Reagan's 1986 Election -- Conservatives have bounced back from electoral setbacks before

The Wall Street Journal ^ | October 17, 2006 | Jeffrey Lord

[Zakeet]

As Ronald Reagan was thanking me I was both depressed and embarrassed.

It was November, 1986. After a solid two years of effort, the Congressional elections in the sixth year of the Reagan presidency had gone badly.

(Snip)

So our trip to the Oval Office that November day found my colleagues and myself both depressed and embarrassed. The president had trusted us completely, followed every last piece of advice--and we thought we had our clock cleaned. In the New York Times liberal columnist Anthony Lewis had triumphantly written a column entitled "The End Begins: Radical Right Movement Has Crested." (Notice how Lewis substituted "radical right" for "conservative." Can you say "boo!!"?)

But there was something curious going on that day in the Oval Office. If the staff was depressed at the results, Ronald Reagan was not. The best way to describe his attitude was serene. I wondered the obvious; why?

The answer could be found in another nickname than the one he was most famous for having--"The Gipper." In the 1980 campaign, amidst the flurry of charges that Reagan was too old to be president, he had been given another lesser known moniker by his friend Jack Kemp: The O&W. The Oldest and Wisest.

As the Reagan presidency played out the nickname not only proved accurate, it helped those of us who were in the White House realize that this was a President with a deep reservoir of experience not just in politics but in life itself. Yes, he was the oldest President and certainly the oldest amongst his young staff. He was also, as Kemp had realized, one very wise man.

[rellimpank]

--more on the subject-different title--

--http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1720240/posts

[1stConstitutionalConservative]

Let's hope this time we are so fortunate.