what does "even-keeled"here mean? The even-keeled Jerry Ford once got so mad in the Oval Office that he hurled a pencil across the room. George W. Bush was bracingly informal and blunt on occasion. Ronald Reagan loved to tell jokes and Hollywood stories that contained kernels of wisdom if one listened closely. I knew a then-future president who became so upset about something he read in the press that he almost un-spooled himself in my office, screaming and carrying on about some minor mix-up.