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The King Maker
For more than 30 years, one man cultivated the Reagan image that today’s politicians are desperate to cash in on.
By C. Todd Williamson, III
In August of this year, Edelman Public Relations lost its vice president. At the same time, American politics lost one the most powerful presidential advisers to serve in the White House.
Some advisers shape policy, others shape the party platform, but rarely is one man responsible for shaping the image of a candidate with such precise detail as Michael Deaver.
Deaver (r ) in a in a news conference meeting in the White House cabinet room with Chief of Staff James Baker III (l) and President Reagan, 1981. (Courtesy the Reagan Museum at the University of Texas)
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When Deaver first met Ronald Reagan in the early 1960’s he thought that the future president was simply an actor interested in getting into politics. On May 29, 2001, while promoting his book A Different Drummer: My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan, Deaver described his first meeting with Reagan.
“The first time I saw him he walked into the lobby of The Ambassador Hotel and he looked like Hollywood incarnate. People were talking about him being a candidate for governor, I said, ‘it will never happen; it will never work."
Reagan and Deaver began their working relationship after Reagan was elected governor of California in 1966. The keen advisor wasn’t all too thrilled about moving from his sunny home in Santa Barbara to the state capital of Sacramento and in his interview with Rose, Deaver mentioned that he only planned to be on Reagan’s staff for 3 weeks and ended up staying for more than 20 years. |
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The American Flag was never far away. President Reagan in Minnesota, 1982. |
Reagan and Deaver began their working relationship after Reagan was elected governor of California in 1966. The keen advisor wasn’t all too thrilled about moving from his sunny home in Santa Barbara to the state capital of Sacramento and in his interview with Rose, Deaver mentioned that he only planned to be on Reagan’s staff for 3 weeks and ended up staying for more than 20 years.
Similar to Karl Rove in interviews, Deaver didn’t take credit for the area in which his influence carried the most weight. Rove
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claims that he only assisted in Bush’s gubernatorial and presidential runs rather than claiming credit for shaping the Republican Party’s platform from 2000 to the present.
Deaver in similar fashion stated that Reagan’s larger than life aura and star presence should be credited to the president’s “good genes” rather than any staged tactics.
Once Reagan’s term as governor ended, Deaver went on to start his own consulting firm. He would later sign Reagan as one of his first clients as the former governor prepared to run for the White House the first time during the 1976 primaries.
When Reagan was elected in 1980, Deaver went with him. But just as in the move to Sacramento years earlier, he was none too pleased about moving to the Nation’s Capitol.
As White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Deaver was responsible for the president’s schedule and events. The California PR guru would use this post to shape the Reagan presidential legacy. But Deaver always credited Reagan rather than himself for the brilliance of Reagan’s public persona. In the interview with Rose he claims that the president was a man who led by his own instincts and convictions and a man who carried himself as if he were always on stage. “Part of it was his own use of the ‘bully pulpit,’ the way he carried himself, he saluted at everything that moved…he loved it.”
In his book, it appears as though Deaver is still at work on the Reagan public perception. Rather than discuss his image conscious decisions such as scheduling press conferences at opportune times or making sure news cameras captured the president at certain angles, Deaver talks more abou Reagan’s humility. But Deaver’s strategies still live on. Today a photograph or press conference involving a politician is rarely missing an American flag nearby. This all began with Deaver’s quest to paint the Reagan Administration as the forefront of rebuilding American confidence during the final battles of the Cold War.
Regardless, Deaver was such a force within the White House that he, along with Reagan’s Chief of Staff James A. Baker, and White House Counselor Edwin Meese were known as “The Troika” by Washington insiders. They were three men that shaped policy, legal matters, and public relations for the president respectively. The group would later be broken up in 1985 after Deaver resigned from the White House amidst scandal. Two years after his resignation, Deaver was convicted of perjury. In the years in between Deaver would still be a distant confidant of the president’s. |
“The Troika” Chief of Staff James A. Baker, White House Counsel Edwin Meese, and Deaver. |
One rumor he dispels in his book includes the accusations of Reagan’s lax work ethic and discipline. “He had phenomenal discipline in almost everything he did. Sure, he could go drinking with the boys, but never more than one drink. Much has been made of Reagan’s so-called laziness, but the fact is, he was the one who was plowing his way through briefing papers on the plane when the rest of us were too tired to think straight anymore,” states Deaver.
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being a people person. Vanity Fair recently covered a book excerpt on the Reagan made Deaver’s job easier by between the Clintons and the Gores during their eight years together in Washington. In it, they explain that Bill and Tipper’s out going personalities made up for Al and Hillary’s more introverted approach. Deaver felt the same way about the Reagans; well sort of.
According to many accounts, Reagan was afraid to fire staffers. He had a soft soul when it came to professional relationships. Where he was soft, First Lady Nancy Reagan was tough, acting as a filter separating those who she felt did not have the president’s interest at heart. Deaver believes that Nancy got a bad rap from the media; the author wrote that “history owes her one.”
Known for his die hard love for conservatism, Deaver sends a curve ball as he compares Reagan’s personality and stage presence with President Bill Clinton. “Both genuinely love people. And Clinton, like Reagan, feeds off a live audience. Put both men in front of a joint session of Congress or at the podium of their respective conventions, and watch how they electrify a room.”
Deaver began over 50 years ago a track which now seems the norm. K Street is filled with PR gurus that once roamed the halls of the White House and Capitol Hill, cashing in on their resumes and knowledge of media strategy and politics. Deaver was the first of a generation that would rather run the office instead of running for office.
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