>>>I have not followed his "regency", but had surmised something like Reagan:
>>>first belittled, but as no drastic bungles appear grudging respect from all sides.
>>
>>Wasn't Reagan the first teflon politician? Who had a PR team with a duty to make sure nothing sticks to his name, no matter how bungled?
>
>Nixon had left a bad taste - how much of this is due to the impeachment process instead of his politics I cannot fathom. Ford was not free of watergate. And anything after Carter was bound to be a glaring success. Having the Iran embassy people freed within a few minutes and surviving the attempt were not influenced by the PR team (the first might, but then his movies probably were more important for that).

The first was his actual success in negotiations, specially the negotiated delay of release, so that he gets to welcome the guys on the airport, not Carter - which was not PR used to build image of success, but success used to build PR image instead ;).

>And he was honest enough to name the rising budget deficit one of (if not the) the worst results of his presidency (and why do Reps have such a hard time to reduce the US debt).

Small government, big theft?

> At least he got inflation controlled. How much did his military build-up help the fall of the east block? Was this a good investment seen in retrospect?

It was an excellent investment, if you ask those who made money on it.