I love the quotes in this article from 2004. But I tend to want to believe Reagan's son that he sees some of his dad in her.He did know him best. I don't know if she's the next Reagan but Sarah Palin does seem to have the same refreshing honesty and directness that Reagan did.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/07/48hours/main621459.shtml
"Mr. President, in talking about the continuing recession tonight, you have blamed mistakes of the past and you've blamed the Congress. Does any of the blame belong to you?" asked ABC White House Correspondent Sam Donaldson.
"Yes, because for many years I was a Democrat," replied Mr. Reagan.
Mr. Reagan clearly relished the job, missing no opportunity to joke about his favorite targets: communism, big government, high taxes.
"If the big spenders get their way, they'll charge everything on your Taxpayer's Express card, and believe me, they never leave home without it," he said, on one occasion.
"You know, not too long ago, I was asked to explain the difference between a small businessman and a big businessman. And my answer was that a big businessman is what a small businessman would be if only the government would get out of the way and leave him alone," he said on another.
"Governor Reagan, again typically, is against such a proposal," said incumbent Jimmy Carter in a 1980 presidential debate.
"There you go again," replied the eventual winner of that race.
Mr. Reagan's way with words could be devastating.
"I will not make age an issue of this campaign," he said in a 1984 debate with challenger Walter Mondale, some 17 years younger. "I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."
Mr. Reagan exploited his own age to a fare-thee-well. He was nearly 70 when he became president, 78 when he left office, the oldest man ever to serve in the office.
"One of my favorite quotations about age comes from Thomas Jefferson. He said that we should never judge a president by his age, only by his work. And ever since he told me that, I've stopped worrying," he said once. "And just to show you how youthful I am, I intend to campaign in all 13 states."
"I've already lived about 20 years longer than my life expectancy at the time I was born," he also said. "That's a source of annoyance to a great many people."
Years later, that likeability would serve him well in government, confounding many critics who'd written him off both as a politician and an actor.
His years at Warner Bros. got him something else: a quick sense of humor that carried him through countless blowups and breakdowns on the set. Take after take, he was perfecting the one thing crucial to both acting and politics: timing.
He then polished his delivery on live television, where there was no chance at a second take.
Confronted with anti-war marchers, campus demonstrators, hippies, his humor turned sarcastic.
"The last bunch of pickets were carrying signs that said 'Make love, not war,' he said of anti-war protesters. "The only trouble was they didn't look capable of doing either."
"His hair was cut like Tarzan, he acted like Jane and he smelled like Cheetah," he said of a hippy.
But eight years in Sacramento taught him the value of restraint, and running for president, he reverted to type: Mr. Nice Guy. And instead of downplaying his Hollywood background, he capitalized on it, often campaigning with legends like Jimmy Stewart, movie star and war hero.
"The master of ceremonies said: 'Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart.' when I got up, I said, 'You'll forgive me for correcting you, but it's Major General Jimmy Stewart,' Mr. Reagan related.
"And that night, we got back to the hotel, Jimmy said, (imitating Stewart) 'R-r-ron, that-that fellah was right, tonight. It is brigadier,' he said. 'I just never corrected you before because it s-s-sounded so good.'"
He could even turn the other cheek with the press.
"I was going to have an opening statement, but I decided that what I was going to say I wanted to get a lot of attention, so I'm going to wait and leak it," he joked at a presidential news conference.
He quickly gained a reputation as the Teflon President, to whom bad news did not stick. Even many of his harshest detractors found him charming. And the Reagan humor was often a hit with the press corps, too.
"Now I've been told that this is all off the record and that the cameras are all off, is that right?" he said once. "I was told that, because I've been waiting for years to do this, he said and put his thumbs in ears and wiggled his fingers.
Some of the criticism he drew for supposedly being uninvolved, working banker's hours, dozing off in meetings he turned to his advantage with yet more wisecracks.
"I know the long hours that many of you have put in. And I can only tell you that if I could manage it, I would schedule a cabinet meeting so that we could all go over and take a nap together," he said.
"I don't know of a place where prayer is more appropriate than in Washington, D.C.," he quipped, because in the Reagan joke book, the nation's capital was always good for a laugh.
"You don't have to spend much time in Washington to appreciate the prophetic vision of the man who designed all the streets there," he said. "They go in circles."
"What is needed is a sweeping, comprehensive reform, but certainly not like the proposed new tax form that was sent to me the other day," Mr. Reagan said. "It had two lines on it. The first line said, 'What did you make last year?' and the second line says, 'Send it in.'"
He succeeded in slowing the growth of government, driving home the point with an arsenal of jokes that pictured Washington as a place short on common sense and long on doubletalk.
The literal-minded were forever troubled by his tendency to sometimes confuse life with the movies. But he understood, like very few leaders before or since, the power of myth and storytelling. In his films and his political life, Ronald Reagan stood at the intersection where dreams and reality meet, and with a wink and a one-liner, always held out hope for a happy ending.
"Some day when the team's up against it and the breaks are beatin' the boys, ask 'em to go in and win just one for the Gipper," Mr. Reagan said as George "The Gipper" Gip in 1940's "Knute Rockne: All American."
"Go out there and win one for the Gipper," he told a Republican National Convention.
As an inexperienced candidate she came across as understanding the issues a lot better than Obama, also an inexperienced candidate, did last week in his debate against McCain. And she's positive. It's so nice to hear a candidate that's upbeat and not all doom and gloom like the Obama/Biden campaign is. She's hopeful for our country and our country's future... it's just depressing to listen to the Obama Biden campaign. Biden sounded good last night... too bad that over half of what came out of his mouth was a bunch of lies.
