Personal charm to the nth degree. An ability to convey genuine outrage in appropriate circumstances (Mr. Gorbachev! Tear down this wall!). And now the secret you apparently will NEVER understand. In the immortal words of Don Vito (Andolini) Corleone: Keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Up close, the liberal termites learned to FEAR Ronaldus Maximus. They were not in his universe and they knew it. Read Peggy Noonan's What I Saw at the Revolution. She had been a liberal before discovering him and then she fell in political love and her speechwriting showed it.
There were plenty of Ruling Class GOP and other pro-aborts around Reagan, including, in all likelihood, Nancy Reagan. Knowing this is not an accomplishment. Being unaware of it simply reflects the awe-stricken respect that genuine conservatives had, have and always will have for the greatest political leader of our nation in our time. That they were kept close does not make any of his enemies any the less slime.
Bob Dole made us all go to the Nixon Library instead of the Reagan Library, for a televised visit.
However, in return, Bob Dole got our liberal RINO Governor, Bill Graves, to quit taking shots at us in the press.
And in return, we got to play a very moving video about Reagan at the convention.
At least two national TV networks zoomed in on me, in the front row of the Convention, crying my eyes out.
Ok, we have something in common.