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I'm indebted to Hillary Clinton for the revelation that my global wanderings when my dad was president qualify me to run for the presidency myself. Mrs. Clinton has been insisting that her global junkets as first lady, and her meetings with foreign leaders, qualify her to be president of these United States. I never thought of it that way, but if she is correct then I am eminently qualified to follow my father's footsteps and take up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., not merely as a member of the president's family, but as president in my own right. Hillary, who...

Some 50 delegates were reportedly poised to unite behind Barack Obama if he had won by even 1 point in Texas. He lost the popular vote by 100,000 ballots, and now we learn that 100,000 Republicans voted for Hillary Clinton, probably not because of some change in party allegiance but because they thought she would be the easier candidate to beat. This kind of strategic voting often backfires (think Ralph Nader). The Texas crossovers are winners. By helping to prolong the Democratic race, they can claim credit for weakening the eventual nominee, whoever it turns out to be. Obama has...

The Whig era of 1832-56 ended when the party of the same name split over extending slavery to new U.S. territories. It left behind the golden years of Presidents William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. Since Harrison died a month into his term, and Taylor a year-and a-half into his, call it the golden years of Fillmore. The latest and perhaps last Republican ascendancy of the period 1980-2006 ends with the party incoherent over opposition to big government, illegal immigration and how to win the war against Islamic imperialism. Its legacy is the golden years of Presidents Reagan...

The increasing vitriol of the Democratic presidential WrestleMania shouldn't distract from the opportunity before progressives. The election this year has the potential to be not simply a change election but a sea-change election, one that marks the end of the conservative era that has dominated our politics for nearly three decades. It could be the progressive equivalent of the conservative triumph of 1980. In 1980 Ronald Reagan, the self-described "movement conservative," took the White House from incumbent Jimmy Carter while Republicans picked up thirty-four seats in the House and gained control of the Senate, sweeping out liberal stalwarts like George...

QUIX NOTE: 1. The following article is posted on FR by the kind written release and authorization of Steve Hammons. Email verification is available on demand. 2. The following is one of many good articles by Steve Hammons at AMERICAN CHRONICLE on a diversity of topics including UFO’s—a field he has done extensive high quality research and reporting on. Beyond that, he is actively seeking the truth with quality research teams focused on priority cases. I’m newly aware of him and his writing and research efforts. I’m very impressed with the quality of both as well as with his background...

If I could just take a moment; I had an assignment the other day. Someone asked me to write a letter for a time capsule that is going to be opened in Los Angeles a hundred years from now, on our Tricentennial. It sounded like an easy assignment. They suggested I write something about the problems and the issues today. I set out to do so, riding down the coast in an automobile, looking at the blue Pacific out on one side and the Santa Ynez Mountains on the other, and I couldn't help but wonder if it was going...

Washington -- When Fred Thompson entered the contest for the Republican presidential nomination in September, he became the latest of a growing number of actors seeking to translate stage and screen skills and charisma into political success. Earlier examples range from spectacular successes -- the late President Ronald Reagan and current California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- to several brief congressional careers built on starring television roles – Sonny Bono (The Sonny and Cher Show), Fred Grandy (The Love Boat) and Ben Jones (The Dukes of Hazzard). Zelda Fichandler, director of the graduate acting program at New York University, cites an...

Conventional wisdom is hardening around the proposition that Fred Dalton Thompson is too lazy, ill-prepared, tired, old, lackluster, inexperienced, inconsistent and bald to make a successful run for President. Of course, conventional wisdom rarely gets anything right. When it does, it's only by accident. In this case conventional wisdom is not just wrong but comically so. Thompson will win the Republican nomination for two reasons. First, he's a very impressive candidate. Second, there's no realistic alternative. He will win the general election for the same two reasons. Let's start by considering the Thompson's Republican competition. John McCain's candidacy may not...

As soon as former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson announced that he was mulling over a run for the presidency, pundits and voters alike began to announce comparisons between Thompson and Ronald Reagan. Now that Thompson is in the race with both feet, it is worthwhile to examine more carefully ways in which he is or is not somehow parallel to Reagan. It is important to note at the outset that Republicans have to come to grips with the facts that there was only one Reagan and that he was not perfect (though he was very, very good). Constant seeking after...

