Free Republic

The nation's Republicans are working against the clock to answer two key questions: Can conservative Ronald Reagan possibly attract enough independent and Democratic votes to win in November? "Reagan is the opponent of choice for Carter," says I. A. Lewis, director of the Los Angeles Times Poll, a point on which most analysts agree. "But Reagan can reach across and cause mischief in the Democratic constituency," Mr. Lewis says. "Reagan appeals to blue collar, working-class voters. He can win Democratic votes..."

Ronald Reagan would be familiar with some of the challenges facing Donald Trump lately. Imagine an establishment-busting presidential candidate rolling up the primaries but polling 20 points behind the presumptive Democratic nominee. The controversial Republican front-runner is considered so radical that the party establishment eyes a brokered convention, perhaps to nominate a failed candidate from the previous election. Sound familiar? Welcome to March 1980. In retrospect, Ronald Reagan’s presidency seems inevitable, but the prevailing wisdom in the Republican Party 36 years ago was that he was leading the party to certain defeat. Going into the 1980 race, some Republican leaders...

I miss Ronald Reagan. Even his harshest critics must admit that he had an unflagging belief in the general goodness of the average human being, a commitment to the American experiment and faith in the ability of most people to make decisions in their own best interests without undue meddling by officious busybodies. Above all, Ronald Reagan -- like a number of other truly great American political leaders from both sides of the aisle -- had the ability to inspire Americans to see the best in themselves and their neighbors. We are stronger as a people, better as a...

Editor’s Note: This appeared on the Grove City College's Center for Vision and Values website. On March 30, 1981, at 2:25 p.m., President Ronald Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton through a side door after speaking to a union group. Outside was a gaggle of staff, secret service, reporters, and bystanders, including one determined to end Ronald Reagan's life at that moment. As the president headed toward the car, a reporter barked out a question. With a smile, Reagan raised his left arm to deflect it. But he could not deflect what was about to fly in his direction. A...

National Radio Talk Show host Rush Limbaugh joins Chris Wallace for an exclusive interview discussing his take on the feud between Donald Trump and Mitt Romney, and Trump's prospects in the election going forward. "His dad did much the same thing against Barry Goldwater with a cabal of Republicans, establishment guys, back in 1964," Limbaugh said about Romney. "This is not new. The establishment not wanting outsiders, not wanting conservatives is not new... They were this way with Ronald Reagan before Reagan was elected. They tried to deny Reagan in '76 and they tried to deny Reagan in 1980. They're...

Hillary Clinton broke a cardinal rule of the angry left –saying something nice about a Republican who recently passed away. After she was savaged for saying Nancy Reagan had been out front in confronting AIDS, an angry backlash ensued, and Clinton quickly fell into line. The controversy was worth seven paragraphs in the New York Times print edition, but reporter and chief Hillary-follower Amy Chozick really let the leftist insults fly in the longer online version (h/t veteran commenter Gary Hall), hitting both the Reagans and Hillary in a nasty tone, under the solemn circumstances: "The problem with Mrs. Clinton’s...

Has Al Hunt never having heard of de mortuis nil nisi bonum? On the day she was laid to rest, Hunt has repeatedly said that Nancy Reagan "was not a good mother." Interviewed by John Heilemann on today's With All Due Respect, here was Hunt: "she was a formidable person. Sometimes unpleasant, not a great mother, but she loved her Ronnie and had great political instincts . . . She was not a good mother. I think actually Patti Davis, as moving as she was today, if you really listened to it, all was clear: she was not a good...

Friends of both Nancy and Ronald Reagan would often remark about how deeply and passionately they loved each other, even after decades of marriage, a rare thing indeed in a world where half of all marriages end in divorce. The love story of the greatest president of the 20th Century and the actress and dancer whom he met in the early 1950s would make a great subject for a movie if Hollywood cared to make it. But the romance of Nancy and Ronald Reagan also changed the world. Without her, there might not have been him.

It was 35 years ago this month that Secret Service radio traffic grew frantic with the reports of “shots fired” at President Ronald Reagan — “Rawhide” as his security team dubbed him. At the White House, first lady Nancy Reagan’s own Secret Service team advised her to stay put while they dispatched to the hospital. Nancy, or “Rainbow,” as the agents called her, wasn’t having it. She let them know that if they wouldn’t take her to “Ronnie,” she’d walk.

