Overappreciated

Nixon, watching Reagan seemingly leave political life, “suddenly recognized what no one else seemed to: that this blankly genial, overappreciated son of a bitch, two years older than himself, was heading not for a pasture but a short stretch of wilderness, on the other side of which lay something vast.”

As a rule, rulers' wives symbolize only the overappreciated women in any society — and I'd be the last person to blame them.