There has been a void in the Republican presidential race. The party's candidates have spoken about immigration, taxes, social issues and the war in Iraq. Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain have also spoken frequently about Ronald Reagan in order to position themselves as the political heirs to the great president. The candidates, however, have overlooked a central idea that animated Mr. Reagan's view of government. That was federalism, the constitutional principle that the federal government's responsibilities are "few and defined" as James Madison put it. Mr. Reagan believed the federal government had grown too big and swallowed up...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the U.S. government misinformed Americans and the world about 9/11, echoing conspiracy theories about the terror attacks against the United States six years ago. In an essay read by a Cuban television presenter on Tuesday night, Castro said the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers. "Today one knows there was deliberate misinformation," wrote Castro, who has not appeared in public since July of 2006 when life-threatening surgery for a secret illness forced him to hand over power to his brother...

Fred D. Thompson rose to national prominence in the mid-1970s. As chief counsel to the Republicans on the Senate Watergate Committee, he famously asked the question that revealed the existence of the White House taping system that ultimately led to President Richard M. Nixon's resignation. But Mr. Thompson was also an active participant in the White House's efforts to deflect blame from the president and discredit his accusers, plotting strategy with Mr. Nixon's lawyers and leaking information to them. (Continued for 9 more pages)

On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. Please post your favorite Reagan quote, story, memory, or item here. Thank You Mr. President "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted, it belongs to the brave" - Reagan "This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite, in a far distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves" - Reagan October 27, 1964 "America...

In a signal that he could be open to working more closely with congressional Democrats rather than stonewalling, President Bush plans to name the widely respected Republican lawyer Fred F. Fielding as White House counsel this week, party sources tell TIME. Fielding, who held the same position under President Ronald Reagan, will succeed the President's friend Harriet Miers, who last week announced her resignation, effective Jan. 31. An official who has been briefed on the impending announcement, which could come as soon as Tuesday, called Fielding "the ultimate Washington lawyer-insider — he's the man to see." "He's the guy who...

János HorváthThe 1956 Hungarian Revolution in the Eyes of Ronald Reagan* President Ronald Reagan had a great interest in and knowledge of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and this knowledge helped to shape his world views and contributed to his morally firm statesmanship. Contrary to the conventional wisdom of his time, he understood that the Soviet Union was not the strong, stable superpower and the wave of the future that it pretended to be. Moreover, he was aware that the smaller nations that had been engulfed into its colonial empire strongly resented the yoke under which they were held. As President...

-snip- Liberals pretend the Reagan years--in contrast to the Bush years--were a golden idyll of collaboration between congressional Democrats and a not-so-conservative president. When Reagan died in 2004, John Kerry recalled having admired his political skills and liked him personally. "I had quite a few meetings with him," Mr. Kerry told reporters. "I met with Reagan a lot more than I've met with this president." -snip-

Terri's Day means we have nothing to fear but fear itself Kevin Fobbs July 11, 2006 Every period of our nation's history has an establishing measuring point for the culture. It is something that has always embodied a defining moment, some salient point, which earmarks for America's soul when it is time to re-arm and recover its spirit. Is it a mystery that Terry Wallis and his remarkable story of reawakening after nearly 20 years to an America that has literally passed him by is a new reminder of how precious it is to not give up on life no...

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick's eyes twinkle at the mention of that August 1984 night at the Republican National Convention in Dallas when she eviscerated liberal Democrats as the "blame America first crowd." "When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies," ... "They blame United States policies of 100 years ago. But then they always blame America first." With those words, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- a long-time Democrat -- described the difference between President Reagan's determination to defeat communism and Democratic Party leaders'...

“Political leaders here believe that heavy, last-minute campaigning by President Ford has cut substantially into Ronald Reagan’s early lead in Texas, turning tomorrow’s Presidential primary into a cliff hanger that they said was too close to call.” —The New York Times, April 30, 1976 In the annals of Ronald Reagan’s long and sometimes tortuous road to the White House, there were few days quite as memorable as the day (May 1, 1976)—now some 30 years ago—that Reagan unexpectedly swept all 100 delegates in the Texas. Republican presidential primary in his 1976 nomination contest with President Gerald Ford. Against all conventional...

Former U.S. House Speaker and conservative movement hero Newt Gingrich Tuesday announced his support for Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell. "Ken Blackwell is a man, cast in the mold of President Ronald Reagan, with powerful ideas that will empower individuals and spur job creation in the Buckeye State," said Gingrich. "His new ideas, new strategies and new solutions will set Ohio back on the right path." "I am honored to have the support of a true hero in the conservative movement," said Blackwell. "The overwhelming support of conservative leaders is a testament to my adherence to the core principles...

