the night party shrunk and wealth grew larger and he also included block grants, instead of the federal government determining how to spend money they would simply give it back to the states to let them decide how best to spend it, so he was very much believed in the federalism, which was that in power of the states and less power in washington and he put it into practice. Host because of his background and previous history as a democrat, did he ever show populist tendencies . Guest very much so. He comes out of the populist midwest, which was a hotbed of anti concentration of power and he was always suspicious of big corporations and big banks and when he announced for president s w