Free Republic

I noticed something buried in a book review on Free Republic sometime back. The review was of a biography of William P. Clark. That name instantly brought back memories from when I was a youngin' and a lowly campaign worker who was drawn in early to the campaign by people just a step or two from Reagan's inner circle. Bill Clark was perhaps the closest friend and advisor that Ronald Reagan ever had. He was the one responsible for "Let Reagan be Reagan". He was also an unshakable Catholic who lived his religion. Contrary to popular belief the Republican Party...

Thatcher eulogized Reagan beautifully. This is a random posting - no significance to todays date...just a beautiful reminder of the greatness of Ronald Reagan. Obama walks in the shadow of a great man.

From 1975 to 1979 Ronald Reagan gave more than 1,000 daily radio broadcasts. These addresses came at a time when Reagan held no political office, but was nonetheless mapping out a strategy to transform the economy, end the Cold War, and create a vision of America that would propel him to the presidency. Using modern technology , Palin is using facebook the same way Reagan used Radio and is making an impact on Washington more effectively than anyone else in the opposition. The lethel blow to Obamacare that begin it's slow demise was the Palin penned death panels. In her...

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States and out of office for twenty years, still has the landslide support of the American people that helped him win two historic terms in the 1980s.An overlooked poll released last week by Public Policy Polling of over 1200 registered voters showed the Republican icon Reagan was the most popular of the five most recent presidents with 41 percent, impeached Democrat Bill Clinton was a distant second at 27 percent.The current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama, came in third with 22 percent, thanks to a splintering of support from African-Americans....

The triumph of Reaganism, as represented by the passage of the Kemp-Roth tax cuts in 1981, was a declaration of intellectual independence by conservatives and Republicans who decided to no longer be "tax collectors for the welfare state." Equally, the current battle to defeat plans for a national health insurance program will be a richer victory if conservatives and Republicans not only defeat the proposed legislation, but articulate a vision that rejects the fearful, risk-averse attitude intrinsic to the bills passed by the House and proposed in the Senate. Key to the case for Obamacare have been two notions: that...

George W. Bush's State of the Union address must have baffled anyone who voted for him based on his pledge to cut the size of government. That speech has been properly and efficiently pilloried by Joseph Stromberg, Alan Bock, and others. The speech was both Wilsonian and Clintonian, which is to say that it proposed a political solution for all human problems and backed this idea with a promise of massive increases in federal spending on just about everything. But should we really be so surprised? Contrary to popular myth, every Republican president since and including Herbert Hoover has increased...

FP: Andrew Klavan, welcome to Frontpage Interview. I’d like to talk to you today about your journey into and out of the Left. How did you at first become a member of the political faith? Tell us about the beginnings of your intellectual journey. Klavan: Well, I was always a dissatisfied liberal. I just never knew there was anything else to be. I was born Jewish to a mother who worshipped FDR and a father who thought that any Republican victory prefigured the return of Adolf Hitler. That’s not an exaggeration: he thought Republicans were all just Hitler in disguise...

Republicans like to point to Ronald Reagan for inspiration. However, we have to resign ourselves to the fact that Ronald Reagan is dead. Worse, his legacy was killed off by his own party, the same Republicans who say he inspired them. The only lasting legacy to George W. Bush was the nomination of two constructionist judges and a fading response to terrorism. For eight years, we saw GW insist more on getting along than being right. Even the war in Iraq was fought on the cheap, probably out of fear of the cost of waging war, which defies the logic...

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library has launched iReagan, the official Ronald Reagan app for iPhone and iPod touch users. This FREE app, the first ever for a Presidential Library and for the National Archives, delivers Ronald Reagan right to your fingertips. Content includes: Full-length speeches including his famous Berlin Wall and "Evil Empire SpeechesIconic photos of President Reagan Stunning images and detailed descriptions of the Reagan Library's spectacular annual "Christmas Around the World" exhibit currently on display at the Library Inspirational quotes from "The Great Communicator"

Stanley Fish of the New York Times actually wrote a very very positive review of Sarah Palin’s: Going Rogue An American Life: Sarah Palin is Coming to Town. When I walked into the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan last week, I headed straight for the bright young thing who wore an “Ask Me” button, and asked her to point me to the section of the store where I might find Sarah Palin’s memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.” She looked at me as if I had requested a copy of “Mein Kampf” signed in blood by the author, and directed me...

