Our political analyst is editor-at-large of U.S. News World Report and he's a former director of communications in the Reagan White House.
Eleanor Cliff spent the first six years of the Reagan presidency as Newsweek's White House correspondent.
She now reports from Capitol Hill.
First, did the President make any news tonight, Eleanor?
I'm hard put to identify it. I think that he didn't give George Bush much running room on taxes.
He really stuck to the no-tax pledge.
And I thought the answer on the Contras was interesting. You get the feeling he hasn't sat down and really lobbied George Bush about this question.
I don't think George Bush shares his commitment to the Contras.
But other than that, it was really a recitation of the same positions we've heard for some time.
David?
Like many Reagan press conferences, no news, a chance to check in on Reagan's attitudes, and yes, they're still the same.
We've seen this movie before and we know how it comes out.
But I think that what is interesting, two things.
One, this man is clearly swayed by Gorbachev personally.
It was a year ago tomorrow when he thinks the relationship really began to change.
The day after they signed the INF agreement and they sat down together, two to one on one, and Reagan had seen DiMaggio the night before.
And he came in the next day and he said, he went to Gorbachev and said, you know, we've got a choice.
We can either continue to play with our ideologies or we can play ball.
And he thinks that Gorbachev essentially decided to play ball then and the relationship has improved steadily since then.
And he's very enthusiastic about it.
And they went to give a speech last night, a speech text so that they had had a frank and cordial meeting.
He struck that out and said, no, they had an encouraging and positive meeting.
And I think that's the attitude he stakes in.
I think he's even more enthusiastic than some members of the Obama administration.
Because the press kept trying to get him to be reflective over his past eight years and to get him to talk about how he's changed and his feelings towards Gorbachev.
And he refuses to acknowledge that he's gone through what essentially is a sea change.
He puts it all on Gorbachev.
Did you find it stunning that Luke Cannon's question where he asked the president whether or not it's possible that someday the Soviet Union, the United States could be allies and the answer he gave you?
Yeah.
The Soviets continue to do this and that and the other thing, it could happen.
Imagine Ronald Reagan of eight years or seven and a half years ago saying something like that.
I think that's one of the reasons he's so embollient.
He thinks that he has actually met a man who could change the Soviet Union and through his personal relationship, he's helped to encourage that along.
I think that's one of the reasons Nancy Reagan is so enthusiastic.
I mean, I think most surprising in this meeting is the fact that the Gorbachev's extended personal invitations for the Reagans to come visit and the Reagans right back to come out to California.
You could not have imagined that two years ago.
Eleanor, what is your reading of why Mr. Reagan is so non-reflective?
I mean, there were scads of questions tonight.
In fact, there were 16, 17 questions asked altogether.
My guess is, I haven't put a number to it, but over half of them were what was your up, what was your down, how about this and that, and he skirted over one of them.
I just don't think he does that sort of thing.
I think he's very much a what you see is what you get kind of person and I don't think he ever loses a moment's sleep about anything he's done.
And it's a mark of his strength.
I mean, you will never meet a man who is more sort of buoyant and optimistic and he is unscathed by tragedy even simply because I don't think he dwells on it.
I think Eleanor is absolutely right about that.
He sets goals for himself and he moves about on the goals, but he is, you can ask him, people have asked him since the beginning of his administration, what would you like your place in history to be, and you never get a firm answer.
Never get an answer.
You don't get it.
You get a set about it.
It's a philosophy.
He's very consistent on that.
But he thinks the world has changed and Gorbachev has changed.
I'd like to come back to Eleanor's point on the question of taxes.
He did not leave much room for George Bush in that question.
And I think that suggests that if George Bush does compromise on taxes, I think Reagan would be there to support him, but a lot of conservatives won't be.
That could probably be a very provocative act to many conservatives.
But President Reagan said similar things when he came in and there were little tucks around the edges where he agreed.
Several tax increases.
Oh, exactly, and I'm sure if you asked him point blank, he would tell you he didn't raise taxes.
I mean, they call him revenue enhancers, and I think he probably believes it as well.
So there's room for give there.
If George Bush could eventually end up supporting some revenue enhancers, Mr. Reagan might let him off the hook.
