Had Ronald Reagan not died, he would have enjoyed reading his obituaries. Much of it has been at two extremes. Those on the left who villify him and those on the right who deify him. But, to be fair, compared to the current crop of international leaders, Reagan was definitely a giant. Blair plus Bush will not equal a Reagan.

Having said that, this is the same Reagan who screwed Nicaragua. who propped up the Taliban. Who intervened disastrously in Lebanon. who oversaw the trading of drugs for arms so that both the Contras and the Iranians are happy.

So it was very refreshing reading one of my favourite coloumnists Sidney Blumenthal on the Reagan Legacy. Especially interesting was the comment that it was the abandoning of an extreme right wing agenda and the going back to negotiation that rescued his presidency.

Now, George W Bush eulogises Reagan as his example. Bush has his own doctrine, a Manichean battle with evildoers, and an army of neoconservatives to lend complex rationalisations to his simplifications. Yet Reagan was saved by the wholesale firing of the neoconservatives, the rejection of conservative dogma and a deliberate strategy to transcend his old typecasting. It is why he rose above his ruin, and rides, even in death, into the sunset of a happy Hollywood ending.

I actually must say that i liked Reagan – despite his policies. Compared to Thatcher he seemed like a crinkley old grandfather – who was from a different era. I dont’ remember him attracting the same kind of virtriol that a Bush does. But maybe, that’s because it was a bigger world then – no net – and no means for the vitriol to get around