Q: What inspired your book?
A: It was some time after Reagan died, and I thought it would be interesting because there were so many children of Reagan. I just put together a list of about 100 people that I thought could write an interesting essay on him. We selected about 40 of them.

Q: When did you decide you wanted to put together a book like this?
A: I think it was really around the time when Reagan [died]. It was clear when you hear the president, George W., and you hear others talking about the person they look [up] to [it] was Ronald Reagan. And you see the impact in the last 30 years of Reagan, not only on conservatives but on politics and government in America.

Q: At what point would you say you stepped back and described yourself as a Reagan conservative? At the White House or a bit later?
A: I’m not sure. I think there are a lot of people who argue that I’m not a conservative [laughs]. There are some movement conservatives who would say that. But basically I was struck, when Reagan ran for governor, with his common sense. I never saw him as a reactionary or a radical.

The other thing is that conservatives over the last 30 years have been the ones offering new solutions. The Democrats and the liberals aren’t. They’re just rehashing the old ones that we’ve had for 50 years in this country. The Republicans and the conservatives are the ones who are about change, so to me that’s what Reagan was about.

Q: Right now his widow and son have become very active on the political scene. What do you think about their activities concerning stem-cell research?
A: I think you have to have had to, like Nancy, taken care of Ronald Reagan for 10 years to be where she is on that issue, and I don’t know where Reagan would be. I can’t make a guess on that. But I know people argue with that. Some conservatives argue with that position, and some conservatives agree with that position. I think it’s one of those unique areas.

Q: What was it like working with Reagan?
A: The first five minutes in the Oval Office on Inaugural Day was one of the most thrilling times. To see him sitting behind that desk where Kennedy and others had sat and he turned and looked at me and said, “Have you got goose bumps?” [laughs] He really understood the humility about being where he was.

Q: The majority of the people in your book are men. Do you think Reagan conservatives are mostly men?
A: No, I think it’s a valid point and it could be a criticism that I should have been attuned to getting a wider selection because Reagan certainly believed in having women in government. On the Supreme Court, or serving in the Cabinet; he thought at one point seriously about a woman as a running mate. He was very liberated when it came to that issue for a man of 70 years old.

Q: In putting this book together, what did you find most interesting?
A: A couple of things that are interesting to me are that most of these people in this book have a common thread and that is that they were either a Democrat or a liberal first and then became a conservative, as did Reagan. Reagan was a Democrat most of his life, and then became conservative, then a Republican.

Q: Does this include you as well?
A: No I was raised Republican.

Q: In some ways this White House is known as tight-lipped. Do you think that’s been a good thing?
A: This is the most disciplined White House that we have ever seen. In many ways that has served the president well. It is obviously part of his policy, his personal policy. No way could you keep people from talking unless it was important to the president.

In some ways we miss some of the detail that we would get if there were people who were briefing in a broader way. But that’s the situation they’ve made, and I think it’s served them pretty well.

Kari Lundgren