"One of the traditional ways of imposing statism or socialism has been by way of medicine" Ronald Reagan Trust me, you'll want to forward this brief clip on to your friends, folks. Narrated by Reagan himself. I miss him so!

What the Tea Party Movement Means for Conservatives by  Sal Russo 12/01/2009 As I have travelled across the country on the Tea Party Express buses, I have been struck by the similarity to the early days of Ronald Reagan.  The explosion of interest by every-day Americans in taking their country back, as well as the biased mainstream media trying to portray conservatives as crackpots, is all hauntingly familiar.    Will the tea party movement be the beginning of another Reagan Revolution, as I think it will, or will the left-wing media be right that we are nothing but a collection...

Guest contributor Charlotte Laws says the Salahis may have made headlines by fooling Obama's security guards. But she wrote the book on party crashing. And what's wrong with that, anyway? Been There, Done That: In the mid-1980's, Dr. Laws met U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the annual Walter Annenberg party in Palm Springs, Calif. [Charlotte Laws] Not Guilty!

You've loaded up your iPhone with Yelp for restaurants and Shazam for music. Now get ready to download a dose of "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" from a popular political figure of the past: the Gipper. The Ronald Reagan iPhone app, introduced this week, promises to "deliver Ronald Reagan right to your fingertips," offering the speeches, sayings and photos of the "Great Communicator" to a potentially wider and younger audience, thanks to the popular mobile technology. The efforts of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley (Ventura County) mean that five years after his death, Reagan's appearance on...

Steve Flesher of The American Thinker wrote a very nice piece on exactly how I and many Sarah Palin supporters view The Governor: Sarah Palin's Reagan Qualities. While some progressive types scramble to suddenly defend Reagan conservatism by writing articles titled "Sarah Palin is NOT the new Reagan," the life stories of Reagan and Palin contradict their theories by revealing stark similarities between these two fascinating Americans. Reagan and Palin were raised with similar values, attended similar schools, had similar competitive interests, and embarked on authentic, gradual segues into public service, with an undeniable connection to conservative Americans. Just like...

It's time again for us to show our Christmas spirit and give away some gifts to one of our readers. This year is an especially great year for the All American Christmas. This year's prize package includes: A 90 minute DVD titled "Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny," hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery's "Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1,500 Years" Mark Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue: An American Life" An autographed copy of "Obama - Why Black America Should Have Doubts" An autographed copy of Michelle Malkin's "Culture...

The Alaska Governor is far more than someone who appeals to the (conservative) base, she is someone who can make the base appeal to America. “This compact yet comprehensive diagnosis was made in the early hours of the Palin Derangement Syndrome (PDS) outbreak, when Sarah Palin was first being introduced to the nation. It still rings true as the Jurassic media continues a childish obsession with someone who does not control a single government lever."

Click on the image above to see the video. ...or click here: Ronald Reagan On Socialized Medicine and Socialism Hopefully, Youtube will not take it down.

John Bolton has referred to President Obama as America's first post-American President. By this he means that instead of pursuing America's interests in relation to the rest of the world, President Obama is pursuing the rest of the world's interests in relation to America. In other words, Obama is imposing on America the policies the rest of the world would like to see stuffed down our throats. This is why it seems like we are losing our country piece by piece, and that America is in an accelerating downward spiral. To those who are paying attention, and not just blindly...

Approximately once every four years, the media establishment and certain "moderates" in the Republican Party decide to destroy a conservative candidate. They sharpen their blades and their tongues and they go into action, armed with the conviction that the vitriol of their pens will wither away the candidate's reputation and potential. Very often, it works. After all, what would you think of a candidate the Baltimore Sun calls a symptom of "the right, the radical right, which cherishes notions that often are too simple, too negative and too risky"? What would you believe about a candidate one liberal columnist calls...

