Free Republic

From a shining city on a hill and Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall, to terrible deeds in the name of Christ and terrorists' legitimate grievances. The chasm between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama when it comes to their views of America and the world could hardly be wider. But on today's Up With Steve Kornacki, when the host asked the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart whether President Obama talks and thinks about America differently from Reagan [and Clinton and Carter], Capehart emphatically replied "No. Rudy Giuliani is lying." View the video here.

"......The more significant development was Scott Walker’s semi-public confab with the leading lights, such as they are, of supply-side economics. Last night, the Wisconsin governor attended a dinner in New York hosted by Stephen Moore, Arthur Laffer, and Lawrence Kudlow. This is a strong indication of the policy leanings of a candidate who probably stands as strong a chance as anybody of capturing the nomination. The backdrop to Walker’s meeting is that the Republican Party is undergoing the first serious effort to alter its domestic policy in a quarter century....... This has left a gaping void for a Republican candidate...

3:08 video: Governor Scott Walker’s Interview with Young America Foundation Reflects on Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” SpeechGov. Scott Walker: “You can give that speech [Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing"] today, not tell people who it was, just play it, play the audio, and I think people would find it just as compelling today as it was the day he gave it.”[Oct 1964] .................." “President Obama and his allies tend to measure success in government by how many people depend on the government, how many people are on medicare, food-stamp, unemployment. We instead, we the conservatives measure success in...

These are not your Boys of Summer. These are the United States presidents born in February and perhaps we should toast them. At least that is always my inclination. Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) and George Washington (born February 22, 1732) are the headliners. In fact, they so eclipse the rest of the presidential ranks that it seems rather unlikely that the “average guy” on the street could even name another president born in this frigid, God-forsaken, groundhog scrutinizing, heart-shaped-candy-box-buying month. But ... nevertheless ... here we go. Even most die-hard Republicans probably don’t know that Ronald Reagan—the Great...

It’s the 104th birthday of Ronald Reagan, and since he was one of the most widely recognized world leaders, it’s not hard to find some interesting facts about the 40th president.Reagan had a long career as an actor and union leader before he became the governor of California in the 1960s and won the presidential election in 1980. Here are 10 facts about President Reagan you may not know. 1. Reagan really did enjoy jelly beans. According to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, his favorite flavor was licorice. Reagan started eating jelly beans in 1967 as he was trying...

The president was a conservative's conservative. He had campaigned on reducing taxes and made it his legacy. But when a gas tax increase was proposed, it was a different story. In his weekly radio address, he said, "We simply cannot allow this magnificent (highway) system to deteriorate beyond repair." That was 1982. The president was Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, the disrepair Reagan feared has come to pass. The federal gas tax of 18.4 cents hasn't been raised since 1993, and the Highway Trust Fund is severely underfunded. A 10- to 15-cent a gallon increase would provide enough money to meet the...

A good, old-fashioned western tonight. Tennessee (John Payne) is a whiskey-drinking, high stakes gambling, all around rogue with few friends and plenty of enemies. His life begins to change when a good-natured miner named Cowpoke (Ronald Reagan) saves his life during an ambush. But will their budding friendship survive when Tennessee meets Cowpoke's bride-to-be (Colleen Gray), who may not be all she appears to be? Co-starring Rhonda Fleming and Leo Gordon.

During TCA’s winter press tour, FX CEO John Langraf revealed that Ronald Reagan will figure into the second season of the network’s hit anthology series. “It covers something that was referenced in the first installment by Lou Solverson, Molly Solverson’s [Allison Tolman] father,” Langraf said. “It’s a big sprawling, in some ways, more comedic [season], though at times, a very serious show. It’s set in the late ’70s against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s first campaign for President of the United States. Reagan is a character in it.” After the panel, Landgraf confided to EW that Fargo will actually be...

Lou Cannon has a nice remembrance in RealClearPolitics of Martin Anderson, the economist and adviser to Ronald Reagan who died last week at 78. He touches on all of Anderson's accomplishments, from his successful advocacy in the Nixon White House to abolish the military draft to his unearthing, with his wife Annelise Anderson and Kiron Skinner, the handwritten drafts of Ronald Reagan's radio speeches, which show the impressive breadth of Reagan's reading and depth of his thinking. Let me add one more item to the list: Anderson's 1964 book "The Federal Bulldozer: A Critical Analysis of Urban Renewal 1942-1962." When...

