Remarks by Lou Cannon

(First published September 11, 2003)

When I went out to the Reagan Library in April 2002 to give a talk there, I didn't expect to meet anyone outside of the library. At the suggestion of the library's public relations director, though, I called Lou Cannon, who lives north of Simi Valley near Santa Barbara. He said to come on up for a visit. He kindly offered his time, and offered me a chance to meet someone who has written more about Ronald Reagan than anyone else. I rented a car the day after my talk and set out.

A diligent researcher and writer, Mr. Cannon had interviewed Edwin Meese that morning for a book on Reagan's governorship. He had committed to a publication date only eighteen months away, so the writing process was going to be intense. The notes from the Meese interview would soon be part of the book's research file.

Well, eighteen months have passed already, and the book, Governor Reagan, will come out on September 16. I asked Mr. Cannon by e-mail if he'd like to make some remarks about why he wrote the book. I also asked, as a what-if question, what he thought Reagan might say about the current recall election in California if he were still active in politics. Here's what Mr. Cannon wrote in his response:

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Remarks by Lou Cannon
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In the acknowledgments to my new book, I briefly tell the story of how I came to write Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power. Essentially, it rounds out my earlier work. Reagan, all his people agree, would not have become president unless he had first been governor of California. And as you'll see in reading the book, it was a valuable and relevant training ground for him.

Being governor of a big state, with partisan divisions and a bureaucracy that resembles the federal government's, is a useful experience. FDR and Reagan are the best examples of big-state governors who became successful presidents. Serving as governor of Georgia or Arkansas is less relevant. Texas is somewhere in between; it's a big state but one in
which the governor's constitutional authority is severely limited.

As to the recall, we don't know what Reagan would have done. But he was a conservative in the old-fashioned (and best) use of the term; the recall is a radical measure. We do know that Reagan opposed the attempted recall of Los Angeles reform mayor Fletcher Bowron. Reagan was a Democrat at the time but the mayoralty in Los Angeles is non-partisan, and I think Reagan would have taken the same tack on this issue after he became a Republican.

Reagan opposed a whole batch of initiatives when he was governor; he did support Proposition 13 in 1978 when he was out of office but belatedly and (as he told me) somewhat reluctantly. He thought his own spending limitation measure, Proposition 1 in 1973, was better. I think he was right. Prop. 1 would have given government and the people more flexibility than Prop. 13; unfortunately, as I write in the book it was poorly written and so highly technical that most people didn't understand it. When voters don't understand something, they tend to vote no, as they did in this case.

The book's formal publication date is September 16, when I'm scheduled to be on the Today show.