Why do Palin fans feel so passionately about her? Because she reminds them of former President Reagan: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6996-Louisville-Economic-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d25-Palinism-is-Reaganism

I was fortunate enough to live in a city that was on the list of stops for Governor Palin’s book tour. Of all the cities and areas in upstate NY, I didn’t expect it to be mine! However as an organizer for 2012 Draft Sarah Committee, I was happy that I could potentially get my book signed and meet the governor. I ended up walking out with a signed copy of ‘Going Rogue,’ a signed t-shirt (that my awesome girlfriend made for me) and an awesome experience under my belt! There were people from all walks of life. Some were...

Predictably, Charles Johnson is up in arms over the GOP's proposed "purity test".  Chamberlain-esque RINO candy ass Allahpundit has a more, balanced sane opinion. My two cents:  the purity test is wrong because if Reagan was their inspiration (someone who agrees with me 80% of the time is my friend, not an enemy), then this litmus test from Reagan should have been their guide: “We should emphasize the things that unite us and make these the only ‘litmus test’ of what constitutes a Republican: our belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual...

ReGaining Reagan Sarah Carlsruh, November 23, 2009 Today, there are “far too many people saying ‘let’s move beyond Reagan,’” lamented Steve Hayward, author of The Age of Reagan and keynote speaker at Accuracy in Academia’s November 5th Author’s Night. Reagan stuck to an unwavering and enduring set of ideals. Yet, liberals are trying to present a distorted picture of Reagan and make him into a proto-liberal, said Hayward. Some liberals embrace the 2nd Term Reagan as a man of peace, call his foreign policy “pretty good” while condemning the Reagan of domestic policy. In contrast, Hayward insisted that “it was...

Fundamental truths are often beyond the grasp of people with advanced degrees — you know, the Parenthetical People on the coasts imbued with wisdom absorbed during erudite cocktail conversations in Hollywood and Manhattan and Brussels... Americans want to be cheerful and hopeful, not negative and enraged... If you question the intelligence of the people, try to turn them against God, send a negative message, encourage rage, and offer a free lunch and more Government, you are swimming upstream. ... Americans generally like America, and they don’t think Obama’s plan to turn it into Cuba is such a great idea... “The...

Seeking to deflect a rising frequency of calls for his resignation, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner suggested that “the root source of our current troubles can be traced back to the Reagan Administration. Remember, it was the tax cuts and deregulation pushed by President Reagan that unleashed an abnormal expansion of economic growth. The American people became accustomed to an unhealthy pace of increasing material prosperity that is incompatible with the more socially conscious restraint President Obama is trying to bring to this country.” “Rising home values, rising investment values, rising salaries all stimulate a sense of greed that is...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20--President Carter would easily defeat either former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California or former President Gerald R. Ford if the election were held today, according to the Gallup Poll.

Fascinating NYT articles from the late 70s about the same things we see today. The GOP needs to be more moderate, reach out to independents, they're too conservative, Reagan is bad news, too extreme, etc... Things never change. Here's some highlights: From 10/3/77: Mr. Ford drew a warm but not particularly enthusiastic response when he told the Republicans that their party's future lay in avoiding idealistic extremes and in attracting non-aligned voters..."In my judgment the radical liberal or idealistically pure conservative policies will not in the long run attract the independent voter". It was a remark that some listeners interpreted...

Is Reagan Conservatism dead? The answer is a resounding - No! The ideal is as solid as it has ever been, but the objective view of this writer is that it is not enough to deliver this nation from the 70 year socialistic grip of liberalism and its horrific consequences (moral and institutional) on our society and people. Anyone who has an objective view and appraisal of our current situation would have to agree. In light of the present conditions plaguing our country and what seems to be the disintegration of the Republican Party, Conservatives have been on suicide alert...

Paul Krugman Criticizes Reaganomics Here's how to defend it Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics Krugman proves that a crafty, educated man can make statistics say whatever he wants them to. It's all about how you aggregate or disaggregate them and how wide or narrow an angle your snapshot captures.He showcases the blazing hot growth of the 50's and 60's that was the inevitable result of post-WW II rebuilding, and then criticizes Reagan because his growth didn't measure up to this impossible-to-maintain pace. So why does Fama (Eugene Fama, who trumpets the irrefutable success of Reaganomics) believe that something wonderful happened...

