I should have added yesterday that I thought the best performance of the Reagan funeral service was president George Herbert Walker Bush. He wasn’t very coherent at times – he can mangle syntax even when it’s written in front of him. But he was so classy. The early focusing attention on the bereaved family – the man was brought up right. Then the concrete and revealing anecdotes:
And then I learned decency; the whole world did. Days after being shot, weak from wounds, he spilled water from a sink, and entering the hospital room aides saw him on his hands and knees wiping water from the floor. He worried that his nurse would get in trouble.
The good book says humility goes before honor, and our friend had both, and who could not cherish such a man?
And perhaps as important as anything, I learned a lot about humor, a lot about laughter. And, oh, how President Reagan loved a good story. When asked, “How did your visit go with Bishop Tutu?” he replied, “So-so.”
Perfect. And the choking up: that blorting of WASP emotionality. He made me choke up then as well.
The Dish 