Ronald Reagan

Your editorial "Fixing the Messenger" (Nov. 12) was the best thing I have read in The Sun for a long time. I have long maintained that Ronald Reagan's bizarre economic policies caused untold harm to the nation when he was president, and they continue to haunt us today. Jack Kinstlinger, Baltimore

Every Republican presidential candidate claims to be the heir to Ronald Reagan's legacy. For years, Republican partisans have carried Reagan's memory before them as the ancient Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant. Just invoking his name proved your ideological purity, and would smite the dreaded RINO (Republican in name only). Problem is, those who most fervently claim to adhere to Ronald Reagan's principles don't seem to understand Reagan's greatest principle: decency. Ronald Reagan practically has been deified as a small government, anti-tax, pro-life, all-American conservative who never compromised his principles.

5.1, 9.3, 8.1, 8.5, 8, 7.1 and 3.9. While that might sound like a controversial series of Olympic curling scores, these numbers in fact add up to a grave problem for PresidentBarack Obama. They are the quarterly percentage gains in gross domestic product starting in 1983 through to Election Day 1984. And they aren't the only significant numbers. In 1984, real income for individuals grew by more than 6 percent and inflation plummeted. The unemployment rate in November 1984 was still 7.2 percent - relatively high - but it had dropped from 10.8 percent in December 1982, and it was clear the momentum was for even lower unemployment.

Your editorial "Fixing the Messenger" (Nov. 12) was the best thing I have read in The Sun for a long time. I have long maintained that Ronald Reagan's bizarre economic policies caused untold harm to the nation when he was president, and they continue to haunt us today. Jack Kinstlinger, Baltimore

WASHINGTON - The passing of Ronald Reagan at 93 brings with it a rush of personal memories, none of which tell what kind of president he was but illustrate why he so effectively plucked the heartstrings of his fellow Americans. I first met him in 1966 when he was running for governor of California, occasionally flying around the state with him in a beat-up old propeller plane previously used by a turkey farmer to cart his birds to market. It was nicknamed "The Turkey," and on each landing we reporters - and the candidate - would make loud gobbling sounds in appreciation, and relief, for the safe touchdown.

WASHINGTON -- Last summer, when Bob Dole was still hearing the heavy footsteps of conservative Sen. Phil Gramm behind him, he told a meeting of the Republican National Committee that "if that's what you want, I'll be another Ronald Reagan."Apparently many fellow Republicans do want their presumptive 1996 presidential nominee to be just that, urging him to propose a juicy tax cut in the fashion of the Great Communicator. Like Mr. Reagan in 1980, Mr. Dole is saying now that he can cut the deficit while cutting taxes, which Mr. Reagan failed spectacularly to do in his eight years as president.

Washington WATCHING coverage of the gala opening of Ronald Reagan's presidential library this week, my thoughts catapulted back to that day in December 1987 when the president gave me the scoop of any journalist's lifetime.It was the week of the history-making meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Far from the coziness between American and Russian leaders today, the two leaders were circling each other like wary male pups. And 5,000 journalists from across the world were in Washington, trying to gauge the political sociology of those circles.

Sarah Palin makes it hard to be her fan. There is much to admire about the Alaska governor, who announced Friday she would be stepping down effective July 26. Her verve and charm; her impressive rise from PTA mom to would-be vice president; her range of talents, from athletics to politics; her apparent success at keeping a large and growing family intact wile pursuing a high-stakes, high-stress career. All of this speaks well of the governor and her mettle. And so it is no wonder that, from the moment she strode with preternatural confidence to the stage at the 2008 Republican National Convention, she ignited hope among conservatives that she may be a new Ronald Reagan - someone who could lead the GOP out of its current political wilderness.

WHEN FORMER President Ronald Reagan "celebrated" the 10th anniversary of his near-assassination here the other day, his endorsement of pending legislation to require a seven-day waiting period for a handgun purchase was greeted as some kind of breakthrough. But it really was Rip Van Winkle awakening from a decade of stupor to say something he should have said even before he was shot.All through Reagan's White House tenure, it was a not-so-well-kept secret that he was a man held captive by the rigidity of conservative dogma.

WASHINGTON - President Ronald Reagan inherited a bad economy in the 1980s and made it better. That legacy endeared him to many Americans, but what he did and how he did it remain highly controversial two decades later. In slashing tax rates, building up the Pentagon budget and pushing deregulation, Reagan put his country and his party on a new economic path. And now, in a new century, the same battles over his economic philosophy are being fought again. The Republican Party has embraced the Reagan tax-cutting message as party dogma, emphasizing a lighter tax burden over reducing deficits.