On the day that longtime White House Chief of Staff Andy Card took a bullet for an incompetent White House operation – more on that in a moment – another former White House staffer has also departed. Lyn Nofziger, longtime aide to Ronald Reagan and a personal friend and adviser of mine, died of bladder cancer Monday at the age of 81. Lyn had been a newspaper reporter when then-candidate Ronald Reagan's kitchen cabinet asked him in the 1966 race for governor to become press secretary to the campaign. From that day forward – with a few temporary postings elsewhere...

In his first debate with Walter Mondale, my dad Ronald Reagan fumbled badly – there was no sign of the Great Communicator during that debate. What there was instead was a Ronald Reagan given bad advice by some of his staff who were afraid of letting the public see the real Ronald Reagan, who they feared might be seen as too conservative. In the second debate all that changed because my dad insisted upon being himself rather than the namby-pamby moderate politician some of his advisers thought he should be. My dad insisted on being Ronald Reagan, not some pale...

In recent years, the need to protect the nation against nuclear-armed missiles has taken a back seat to the worldwide fight against al Qaeda and military operations in Iraq. These hot wars dominate the news, while the missile defenses President Reagan began with the Strategic Defense Initiative 23 years ago today have all but disappeared from public notice. (SNIP) Most critics of missile defense have been muted since September 11, but they have not given up. They now complain the defenses being deployed won't work and need more testing. But that undercuts the main purpose of missile defense, which is...

He would have turned 95 on Feb. 6 – the most recent former president to die and likely the most popular and inspiring chief executive of the 20th century. Ronald Reagan – known as unflappably pro-defense yet able to forge friendships with his adversaries. Staunchly partisan and loyal to the Republican Party yet deft at crafting compromise with Democratic lawmakers to move his agenda forward. A tax cutter who presided over a significant expansion in revenues to the federal government. Though Reagan's legacy includes accomplishments in all areas of public policy, it is his success in toppling the "Evil Empire"...

I almost forgot to recognize a very important anniversary. This past Friday was the 25th anniversary of the release of 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days by Islamic terrorists. It's especially important because one of their mad captors is now the mad leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today. While our State Department claims he was not one of the captors, the surviving hostages, today, remember him. And I believe them. Not the liars and enablers at the State Department who are most often America's enemies fondest allies. Times Haven't Changed: U.S. Hostages in Iran Released 25 Years...

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- Sometimes, the only thing a president can do is hang onto history -- the promise of that day when he has his library and all his critics have transformed into admirers who gloss over his many stumbles only to stand in awe of his accomplishments, when the naysayers and nitpickers cannot be heard, as the ears before him hear only an uplifting soundtrack of Aaron Copland. President Bush clearly was dreaming of that day as he stood at the grand opening of the Reagan Library Air Force One Pavilion, with wife Laura and Nancy Reagan by...

In 1984, President Reagan joked during a voice test for a paid political radio address that he had "signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."And now,the rest of the story.President Ronald Reagan,fortieth U.S. President,Delivers farewell address;"How stands the city on this winter night?" (White House, Washington, D.C., January 11, 1989)(click to listen)

Twenty Years after TWA 847, No Lessons Learned By Debbie Schlussel Twenty years ago, this week, Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847, and trampled Navy Diver Robert Stethem to death. Stethem's only crime was being American. The hijacking and murder was among the first televised Islamic terror attacks against Americans, unfolding on TV screens over 17 days. Twenty years later, disturbing kowtowing to Hezbollah terrorists shows we've learned nothing from Stethem's brutal murder at the hands of Islamic terrorists. On September 11, 2021, will it be worse? On June 15, 1985, Hezbollah hijackers seized the TWA flight in Athens. Identifying...

It was a year ago that President Ronald Wilson Reagan passed away - at 1:05 p.m., June 5, 2004 - at the age of 93. This Sunday crowds gathered at a special ceremony marking the anniversary at the hilltop burial site of President Reagan, located on the rolling grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., according to a report in the Washington Times. "I am, as I speak, on my way to my father's grave," said Michael Reagan, the president's elder son. "And you know, in the past year I've found out anew that people still...

