Free Republic

Republicans were dismayed to hear Ron Reagan, Jr., deliver what sounded like a rebuke to President Bush during a final tribute before his father was buried on Friday. Referring to his dad as "a deeply, unabashedly religious man," the Reagan son added, "But he never made the mistake the fatal mistake of so many politicians - wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage. . . " "He accepted [his faith] as a responsibility, not a mandate," noted the presidential son. "And there is a profound difference." Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said there was no doubt the comments...

I couldn't attend the Reagan ceremonies, so I did the next best thing: I watched the live TV coverage of the events honoring the life and death of former President Ronald Wilson Reagan. I wanted a variety of coverage. But I dropped the hope of "variety" quickly as I realized that mainstream media couldn't resist petty partisanship and historical revisionism. CNN went on about how Mr. Reagan really didn't have much to do with the fall of the Soviet Union. ABC's Peter Jennings reminded us that Simi Valley was home to the white police involved in the Rodney King scandal....

I was wondering if any kind FReeper knows where I can find the AUDIO of the Reagan-Kennedy debate online? I've found the transcript a few places, but no sound.

Ronald Reagan has had a hard time getting his due from scholars. In 1996 Arthur Schlesinger Jr. conducted a poll of historians asking them to rank the presidents, and Mr. Reagan came in 25th out of 39, putting him in the "low average" category. The Gipper had done only slightly better in a Siena College survey two years earlier, finishing 20th out of 41--below Bill Clinton (16th), who had been in office less than two years, and well below Lyndon B. Johnson (13th). It's hard to agree that the president who won the Cold War was less successful than the...

Q: You knew him well, right? Even back when he was still a Democrat? A: Yes. It happened one night. It was his job to introduce me, as the evening's speaker, to a group of California doctors. He acted like a gymnast out of Barnum and Bailey. The control room for the loudspeakers had been left locked. Nobody could find the janitor. So he cat-walked above the traffic to the window of the control room and smashed it open with his elbow, turning on the juice, the show must go on. Nice preview of Reagan, policymaker. Q: You became friends...

Sen. John Kerry's former presidential campaign manager said Monday that he'd been "dreading" the prospect of Ronald Reagan's death because it was likely to give President Bush a major political boost. "I've been dreading this every election year for three cycles," said Jim Jordan, who resigned from the Kerry campaign last year, in comments to the New York Times. "Bush has totally attached himself to Ronald Reagan. He's going to turn Reagan into his own verifier." Kerry campaign aides said they hoped the political impact of Reagan's death would fade by the summer, but top Republicans believe that many Americans...

<p>When President Bush signed a ban on partial-birth abortion yesterday, it marked the first congressional rollback of Roe v. Wade since the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion was handed down in 1973. And it marked the success of an idea as well. The idea, of course, is that abortion is inhuman and should be limited as sharply as possible and ultimately outlawed altogether.</p>

<p>Tonight the History Channel presents a special on the life and legacy of the former Hollywood star, governor and president, Ronald Reagan, who is shown here with his wife, Nancy, in a 1994 photo.</p> <p>BEFORE he was 22, Ronald Reagan had pulled 77 people out of an Illinois lake where he worked as a lifeguard, preventing the drowning deaths of at least some of them.</p>