Nancy Reagan passed away on Sunday from heart failure at the age of 94. On social media, people shared their favorite memories of the first lady. Nancy was remembered for her grace, class, and most of all, devotion to her husband, Ronald. Nancy Reagan was an exemplary First Lady and woman. She will be missed. My thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones. RIP Mrs. Reagan— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 6, 2016 The relationship between Ronald and Nancy Reagan was a beautiful thing. They represented the best of America. https://t.co/5WtiEisH4Y— Daniel Hannan (@DanHannanMEP) March 6, 2016 Nancy Reagan...

Nancy Reagan, the widow of President Ronald Reagan and passionately devoted keeper of his flame, died Sunday morning of congestive heart failure at 94, according to her spokesperson. Reagan died at her home in Los Angeles. She's set to be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, next to her husband. Prior to the funeral, there will be an opportunity for members of the public to pay their respects at the Library, the spokesperson said. Details had not yet been announced Sunday afternoon.

Nancy Reagan, the influential and stylish wife of the 40th president of the United States who unabashedly put Ronald Reagan at the center of her life but who became a political figure in her own right, died on Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 94. The cause was congestive heart failure, according to a statement from Joanne Drake, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Reagan.

Former first lady Nancy Reagan has died at the age of 94, according to TMZ. She married Ronald Reagan in 1952 and served as first lady in from 1981 to 1989.

Former Bears coach Mike Ditka, who has repeatedly voiced his support for Donald Trump to the Chicago Sun-Times, blasted President Obama during a radio appearance Thursday."Obama is the worst president we've ever had," Ditka told hosts Sid Rosenberg and Bernard McGuirk during an appearance on their morning show on WABC-AM in New York.Ditka, who guided the 1985 Bears to a Super Bowl victory, questioned Obama’s skills as a leader. "Barack Obama's a fine man. I mean, he's pleasant," Ditka said. "He would be great to play golf with. He's not a leader. This country needs leadership. It needs direction. It...

How panicked should we be about the rise of Donald Trump? A professor at Harvard, Danielle Allen, recently published a widely shared op-ed piece in the Washington Post likening his rise to that of Hitler... ...such Hitler hype has happened before, and been unwarranted. Steven Hayward, author of “The Age of Reagan,” recalls the rhetoric: Democratic Rep. William Clay of Missouri charged that Reagan was “trying to replace the Bill of Rights with fascist precepts lifted verbatim from Mein Kampf.”

I’m not telling anyone not to panic. But myself, I am just taking a deep breath or two and relaxing. I will probably get called a Trump enabler, or worse, for saying so. Alas, telling people to calm down doesn’t generate the clicks or television ratings that the Trump panic does. But here — to help you sleep better, if nothing else — is a case that the alarm over Trump is probably overstated. First of all, such Hitler hype has happened before, and been unwarranted. Steven Hayward, author of “The Age of Reagan,” recalls the rhetoric: Democratic Rep. William...

This is another example of an interview of a man who, like Reagan, has been consistent in his ideas, his solutions and his temperament. In the interview, he says that Ronald Reagan was our greatest president, he says if he would ever run for president it would be as a republican, he talks about China again.

With the pubic distracted by the FBI battling Apple for an iPhone backdoor, President Obama is secretly working to trash President Ronald Reagan’s restrictions on the number of federal agencies that can spy on Americans and others. At a secret meeting of the United States National Security Council on Feb 25, President Obama approved a draft 21-page memo relaxing a Cold War Reagan-era directive called Executive Order 12333 that restricted the number of government agencies that can access, without court order or Presidential approval, the contents of phone calls, emails and data the U.S. National Security Agency vacuums up from...

Well, what do you know: In 1980, after reported differences in communications strategy and just before the New Hampshire primary, Ronald Reagan fired his press secretary, Jim Lake, along with two other senior staffers. Ronald Reagan, the seasoned conservative, was in a pitched battle with his party's moderate, George H.W. Bush. The Reagan campaign was in debt and seemed not to have The Republican Establishment with him. In that moment, the future "Great Communicator," and arguably one of the best Commanders-in Chief the Nation has ever seen - who would later create 18 million American jobs with tax and spending...

The influential California Republican Assembly on Sunday endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for president. Cruz received the required two-thirds majority on the first ballot at the group's convention in Buena Park, the first time in 20 years a first-ballot endorsement for president has been made, according to California Republican Assembly President Tom Hudson. "Senator Cruz won the overwhelming first ballot endorsement because he is the proven, consistent conservative," Hudson said. "Cruz is a hero to the conservative movement and he's right in line with what we need in California and nationwide." The recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia...