So far so good.  I ordered a copy of Paul Johnson's latest book:  Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaul.  It came yesterday and I started on the last chapter, dedicated to Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II.  Here is a sample:

"Reagan interested me the most because he created an entirely new model of statesmanship:  well suited to a late twentieth-century media democracy.  And he was hugely entertaining to watch in action.  He endeared himself to me the first time we met by getting flustered, glancing at the six-by-four cue card he always kept in his left-hand suit pocket, and saying: 'Good to see you again, Paul.'  The second time he shook hands with me in front of a battery of press photographers (I still have the picture) and whispered: 'Don't look at me -- look at the cameras.'  Good advice from an old pro.  Reagan did not try to smile all the time, like many American politicians.  He never smiled at nothing.  His smile was an event with meaning, which preceded or followed a joke.  Usually he was serious.  Government, he seemed to say, was a serious business.  So serious we're inclined to take it too seriously.  Then would follow a joke, and a laugh.  But even when emphasizing the seriousness of it all, Reagan never gave the impression of being nervous, or gloomy, or worried.  He was at ease with himself.  By that I do not mean casual or flippant or devil-may-care:  he was none of those things.  But he was relaxed, unharassed, quietly confident in anything he had to do.  And, being like that, you did not have to dig very deep to find happiness.  He was a happy hero.  He liked, and tried, to communicate this happiness, and normally succeeded.  He made me think that happiness ought to be part of the equipment of a hero, even though it usually isn't."

Hillsdale College's, Imprimis, recently featured Johnson's speech on the topic.  You can read it here.