On June 6, 1984, President Ronald Reagan visited France to mark the 40th anniversary of D-Day. The speech he delivered at the windswept Normandy promontory looking out over the English Channel--known now in history as the Boys of Pointe du Hoc address--was the opening salvo to a new American indebtedness to World War II veterans. By honoring the daring action of the 2nd Ranger Battalion--225 young Army volunteers whose mission was to climb the treacherous 100-foot-high Pointe du Hoc cliff while being shot at by entrenched German soldiers--he was paying tribute to an entire generation. (Out of those 225 "boys,"...

NEW YORK - Ronald Reagan’s handwritten personal diaries covering his eight years as president from 1981 will be published next year after an agreement with his presidential library. Publisher HarperCollins called Reagan’s private journal ”the most detailed presidential diaries in America’s history,” and said it had been seen only by a few people. “When Ronnie became president, he wanted to write it all down so we could remember these special times,” Nancy Reagan said in the publishing house statement released Tuesday. Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died last year at the age of 93. He had lived...

Ronald Reagan's handwritten diaries of his eight years in the White House will be published as a book to be released next year, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation and HarperCollins Publishers announced Tuesday. Reagan, who died at 93 last June following a 10-year battle with Alzheimer's disease, wrote in his diaries every day of his presidency, recording his thoughts on events both routine and historic, officials said. While the volumes "were not initially intended for publication, we feel that these volumes offer an unprecedented insight into the Reagan Presidency," said Frederick Ryan Jr., chairman of the foundation's board of...

FROM the Cuban Missile Crisis to President Reagan's resounding "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" there were plenty of supposed turning points in the Cold War. Personally, I believe the tide turned on Oct, 16, 1978, when a Polish cardinal, Karol Jozef Wojtyla, became Pope John Paul II. It was a pivotal moment for humankind, but a dark day for the Kremlin — the geriatric Politburo must have clutched the remains of their shriveled hearts. It was a glorious day for the Catholic Church, as the Vatican took an unmistakable stand against the godless religion of Communism. It was also...

The subjects this week concern the War in Iraq, saving Social Security, and the death of Terri Schiavo. To examine the logic of all three, we begin with poker. For about four decades I’ve played low-stakes poker. I understand the game well, but at best just break even. Why? Casual poker players are doomed by the fatal attraction of the inside straight. Two cards can win when you draw to an outside straight, one chance in six. But drawing to an inside straight, where only one card can complete it, has one in twelve odds. The first is a good...

I'm getting a bunch for next year's xmas cards. My freinds on the left will enjoy that extra touch of holiday cheer. And I'll be putting them on my tax returns. Maybe draw a little voice bubble above the stamp with a good Reagan tax quote.

Simi Valley -- Friends and former colleagues celebrated the 94th birthday of the late President Reagan Sunday with a wreath-laying at his grave site. President Bush sent a wreath that was placed at Reagan's grave site at his presidential library by Marines from Camp Pendleton. The Marines then honored the nation's 40th president with a 21-gun salute. "We're celebrating the 94th anniversary of the birth of one of America's truly great presidents whose legacy will live on and on. God bless his memory," said former Gov. Pete Wilson, who spoke at the ceremony. Reagan died last June at his Bel-Air...

In The Greatest Communicator: What Ronald Reagan Taught Me About Politics, Leadership and Life, a book laced with insights and revealing personal experiences, Dick Wirthlin, for more than two decades Ronald Reagan's pollster and political strategist, gives us in six words the essence of the 40th president's success as a communicator: "Persuade through reason; motivate through emotion."

How the Man Who Won the Cold War Inspired Such Intense Loyalty

Mr. Reagan as a man of enormous long-range view, and with very strong views on the big issues, able to dig in his heels when pushed. He also saw him explode once at an outsider's suggestion that he might be a racist.

<p>In the last 30 days I have experienced an extraordinary outpouring of sympathy and love from old friends — and new — across the country and around the world. So much has happened to warm the hearts of everyone in my family. It is not easy to find a way to express our appreciation. Ronnie would have said, "Just tell them." So, although it has been the saddest and most difficult of times, I want you to know that we are comforted by the prayers, the support and all the love.</p>

Reagan's 4th of July Address 1981: What July Fourth Means to Me Constitution/Conservatism Editorial Keywords: INDEPENDENCE, DECLARATAION OF , RONALD W. REAGANSource: Pres. Ronald W. ReaganPublished: July 4, 1981 Author: Pres. Ronald W. ReaganPosted on 07/05/2001 19:13:18 PDT by FReethesheeples What July Fourth Means to Me By Ronald Reagan Editor's note: When he was president, Ronald Reagan wrote the following piece for Independence Day in 1981. Aide Michael Deaver later wrote: "This 4th of July message is the President's own words and written initially in his own hand." Contrary to media fiction, many of Reagan's speeches, commentaries, and other...

