Reagan's Birthday

I can't take credit for this. It was from the Texas Rainmaker.

I wish I had been ten years older during the Reagan presidency. I gave it lip service but did not fully appreciate what was happening. Too wed to ABC at the time, I suppose. Sam was chatting from the left and George from the right.

What really kills me: so many of the lines he is so famous for, "My opponent's youth and inexperience..." and Peter Robinson's "...tear down this wall" were either really ill-delivered or almost flubbed.

Only Peggy Noonan's line about "touching the face of God" was truly perfectly delivered.

I know this is only personal, but I realize that I'm so affected by the video because of my Dad's recent death. Dad was handsome in the same way Reagan was...dark hair until the very end (I know, I know, Reagan cheated), tall, a crooked smile and conservative in absolute philosophy, borne of the Depression and WWII. (When I took Mom to "view" Dad, she called him "Hollywood Handsome" even in death.) Dad was a Marine in the same war that Reagan couldn't qualify for because of his eyesight (so he made movies extolling the virtues or US participation in WWII).

At least Dad lived the Reagan presidency and got to see it while he could truly appreciate it. End of the Cold War and the beginning of 25+ years of unprecedented prosperity (can we recall that the fax machine was just coming into being in the middle of his presidency?). The reason we have had so much productivity is because we taxed less and got out of the way.

It is so clear.