Ronald Reagan's White House diaries, to be published by Harper-Collins and excerpted in Vanity Fair.

Ronald Reagan's White House diaries, to be published by Harper-Collins and excerpted in Vanity Fair, confirm what his letters and radio commentaries proved to liberals who had consigned him to duncehood while he governed: Reagan was a clear, concise writer--a sign of a clear mind. There are no masterpieces of malice, as in the diaries of John Quincy Adams, but there is much pith, sometimes brutal, occasionally droll. Of Alexander Haig's resignation: "Actually the only disagreement was over whether I made policy or the Sec. of State did." His near-assassination: "Getting shot hurts." Moammar Qaddafi: "Beneath contempt." Lowell Weicker: "a pompous, no good, fathead." Bob Woodward: "He's a liar." Alas, there is also the occasional boo-boo: "Rite to Life people say [Sandra Day O'Connor is] pro-abortion. She declares abortion is personally repugnant to her. I think she'll make a good justice." Homer nodded, Babe Ruth whiffed. We are lucky to have these diaries, and to have had their author.