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So with all the people you've talked to over the years, and that is, you know, the who's who.

Why Reagan?

Wonderful question.

When I had finished the Beatles and finished Julia Child, I was working of course for another biography to write.

Somebody big, somebody juicy.

And my wife said, you know, there are two characteristics to all your books.

You write about people who were beloved, and people who have changed the culture.

And so we sat down to make a list of people who could fill that.

And it was incredibly difficult.

We looked at all the Kennedy-centered nominees and the presidential medals.

And there was nobody who really encompassed both things.

And my wife said, what about Ronald Reagan?

And I went, absolutely not.

Because you're a Democrat?

I'm a lifelong Democrat.

In fact, I don't think I've ever voted for a Republican.

I'm just not wired that way.

Right.

And so I rejected it out of hand.

I talked to a lot of people, and my democratic friends thought, you know, I'd abandoned the cause.

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