Word: openness
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...manipulated and misunderstood. To many of his conservative admirers, the challenge to Gorbachev in Berlin epitomized the toughness that made Reagan great: by refusing to compromise his core principles, he defeated communism and won the Cold War. But the truth is that Reagan was more adaptable, politically shrewd and open to compromise than either his champions or his critics prefer to admit. He may have called the Soviet Union an "evil empire," but he was not above negotiating with it. While others saw the enmity between the superpowers as immutable, he insisted that change was possible. And though today...
...Wall and the totalitarian system it symbolized, Reagan was even more mindful of the consequences of military confrontation with the Soviets. "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," he said in 1983. During the early years of his presidency, Reagan privately sought to open dialogue with the leaders of the U.S.S.R. but made no headway. With Gorbachev's arrival in 1985, Reagan found a partner who could help in his quest to end the arms race--and ultimately abolish nuclear weapons. "There was something likable about Gorbachev," Reagan said after their first meeting in Geneva...
...only won the Nobel but was named TIME's Man of the Decade.) Neither Gorbachev nor Reagan was directly responsible for the fall of the Wall; rather, it collapsed from its own weight. But Reagan's speech presciently identified Berlin as the proving ground of Gorbachev's intentions to open up the communist bloc. If Gorbachev truly sought peace and liberalization, Reagan said in Berlin, then he should let the Wall come down. In the end, Gorbachev did, and the rest of the Iron Curtain followed. Allowing democracy to spread through Eastern Europe in 1989 was Gorbachev's greatest accomplishment...
...face of all that deterrence, how is modesty to survive? First, let's strip gender out of it; use it more interchangeably with humility. Modesty means admitting the possibility of error, subsuming the self for the good of the whole, remaining open to surprise and the gifts that only failure can bring. There are many ways to practice it. Try taking up golf. Or making your own bagels. Or raising a teenager...
...suspect that Barack Obama works at projecting that aura of postpartisan open-mindedness because he understands its political value. There's the chance his opponents will have a good idea; there's the certainty that independent voters will give him points for listening. And there's the need for inoculation against the charge that he is all sizzle, no steak, a need he admitted when he mocked himself at last year's Al Smith dinner. "If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility," he said. "Greatest weakness, it's possible that...