Well, I imagine that Mr. Reagan might then say that George Bush is doing what's best for the country and that he's his president or find some sort of words like that.
I can't imagine Ronald Reagan as a sort of hostile critic outside of the White House.
I mean, he's been a cheerleader, and I think he'll continue to be that.
He could be one of his secret cards.
He could be the person who comes in and helps George Bush with the conservatives from time to time saying, it's fine, let's go along with it, particularly if they're more compromisers with the Soviets.
David, this probably is Mr. Reagan's last news conference as president.
And he had very few of them. Why did he have so few?
Well, I guess it's a complex story.
The fact was there was a real division within the White House about how many press conferences he should have.
There was a feeling within the White House that these extravaganzas in the East Room were just not very productive.
Reagan is not at his best. He's obviously much better in his set speech.
It takes a lot of time to prepare. Not much news comes out of them.
And there's a feeling that they're very predictable. You can predict a lot of the questions. You can predict a lot of the answers.
But to be honest about it, there was also some feeling that he could get scarred out there, that he could blow in.
So the people sort of were cautious, overly cautious in my judgment.
I think history has shown that Reagan's handled these press conferences.
He hasn't made many mistakes, and I think he's usually been the master of the press conferences.
They're not his strength, but I still think he's fine shaped out there.
Why, Eleanor, on the other side, why has the press placed so much importance in these little 30-minute deals
where you get quick answers to a variety of subjects and all that sort of thing?
Because you don't get at him in any other setting.
The only format that he has agreed to is the shouted question over the helicopter motor.
And so I think the press would love to have small, informal sessions, bar the cameras occasionally for more give and take.
As a reporter, I have found it painful to sit through those press conferences,
because you can see him straining to remember what he's supposed to say, what he's allowed to say.
And your heart goes out to him, and he's everybody's sort of favorite grandfather figure.
And it's real frustrating for a reporter, because you get old stories, anecdotes. You don't get any real information.
Is it also not frustrating as a reporter to hear some of the questions your fellow reporters ask at these things?
Well, you know, sometimes they're a little too prosecutorial, and there's an effort to just get him to make a mistake.
But I think that that's done, because we all know that he's been heavily coached,
and he has these little set speeches that he wants to make.
So you try to devise a question, a trick question that gets him off the script.
I mean, that's what the game is all about.
Well, it is a dumb game, and that's why these, it would be much, much better to have a group of three or four people to come in
and really explore some questions deeply and have a chance to explore some of these issues more deeply.
In truth, there's very little follow-up in these press conferences.
We'd be much better off if these, as you know, there was a group out of the Kennedy School that just had a commission that made a report,
which I think was very fine. I happened to be involved with it.
But it suggested let's limit this to maybe three or four times a year,
but then have at least three or four times a month have a regular afternoon, routine, less television, less productive value.
We'll see in the future what George Bush and other presidents do.
But back to Ronald Reagan, what was your feeling, David, when you left the White House as to what his attitude was about the press?
Did he see them as real enemies to him and what he wanted to do?
No, I think there was a time during the recession of late 81, 82 when they were very tough.
He thought they were very tough on him. But in general, I think he takes the, you know, live and let live,
and I think he's actually gotten to like some of the folks.
I mean, you know, Sam Donaldson does serve a purpose for Reagan as well as serving the purpose more as his employer.
So I don't think there was any real hostility there, much less so than we have seen in some former presidents, I must say.
I think Reagan is, as Eleanor said earlier, you know, he is a happy-go-lucky guy.
He is optimistic, so he doesn't hold real grudges.
And come any other way, Eleanor?
I don't think he knows who most of the people in the press corps are,
and I think he would just as soon sit down with them and tell old baseball stories.
I don't think he wants to be quizzed about the government.
He has been very much a ceremonial president.
I mean, he came in with his precepts and so forth, and I mean, he set all the guidelines.
But as far as the day-to-day governing, that's just not his thing.
I disagree that he's been a ceremonial president.
I think that there have been a lot of substantive changes, but yeah, we can agree or disagree about the public.
And we'll do that some other time.
Eleanor Cliff, David Gergen, thank you both very much.
Now, before we go, I look at this.