I really wish that I could say he had a profound effect on me but I cannot, at least in the way so many others are writing/saying today.
Sure, I subscribed to "National Review" in the 80s but was either too self-absorbed, lazy or intellectually challenged to receive much benefit beyond, "Hey, there's this smart guy out there who thinks like I do." I had no clue about his influence on the conservative movement beyond his damning of the John Birch Society (JBS) as anti-Semitic...and only know that because my folks eventually left JBS for those reasons. I was also somewhat aware of his libertarian views on the War on Drugs.
This is blasphemy but I disliked the weekly PBS show because of his, dare I say it, arrogance. I recall being particularly pleased when a Susan Estrich/Ann Richardson type challenged him to make his points on the show in words with less than five syllables.
It was Michael who turned me on to The Corner several years ago and therefore NRO and my re-subscription to "National Review."
Indirectly, of course, the effect was profound. As George Will wrote (as close as I recall), "Before Reagan, there was Goldwater, before Goldwater there was 'National Review' and before 'National Review,' there was Buckley."
An amazing man, a lover of life. I wish I shared that joie de vivre.
I did enjoy some of the spy novels, though. (Update: after reading Steyn's comments about the spy novels at NRO today, I just ordered Marco Polo if You Can, High Jinx, Stained Glass and Henri Tod Blackford Oakes in Berlin.)
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