5.1, 9.3, 8.1, 8.5, 8, 7.1 and 3.9. While that might sound like a controversial series of Olympic curling scores, these numbers in fact add up to a grave problem for PresidentBarack Obama. They are the quarterly percentage gains in gross domestic product starting in 1983 through to Election Day 1984. And they aren't the only significant numbers. In 1984, real income for individuals grew by more than 6 percent and inflation plummeted. The unemployment rate in November 1984 was still 7.2 percent - relatively high - but it had dropped from 10.8 percent in December 1982, and it was clear the momentum was for even lower unemployment.

I wonder if the negligence of the air traffic controller suspended for sleeping on the job is not a delayed consequence of Ronald Reagan's busting of the air traffic controllers union 30 years ago("Sleeping controller suspended," March 25). Why was the controller working four consecutive overnight shifts? Did he have a choice? These questions are especially pertinent now during a concerted attack on collective bargaining, which protects both workers and the public they serve. John G. Bailey, Edgemere

From most angles, Baltimore County executive candidate Kenneth C. Holt resembles another, more famous Republican who also rode horses, looked at ease in blue jeans, and preached lean government and free enterprise. Holt doesn't dwell on the Ronald Reagan parallel, but he's hardly averse to the idea. "I've heard it a lot," said Holt, an investments executive who raises black Angus beef cattle on a historic, 120-acre estate in Kingsville. "Ronald Reagan and I have a lot of similarities.

Thirty years ago this week, former California governor Ronald Reagan delivered his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Detroit. The moment signaled an important pivot in modern American politics. Some references made by Mr. Reagan — who that November easily unseated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter — are outdated today. But parts of his script are so timeless, one can easily imagine them coming from the 2008 Denver acceptance speech delivered by Barack Obama, whose election has been described as bringing the Reagan political era to a close.

Sarah Palin makes it hard to be her fan. There is much to admire about the Alaska governor, who announced Friday she would be stepping down effective July 26. Her verve and charm; her impressive rise from PTA mom to would-be vice president; her range of talents, from athletics to politics; her apparent success at keeping a large and growing family intact wile pursuing a high-stakes, high-stress career. All of this speaks well of the governor and her mettle. And so it is no wonder that, from the moment she strode with preternatural confidence to the stage at the 2008 Republican National Convention, she ignited hope among conservatives that she may be a new Ronald Reagan - someone who could lead the GOP out of its current political wilderness.

We hear every day that the crises President-elect Barack Obama will inherit are even worse than we knew. During his news conference Monday to present his new economic team, Mr. Obama spoke of the need for "meaningful cuts and sacrifices" in the federal budget. But where will a nation almost $10 trillion in debt find the cash to save the banking system, invest in "green collar" jobs, insure every American, keep our bridges from collapsing and make certain that - this time, really - no child is left behind?

CHICAGO -- When Texas Gov. George W. Bush gave his first major foreign policy address as a presidential candidate, he could have spoken at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas. He didn't. He spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif. Ever since, he's worked so hard to style himself as the reincarnation of the Gipper that when he leaves office, I half expect him to enroll at Notre Dame. The efforts have paid off. Lately, whenever Mr. Bush opens his mouth on the subject of foreign policy, commentators draw on all their analytical skills and historical perspective and conclude, "Why, that man sounds just like Ronald Reagan!"

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The motion alarms on Newport News Shipbuilding's huge gantry crane began blaring their familiar "BEE-OOOH, BEE-OOOH" warning as it set about another chore. Dangling from the crane's tentacles of thick steel cables was another piece of the shipyard's 29th aircraft carrier, the Ronald Reagan, named for the former president. It was a preassembled rectangular section of the flight deck, with a V-shaped channel called a "cat trough." The German-made gantry, fittingly called Goliath and one of the world's largest, gingerly carried the section to another part where helmeted workers waited to apply finishing touches before it was to be added to the ship.

Sarah Palin, unfiltered, more than held her own on the national debate stage last night. She was folksy and charming and delivered her lines, even the stock ones, with conviction and brio. On style and charm and connecting with viewers at home, the newcomer seemed to have it all over Joe Biden, the veteran pol who dared to be boring at the outset and took quite a while to warm up. Palin locked into the camera lens from the start and never let go, wriggling her nose to take the edge off her sharpest lines.

With Sen. Barack Obama retaining a slight lead in the polls, Sen. John McCain today threw caution to the wind and made one of the most audacious running-mate choices in American political history. Seeking to gain the most media exposure bang for the buck, the Arizona senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee has asked Ronald Reagan to join his ticket. "I carefully considered all the possible candidates," said Mr. McCain. "And it was clear to me that Reagan beat them all, hands down.