Mario Cuomo will be laid to rest today. Odd. The son of a legal Italian immigrant somehow managed on his own to get an education, grow rich and become governor of the nation’s largest state – and  pass his legacy on to his progeny  - butt he wants the government to do for the next generations what he and his family did for themselves? I learned about our kind of democracy from my father. And I learned about our obligation to each other from him and from my mother. They asked only for a chance to work and to make...

My daughter asked me my opinion on an article she read in Vanity Fair attempting to debunk the presidential record of Ronald Reagan. I happily responded. The writer of the piece is veteran liberal commentator Michael Kinsley, who used to be a regular on William F. Buckley Jr.'s "Firing Line" and CNN's "Crossfire." It's not as though he appeared out of nowhere, studied the evidence anew and shared a novel theory. He's been dissing Reaganomics for decades along with other Democrats and liberals, whose only recourse is to distort the Gipper's phenomenal record. Why is this even relevant, you ask?...

Would conservatives support a presidential bid by David Petraeus? The Iraq surge architect isn't a candidate. But for years prominent conservatives from Rep. Peter King to Andrew Breitbart have touted the soldier-scholar as a dream conservative candidate to take on Barack Obama. The question is, if Petraeus had run, would his service in the Obama administration -- first as head of U.S. Central Command, then as Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan and now as CIA Director -- have counted against him? It's safe to say conservatives wouldn't have re-purposed the old "General Betray-Us" moniker for the man who has...

Many readers are scratching their heads over my endorsement of Ron Paul last week. One writes: Let me add a few more reasons to vote for Ron Paul: If you want all federal student aid eliminated, vote Paul. If you want the Department of Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education and Housing & Urban Development eliminated, vote Paul. If you want the department of Transportation Security Administration eliminated (meaning security is the sole responsibility of private property owners), vote Paul. You can't just ignore Paul's "nuttier policy proposals". These proposals are Paul. If you endorse Ron Paul, you're endorsing his proposals. There...

Last May, when Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was pondering a White House bid, Jason Sorens of the University of Buffalo wrote a commentary that went largely unnoticed. Wanting to "take a look at Jon Huntsman," who has been "widely viewed as a 'moderate' Republican, but whose" policies "stake out a position that may be more libertarian than Daniels'," Sorens concluded that after former Gov. Gary Johnson and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, Huntsman offered the most libertarian credentials — besting even Daniels. Sorens's views deserve recognition in New Hampshire, a generally conservative state with decisively libertarian leanings, as our first-in-the-nation presidential...

In the 1960s and ‘70s, it was fairly common for leftists to describe the U.S. as not just misguided or flawed, but sick. On Sunday, Daily Kos’s Mark Sumner trotted out that metaphor when he asserted that President Reagan “introduced [an] infection” to this country, one which caused Americans to believe that “to save our nation, we have to treat our government like a threat.” Since the Reagan years, Sumner claimed, “conservatism has been more than just an argument about tax rates and regulat[ions]. It's become an open and honest war on the whole idea of governing. By opening a...

One of the things I liked best about Reagan was his sense of humor. Today's politicians are way too serious. He poked as much fun at himself as he did others, and never got butt-hurt when someone criticized or made fun of him. I decided to put together this video (in his honor) to capture some of his finest moments. The Cold War era was a spooky time; thank God we had a President that kept things lighthearted enough to get us through it! Arguments

Never forget Christ and that moral, accomplished, real Americans used to run America and still can. Merry Christmas! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU0tuah-x7M

On Monday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin urged Americans to light a candle and put it in their windows this Christmas eve to show solidarity with Cubans who are still fighting for their freedom and human rights. Palin accused under President Barack Obama of emboldening the oppressive Castro regime with his announcement last week that the two countries will begin to ease its relations. “I am so ashamed with what the Obama administration has done to Cuban people. I do not support it,” Palin, speaking in front of a lit candle, says in a video that will be seen...

We all have to suspect that neither Truman nor Ike would have let the Castro brothers write their own ticket as President Obama did Wednesday. We know with certainty that neither JFK, LBJ, RN, Ford, Carter, Reagan, either Bush nor Bill Clinton would have done what President Obama did vis-a-vis Cuba because none of the last nine presidents did so, even though all were confronted with essentially the circumstances: a communist dictatorship exporting revolution throughout Central and South America (and during Carter's years, throughout Africa) while brutally oppressing their own people with complete disdain for basic human rights. We can...