AND NOW A WORD FROM AMERICA’S ANCHORMAN

The selling of the President, 1987.

Wednesday night.

At his desk in the Oval Office, wooing the TV camera, Ronald Reagan was likable, earnest, human, glowing, firm and again masterful, giving America 12 minutes of TV virtuosity.

“He used it well, didn’t he? Just as an art form,” Ted Koppel said about Reagan and TV later that night on ABC’s “Nightline.” “I’ve never seen it used so well.”

Under fire from the critical Tower Commission report on the Iran- contra scandal, Reagan gave a nationally televised address that, along with his recent appointments, seemed temporarily to disarm most of his severest critics. Perhaps the nation was reassured, too, for as a performer, he was wonderfully Ronderful.

At least for the moment, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men were on hold. The Humpty was still Dumpty.

The week didn’t begin that way for the President.

Flash back to Tuesday.

Skeptical network White House reporters were clearly not cooperating in the remaking of Ronald Reagan, whose image was still at a low even after naming Howard M. Baker White House chief of staff.

He had given the Tower Commission three versions of his part in the initial shipment of Israeli arms to Iran in August, 1985, and was being ridiculed in some circles as dottering and inept.

To counter both the Tower report’s criticism of the President as being too detached and rumors that he was incapable of governing, Reagan’s aides arranged for him to have selected, controlled media exposure. There was his hasty visit Tuesday to the White House briefing room to make a short statement in front of the cameras about Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s surprise arms-control proposal, but not to answer questions. Then, too, the White House released photos that day showing the President in a command position, meeting with aides and associates, on top of the job, forceful and alert.

No sale.

On their evening newscasts, NBC, CBS and ABC showed the pictures the White House wanted shown--but with raised eyebrows.

“All day, the White House was hard at work showing a President hard at work,” Chris Wallace reported on “NBC Nightly News.” “It’s nothing less than the President campaigning to look presidential,” he added about the day’s activities.

“Some observers think that today’s presidential appearance (in the briefing room) has less to do with arms control than spin control, trying to get favorable press,” Bill Plante reported on “The CBS Evening News.”

As usual, though, the hardest hitter was ABC’s Sam Donaldson on “World News Tonight,” labeling the White House attempt to restore Reagan’s image “Operation Rebound.”

The plan, he reported, was to show Reagan “conducting business and in charge.” On came TV footage of Reagan reading his statement welcoming Gorbachev’s apparent willingness to negotiate a separate intermediate-range missile-reduction agreement.

“The President’s press spokesman yesterday had conveyed the exact same thoughts in the President’s name,” Donaldson reported, “but for his new chief of staff, Howard Baker, it was the presidential image that was important today, not the thoughts.”

When it comes to answering questions from reporters, though, “ ‘Operation Rebound’ is not quite ready for that,” Donaldson added, as viewers were shown Reagan ignoring questions after delivering his statement.

Flash forward to Wednesday.

“You take your knocks, you learn your lessons and then you move on,” Reagan said to the nation, warmly and firmly, his head gently cocked. Armed with a speech, the man is good. He’s very good.

Never mind that on Wednesday he gave still another version of his role in the moving of Israeli arms to Iran by saying, “I did approve it; I just can’t say specifically when.” Or that he blamed others for not keeping “proper records of meetings or decisions.”

Why hadn’t he made notes on his approval of the arms shipment, as he apparently did regarding some of his other significant decisions?

When it comes to the electorate sitting in front of the set, the picture of Reagan may have more effect than his precise words. More than merely the President of the United States, he’s the President of Television.

Donaldson remained unconvinced after Wednesday night’s speech and told ABC’s Peter Jennings that he still wanted to know about Reagan: “What does he remember . . . and what was his policy?”

In general, though, TV reporters were low key and nonjudgmental in their post-speech coverage Wednesday night and Thursday morning. For the most part, TV rounded up the usual suspects, who delivered the usual, predictable analyses.

NBC’s coverage was by far the longest and fullest Wednesday night, eliciting comments from London to Louisville, Ky., where Courier-Journal Editor Michael Gartner told Tom Brokaw that the President at least had proved himself a “healthy, clear-thinking 76-year-old.”

Underscoring that was Brokaw’s interview with Dr. Michael Freedman, a gerontologist, who had not studied Reagan specifically. But Freedman declared that, in general terms, increased age did not necessarily bring decreased capacities and that a person can be more intelligent at 76 than at 56.

So much for “Senilegate,” apparently.

And so it seems that Ronald Reagan has once again proved himself the nation’s supreme TV anchorman, the embodiment of niceness over knowledge, the tube-tailored message and messenger rolled into one.

Months from now, we may look back at Wednesday’s speech as the 12-minute commercial for Reagan that turned the tide, but which left unresolved where the commercial ended and the man began. And if more is needed as the Iran- contra scandal gets uglier, the White House can always bring him out for another TV speech.