A pause in a bitter campaign
Reagan's death recalls a more civil time in American politics
From Judy Woodruff
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A most improbable thing happened this weekend in the midst of a tumultuous, bitter contest for the U.S. presidency. The campaign trail fell silent.
All eyes turned instead to Southern California, where Ronald Reagan traveled Monday for the next to last time to the presidential library that commemorates his eight years in the White House.
There, in the rugged but beautiful Simi Valley Reagan's body lay in repose for two days as thousands of Californians and other Americans passed by to pay their respects.
I watched former first lady Nancy Reagan say one of several goodbyes to her husband. The scene in the library was especially tearful and touching as she knelt at the flag-draped casket and gave daughter Patti Davis a long hug.
Then I watched as the first of a long parade of Americans walked past.
As a reporter who usually covers politics, it gradually dawned on me that as the country paused to reflect on Ronald Reagan and what he meant, what was set aside, temporarily, was not only the noise of the campaigns attacking each other, but also the bitter divisiveness that has gripped the nation since the 2000 presidential election.
Polls show Americans are deeply split over the war in Iraq, over Bush vs. Kerry, over whether the Constitution should be amended to ban gay marriage, over how to fix health care, over the basic goodness of Republicans and Democrats -- each side thinks the other is the root of all evil -- and over just about everything else you can think of.
A front page story in The Washington Post a few days ago reported that 75 percent of President Bush's campaign ads this year have been negative, critical of John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee and junior senator from Massachusetts.
It quoted an expert on political advertising as saying that the level of negative advertising in 2004 is already higher than the levels reached in the past three presidential campaigns.
The Post's reporting confirmed what political reporters have already observed -- that with three solid months of campaigning behind us, this has been one of the most relentlessly negative and divisive campaigns in history.
By contrast, two people approached me Monday at the Los Angeles Airport to say they assumed I was in California to cover the Reagan ceremonies, and to tell me that while they were Democrats, they liked Ronald Reagan as a man and as a leader.
Reagan may have been a staunch conservative who tried to cut social programs and raised military spending, yet the couple was not alone among Democrats who happily joined in the chorus of Reagan praises this week.
Former Vice President Walter Mondale told me Sunday, "I admire him as a man" who established "a stronger sense of American stature in the world."
Democratic Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts marveled at Reagan's ability to work with Democrats, as did former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski. The Illinois Democrat fondly recalled negotiating sessions with Reagan, whom he called "a man of his word."
Compare that to the current climate in which the vast majority of Democrats so strongly dislike Bush -- 79 percent disapproved of him in the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll -- that some party loyalists give him credit for doing more than anyone else to unite them to work for John Kerry's election.
It is true that when Reagan ran for president in 1980, many Democratic politicians considered him a "warmonger," fearing his fierce anti-communism would lead the country to war. They also worried that his conservative views on domestic issues would lead to cuts in social programs.
Reagan's presidency did launch a movement to the right, one that liberals lament to this day. But many, if not most, still admire him personally.
Reagan had his flaws. He was not perfect. But he was a natural leader who stood up for the United States. He was distinctly conservative, but he did not seek to divide, and he was not a "hater."
Perhaps as the nation pauses to remember him, some of the qualities it so admired in Ronald Reagan will rub off on some of the players in the bitterly fought contest for president. We can certainly wish.
Judy Woodruff is CNN's prime anchor and senior correspondent. She also anchors "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics," weekdays at 3:30 pm ET.
