Reagan honed his communication skills working for GE and on his radio minutes during the 70s. He learned to communicate in a way that made sense to the common man. We need conservative populism like that. But Reagan also had critical executive skills.
His Presidency of the Screen Actor’s Guild was critical to his leadership skills as he saw the good, the bad and the ugly in that industry. That helped him manage the press and know when to accept or reject the advice of his handlers/advisors.
His service in the military gave him valuable insights into that critical national institution. He made some mistakes, but that’s par for the course and overall he was an excellent CIC.
Finally, he served 8 years as California governor. That experience is critical to understanding Reagan’s success as POTUS. He beat Pat Brown, the incumbent two term governor and liberal by a landslide 57-43. He signed an abortion bill that lead to millions of abortions in California. He also raised taxes. How many FReepers would forgive him for those two things?
Yet the experience readied him for future battles where his heart strings would be pulled in the wrong direction. He survived a recall attempt, fought with the SC of California and learned how treacherous judges could be. He squeeked by with less than 53% for his 2nd term, but was able to cut taxes due to surpluses.
All those experiences are what made Reagan great. Keep in mind that California was the nations most populous state. It was a dynamic state surpassing Iowa in ag and NY in mfg. During Reagan’s governorship 25% of Californians were employed in high tech industries. California ranked as the 7th largest economy in the world.
Nobody on the horizon has that kind of experience. They might be “conservative” like Reagan, but they don’t have the skill set to run the country like he did. We need a governor and I’d like to see both the VP and the Pres. as governors. That’s the way to beat Hillary.
I still remember how the MSM labeled Reagan as stupid.