The idea for the Reagan program occurred to Douglas after watching one of the Reagan-Mondale debates in 1984: “It occurred to me that people who have to brief Reagan for a debate such as that have to provide him with the minimum number of facts and the maximum number of ways of getting to those facts, and the most all-embracing fallback positions—lines to come up with when he doesn’t really know the answer to the question and maybe doesn’t even understand the question, but has recognised some key phrase, and can come up with a phrase or line that will cover it. “And I thought, ‘This is exactly
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