jacob weisberg. [applause] >> thank you, bradley, for that kind introduction, and i just want to say i love this book store, not just because i do think it helps put my last book on the best-seller list, but bradley and elisa have done an amazing job with it. one of the best independent book stores in the country and you're lucky to have it here in washington and i'm lucky to be speak are here today. this is a short book can. i consider that virtue, although some biographies are often considered a virtue to be as long as possible. i had to take the opposite approach here. this is really an exercise in distillation, in trying to figure out what is essential in the ronald reagan story, but also along the way, trying to take on some of these myths. myths on the left about reagan, that i think it's a myth the was a dunderhead. mights on the right bat reagan. a myth that he was always man of prim and didn't bend and didn't negotiate. in fact he was much here of practice ma 'tis and improviser that people -- itch you were to hear the version of him represented in, say, republican presidential debate, the r