Ronald Reagan, the myth and the man

The first thing that comes to mind about Ronald Reagan on the eve of his 100th birthday is neither a touchstone of the Gipper-worshipping right wing -- his "tear down this wall" speech in West Berlin or telling President Jimmy Carter "there you go again" -- or the usual liberal counterpoints such as declaring ketchup as a vegetable or saying to a national audience that "facts are stupid things."

In 2011, I think instead about the world's largest Ronald Reagan statue -- a hulking, 10-foot tall bronze American idol, which sits not in Washington or Sacramento or Hollywood but in the most unlikely setting of Covington, Louisiana. It's a strange place for it because there's no reason to believe that the 40th president ever set foot in the small town on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.