Admirers and opponents alike agree on at least one thing concerning the late President Ronald Reagan -- he was a happy man. Having written a book on happiness ("Happiness Is a Serious Problem," HarperCollins) and lectured on the subject on every continent (yes, including Antarctica), I would like to offer six explanations for the late president's happiness. First, he was a religious man. By this I mean two things: He had a deep connection to God, and a faith in a specific religion, in his case Christianity. Both are very helpful to most people's happiness. There are, of course, people...

The atmosphere was cheerful, almost festive, among those arriving early for Ronald Reagan's memorial service at the National Cathedral, just as it was on the lines of those waiting to view his flag-draped casket at the Reagan Library and the Capitol. Then, 40 minutes before the ceremony, when the achingly beautiful music began, people sat quietly and somberly, some with tears in their eyes. With his interment on the opposite coast, on a gentle hill overlooking the Pacific, the question now is: How will history judge his stewardship? Perhaps more than any moment in last week's long goodbye, the service...

National NFRA: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO REAGAN "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his. The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility...

WHITE HOUSE LETTERTrying on Reagan's Mantle, but It Doesn't Exactly FitBy ELISABETH BUMILLERPublished: June 14, 2004 ashingtonGeorge Bush begins today to try to refocus the nation on his presidency after a week when it seemed, at least from the constant replays of 1980's-era videotape on CNN, that Ronald and Nancy Reagan were fox-trotting in the White House again. At times it also seemed as if Mr. Reagan were running for president one more time. This past weekend, the White House Web site prominently featured a collection of Reagan remembrances and a photo essay of Mr. Bush at the funeral for...

PRESIDENTIAL TRADITION I never ceased to enjoy reviewing our men and women in uniform and hope I started a new tradition for presidents. As commander in chief, I discovered it was customary for our uniformed men and women to salute whenever they saw me. When I'd walk down the steps of a helicopter, for example, there was always a marine waiting there to salute me. I was told presidents weren't supposed to return salutes, so I didn't, but this made me feel a little uncomfortable. Normally, a person offering a salute waits until it is returned, then brings down his...

REMEMBERING REAGAN In Solidarity The Polish people, hungry for justice, preferred "cowboys" over Communists. GDANSK, Poland--When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989. Poles fought for their freedom for so many years that they hold in special esteem those who backed them in their struggle. Support was the test of friendship. President Reagan was such a friend. His policy of aiding democratic movements...

When Ronald Reagan emerged on the California political scene in the mid-1960s, the conservative movement was a collection of ineffective, naysaying right-wingers huddling in Orange County and San Gabriel Valley backyards, feverishly parsing school books for signs of communist or pornographic influence and flirting with the oddball extremists of the John Birch Society. Reagan taught manners to these misfits and, in the process, gave them respectability. He shared their intense patriotism, their economic and social conservatism and their militant anti-communism, but he was likable, more genial than fierce. Most important, Reagan understood that a successful political movement had to be...

Expedition 9 crew honors President Reagan from space (Jun 11, 2004) The International Space Station Expedition 9 crew paid tribute to former President Ronald Reagan June 10. Astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, and cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, rang the ISS ship's bell 40 times to commemorate the nation's 40th chief executive. Reagan died June 5 at the age of 93 of complications resulting from Alzheimer's disease. "We, the crew of the International Space Station, join millions of others in mourning the passing of President Reagan, who worked tirelessly to bring the world closer together," said Padalka, the Expedition 9 crew commander....

E-mail Author Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version June 08, 2004, 8:42 a.m. Personal Presidential PortraitMemories of Ronald Reagan. By Tony Snow When it comes to Ronald Reagan, we are all pointillists, hoping to create a whole portrait from dots of experience. Consider four scenes from late in his public career: Scene One: President George H. W. Bush is sitting in the presidential limousine after visiting the Reagan office in Los Angeles. "He's such a great guy," Bush says, smiling and shaking his head in wonderment. He describes a private meeting — just the two...