Ronald Reagan in 1964 was not the same Ronald Reagan of 1980. Reagan's politics changed as time passed. He became more and more of a conservative. Reagan's writings in the 1970`s laid out a conservative policy that supported a strong national defense, limited govt, deregulation and fiscal responsibility on both spending and tax reform. And Reagan came to see the errors of his ways on the abortion issue too. He became a supporter of pro-life/right to life issues. Reagan is the only President to have a book published while in was in office. It was called, "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation". Great essay and book. Read them. You may learn something about Reagan the man.
Reagan wasn't only a gentleman of the first order, he was a master of rhetoric. He knew how to play a crowd better then anyone and would sneak in little tidbits that would play up the specific audience he was speaking to. He learned this from his days touring the nation for GE. Everyone in America knew of Ronald Reagan and everyone who knew him liked the man.
Reagan lived the American dream through a long, successful and for the most part, healthy life. It's not what Reagan did as a young man supporting FDR that counts, or what he did as Governor of California either. What counts most, is what Reagan did as President. His two huge election landslides show that the American people knew who Reagan was and they trusted him.
One thing Reagan wasn't. Reagan was no RINO. You've leveled a lot of cheap shots at Reagan on this thread CT. You should be ashamed of yourself. Now go take a nap.
I agree, take cheap shots at Reagan, quote all the stats you want to compare how Reagan was a big spender, but at the end of the day...
RONALD REAGAN who had to overcome a DEMOCRATIC CONTROLLED HOUSE BY TIP O'Neil and a DEMOCRATIC SENATE time and time again whipped the democrats over and over again.
Now we have all THREE BRANCHES OF GOV AND WE CAN't even match what Reagan did with two hostile branches of Gov.
The democrats were scared to death of Reagan. Thats a fact!