What you don’t know when you’re 22 could fill a book. If you write that book when you’re 44, you haven’t learned a thing.

He's a national treasure himself.

I was never a big Reagan fan, but he was always clearly the best candidate in every race he ran. His "charisma" and "communication" (like Clinton's) were always lost on me. I never saw myself what the big deal was, but it was clear that he had it, judging by his apparent effect on other people more susceptible than me to such things.

As a space enthusiast, even the much-vaunted Challenger speech didn't impress me all that much. "So he quoted Magee," I thought.

Big whoop.

I vaguely remember a teevee ad in the sixties, perhaps for the Air Force, that used the whole poem. It was almost too obvious (in fact, almost inappropriate, because the poem is much more about atmospheric flight than spaceflight, with its talk of sun-split clouds, footless falls of air, shouting wind, and wind-swept heights, none of which occur in the vacuum of space--it's limited appropriateness derived only from the fact that the crew didn't quite make it into space, or at least nowhere near orbit). And even now, how many people think that he wrote the words, or that one of his speechwriters did?

And yet, it was clear to me in the eighties that Reagan was going to be appreciated by history much more than he was at the time, but I didn't realize that it would happen this soon. Or, depressingly, maybe it isn't this soon. Maybe the time has just flown by faster than I'd like to think.

Wandering around the blogosphere in the past couple days, I'm quite amazed at the number of people who express the same opinion--they thought that Reagan was an idiot movie actor at the time, and were appalled that he was president of the country, but they now realize that he was right about Soviet communism, and they were wrong, and that he was in fact the greatest post-war president of the century, even if they didn't agree with all of his positions.

I wonder how many will be similarly reassessing George W. Bush in two more decades? And I wonder what these so-called historians would have said about Ronald Reagan at the end of his first term?

Rand,

My thought Re: the Magee quote in Reagan's Challenger Speech:

My personal feeling is that space flight is just flying when you happen to run out of air. Under that umbrella thought, I've always thought that quoting Magee is totally appropriate when astronaut lives are lost.

I think Reagan had a similar view, that spaceflight was ulitmately an aviation challenge to technologically and psychologically conquered. Seeing astronauts as aviators makes perfect sense to me.

I hated Ronald Reagan for ten years.

Then I grew up, and realized how stupid I was.

Goodbye, Mr, President.

I remember Reagan's charisma. I have never seen Clinton's. His speeches give the impression of an articulate phony. He doesn't talk like a regular person; his monologues are obvious canned performances.

bchan:

I saw your poster, and I love it. There is something I would expand upon, too, from that image.

It says he was the Victor of World War III, and he was more than that, he was final act in a long series of battles seen and unseen from the late 1940's and rise of the Soviet machine.

Many, many men and women in the West had set the stage for what he did, but balked in fear at the last minute. He was the right man at absolutely the right time to push back against a wall of MAD fear and doubt. When both sides of the political isle said "You can't push the Russians like that!", he said "Watch me."

In all bold endeavors, there is a point where you move forward or go back home. Reagan stayed at his post, and did what was needed, doubts and detractors be damned.

God Bless Ronald Reagan.

I used to like Reagan, and thought that comedians who joked about him sleeping through his presidency were being unfair. So, I paid more attention to what the people around him said:

"I'm glad he consults somebody." --House Speaker Jim Wright on President Reagan's astrologer.

"Like reinventing the wheel." --White House spokesman Larry Speakes on the process of preparing Reagan for a press conference.

"[Reagan] only works three to three and a half hour hours a day. He doesn't do his homework. He doesn't read his briefing papers. It's sinful that this man is president." --Tip O'Neill

"You know, your nose looks just like Danny Thomas's!" --Ronald Reagan to the Lebanese foreign minister, after listening to a half-hour lecture on the intricate realities of Lebanese political factions.

"You ask yourself how did it ever occur to anybody that (Reagan) should be governor, much less president." --Henry Kissinger.

"We could declare war on North Vietnam. We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home for Christmas." --Ronald Reagan, 1965

"You bet he didn't remember; in fact, I'm sure that he worked overtime to make sure he did not forget to forget." --Neil Reagan on his brother and the Iran arms sales.

"We are not trying to do anything to try and overthrow the Nicaraguan government." --Ronald Reagan, 1983

Big Deal.

When Reagan first came in, I was afraid of him. Televangelists preaching extreme rhetoric were big then, and he seemed to be with them. He was also being very confrontational with the USSR.

But … in office he didn’t push extreme religion, actually, today’s Bush is doing more than he did. He tried to reduce the size of government. He didn’t succeed, but he tried. Carter had told us that we were out of oil, and we weren’t going to live as well as we used to. He was wrong and Reagan knew it.

At the time, there were two things that especially concerned me: The microchip revolution was still pretty early, and most people weren’t thinking about it too much, but it was clear that there would be exponential improvement for a couple of decades. It was also clear that the West’s economies were growing far more rapidly the USSR’s, even by official numbers. I knew the USSR couldn’t keep up technologically or economically. I gave them maybe 20 years. And I doubted they would go down quietly.

Also, ballistic missile accuracy was constantly getting better. It was only a matter of time before we would be forced to go to "launch on warning" if something didn’t change. And then there would be a good chance of an accident.

So I thought there was a very good chance of a nuclear war in the next two decades. I had been hearing about new ideas of ballistic missile defense – and when Reagan announced SDI, I cheered - literally. I never thought there could be a perfect shield, but if we could only stop “Launch on Warning” it would probably save civilization. That’s when I became a Reagan supporter.

We didn’t get SDI, but the USSR’s attempts to keep up with us militarily bled them white and they fell quicker than I expected. I do believe that if it weren’t for the way Reagan handled that process there is a very good chance we would be dead today, or at least in a far worse situation. I’d grown up with the USSR. Watching it fall without a war was one of the most wonderful, unbelievable, beautiful things I have ever seen.