The 19th century American writer Henry Adams said the descent of American presidents from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant was enough to discredit the theory of evolution. The same could be said of the pantheon of conservative political heroes, which in the last half-century has gone from Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan to Sarah Palin. That refutation may be agreeable to Palin, who doesn't put much stock in Darwin anyway. You can confirm all this by looking at what the three wrote. Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential nominee, made his reputation four years earlier with an eloquent and intellectually...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTMpQqDP-nk&feature=related A great clip of Walter Cronkite and a CBS panel announcing Reagan's 1980 landslide victory. Wondering how all the polls were so wrong, how Carter could have done so badly, what happened. Dan Rather says it was just a total rejection of the democratic party and of liberalism. Leslie Stahl calls Carter impotent and incompetent, a total failure. Cronkite tries to defend him on the hostages. Harry Reasoner explains that he had no base, just blacks and hispanics. That the midwest totally abandoned him over unemployment. It's like a funeral on the set. Just extremely entertaining. Worth watching in...

Steve Hayward Discusses Reagan (Video) Bethany Stotts, November 17, 2009 Our video of Steven Hayward’s Author’s Night presentation on Ronald Reagan is now up on YouTube. Visit our channel or sit back and enjoy the embedded videos of his speech....

(I should've posted this the day before yesterday - on World Freedom Day...) ...President Reagan came to office with the belief that the United States and other free nations should use all aspects of political, military, economic, diplomatic and cultural power to defeat Communism. Once in office he put those ideas into practice by encouraging and influencing other free nations to join in his endeavor. Most notably was his speech in Berlin where he declared to General Secretary Gorbachev that if he wanted peace and prosperity for the Soviet Union he must, “Tear Down this Wall.”

Ronald Reagan's V-Day Ceremony Address at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Delivered 11 November 1988, Washington D.C. Before I begin, let me take a moment to congratulate the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the other distinguished guests without whom the construction and operation of this memorial would not have been possible. Let me also say that America is grateful to the hundreds of Vietnam veterans who, when I asked them to join my Administration, did so, and have and are serving our nation so proudly. For your devotion to America, I salute you. We're gathered today, just as we have gathered...

Hillary Clinton Scrubs Ronald Reagan From History Nile Gardiner November 10th, 2009 It’s bad enough that President Obama could not be bothered to attend the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But Hillary Clinton’s refusal to even acknowledge the role played by Ronald Reagan in the Wall’s demise as well as the downfall of Communism was highly insulting towards one of the greatest figures of our time, and reeked of petty and partisan mean-spiritedness. The Secretary of State’s remarks yesterday in Berlin completely erased from history the huge contribution played not only by President...

Well, NBC News shows us how, and, as a bonus, manages to include Hillary Clinton in the report, twice.

Mitt Romney is heading to Reagan country. The former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to speak this Friday to the Young America's Foundation at the Ronald Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California. Romney is expected to be the dinner banquet speaker for the foundation's West Coast Leadership Conference, which consists of young conservatives from 44 colleges and universities across 12 states. "Young people provide much of the energy in the conservative movement, and if we are going to be successful as a party we need to harness that energy and put it work on behalf of the principles we all...

Amidst all of the hoopla surrounding the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall the two men most responsible have been all but forgotten. While German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world dignitaries praised former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for the fall of the wall, the two men perhaps most responsible, President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II were all but forgotten. Merkel praised Gorbachev, “You made this possible---you courageously let things happen.” He let things happen? Is she kidding? Gorbachev had no choice but to let things happen. Let’s revisit real history for a moment please. The fall of...

It’s bad enough that President Obama could not be bothered to attend the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But Hillary Clinton’s refusal to even acknowledge the role played by Ronald Reagan in the Wall’s demise as well as the downfall of Communism was highly insulting towards one of the greatest figures of our time, and reeked of petty and partisan mean-spiritedness. The Secretary of State’s remarks yesterday in Berlin completely erased from history the huge contribution played not only by President Reagan but also by the United States in confronting the Soviet Empire....

