Quote of the Day (Ronald Reagan, on Coffee)

"I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon."—Attributed to Ronald Reagan

On this date in 1966, fading matinee idol Reagan began a second act that, no matter what one’s ideology, has to be regarded as extraordinary: life as a public official. He was elected governor of California, easily defeating the incumbent, Pat Brown (whose son is now enjoying his own unique second act, completing his first year in the same office he left nearly 30 years ago).

Reagan was ambitious and—to put it mildly—intellectually incurious, but when it came to his faults he didn’t pretend, unlike many of today’s political poseurs, to be something he was not. As Presidential candidate and occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he would knock off by mid-Friday afternoon, with the rest of the schedule for the week denoted euphemistically as “staff time.” As his tough but fair biographer Lou Cannon noted in President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, that gave rise to the joke that one of the lesser highlights of his acting career would be re-released under the new title, “Staff Time for Bonzo.”

In his coffee consumption and general energy level (not to mention ideology), Reagan contrasts starkly with a GOP predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt. TR drank a gallon of the dark stuff a day. It was he, of course, who, when served a particularly fine brew, remarked that it was “good to the last drop,” thereby inadvertently providing a lasting advertising catchphrase.