Reagan is dead but if we let his legacy, achievements and ideology die… so too are we. Every GOP politician and conservative commentator must demand that Obama apologize for ignoring Reagan’s part in the fall of the wall. It is a game changer because Obama’s slight crystallizes all the various issues we face today. Reagan faced a recession and knew the answer was getting the government off our backs. He understood the issues with socialized medicine and the liberties lost. He recognized evil, called it evil and opposed it. He was proud of America, not embarrassed by it. He saw...

Twenty years later: Why the Berlin Wall fell S A Aiyar Sunday October 25, 2009 We are approaching the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism. This comprehensively refuted the Communist claim to represent the people. Yet, the claim continues, sometimes dazzling a new generation of youngsters with no inkling of why the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. In democratic Capitalism, said Karl Marx, the rich became richer and the poor poorer. Marxism inspired young idealists for over a century. Lenin’s revolution in Russia in 1917 was hailed as a new dawn. Stalin’s invasions brought Communism to Eastern...

The collapse of communism: Reagan, Thatcher and the pope By Joseph A. Cannon Deseret News Published: Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 12:12 a.m. MST Twenty years ago, my wife, Jan, and I were in what was then called West Berlin for a conference. One pleasant afternoon we walked along the Berlin Wall from the Brandenburg Gate to Checkpoint Charlie. During that time, there were significant rancorous anti-Communist demonstrations in East Germany, primarily in the southern part. A German friend, with typical Prussian hubris, dismissed them. "Nothing will come of this, these are just the ineffective rumblings of a bunch of Bavarians."...

World leaders of the past and present have commemorated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by walking across a key bridge linking the east and west of the city. Despite the rain, thousands of people have gathered for a commemorative ceremony on the Bornholmer Street Bridge, which was the first border crossing to open on November 9, 1989. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Solidarity leader and later Polish President Lech Walesa walked across the bridge, recreating the short but historic journey taken by thousands of East Germans to reach West Berlin...

Ronald Reagan's historic speech before the Berlin Wall in 1987, in which he said "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall," is one of most important speeches in world history. The Berlin Wall's falling, which came about two years later, was a victory for freedom and a crushing blow to the former Soviet Union and the tyranny of Communism around the world.

It has been 20 long years since the fall of the Berlin wall. Millions of people who were trapped in their oppressive, government-planned states suffered as a result of collectivism. Over 100 million people died at the hands of sycophantic, megalomaniac leaders that claimed they could bring us a better world than so-called capitalism and individual liberty has brought us. I say "so-called" because nowhere in the world does capitalism truly exist. In the countries where it is allowed to exist in even small proportions, wealth and prosperity reign. However, the collectivists hate even this small proportion of capitalism that...

Thank-you Great Communicator,Pope John Paul II The Great,And Margaret Thatcher for planting the seeds that realized a harvest on this day in history. On November 9, 1989, the East German Government announced that its citizens could freely visit West Germany and West Berlin. It came after several weeks of protests by East German citizens who yearned for the kind of freedom that the west enjoyed. It also marked the end of a 28 year old blockade that was the result of some 3 and a half million people fleeing communism to the west. After its erection, numbers vary, but it...

We win. They lose.

Please join me for a special 20-year commemorative look at the fall of the Berlin Wall, the triumph of liberty, and the "change" we'd better believe we're in. Live at 3pmE/2pmTX/NoonP, archived afterward here, and also available on iTunes as a podcast. Call-in number: (347) 327-9710 Unspun with AnnaZIndependent Radio for the Independent Spirit

Ronald Reagan never stopped regarding the Berlin Wall as an affront to human freedom. When so many other American leaders and opinion makers had come to accept its presence as inevitable and permanent, Reagan still hammered away at the Wall’s very premise in human tyranny, until finally the Wall itself was hammered down. Its downfall wasn’t the work of Reagan alone. Our president’s actions were joined with the brave acts of many individuals who stood firm and united in facing the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall came down because millions of people behind the Iron Curtain refused to accept the...