We’ll start with a look at his use of humor while President.
And if we go back further in time, here are three videos of him participating in Dean Martin roasts.
We’ll start with the show where he was roasted. Here’s his response.
And here he is on the other side, doing roasts of Frank Sinatra and George Burns.
Last but not least, here’s Reagan on the Sonny and Cher Show.
And if you still haven’t gotten enough Reagan, you can look at several policy-related videos at this link, including Reagan’s famous Goldwater speech in 1964, the “tear down this wall” speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and the two most memorable lines from his debates with Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale.
This video illustrates Reagan’s superior understanding of fiscal policy. He points out how the Keynesian economists and politicians were profoundly wrong when they claimed the dramatic reduction in government spending after World War II would cause a deep downturn.
On this day in 1981, a truly great man became President of the United States. To celebrate, here are a few videos.
This was Reagan’s coming-out political moment, his speech on behalf of Goldwater in 1964, which includes the great line about the “soup kitchen of the welfare state.”
And here’s a clip from his inauguration, where he says something that most Republicans forgot.
Here’s his famous “tear down this wall” speech in Germany.
Here’s a heartwarming video about Reagan’s use of humor.
And, speaking of humor, here are his famous lines from his 1980 debate with Carter and his 1984 debate with Mondale.
Let’s close with Reagan’s incredibly moving D-Day speech about the “boys of Pointe du Hoc.”
October 2015 Update: I can’t resist adding this video because it perfectly captures Reagan’s wisdom.
Captures the spirit of these cartoons, I think you’ll agree.
Sean Penn for President? How about George Clooney? Or what would you think of President Ed Anser? (assuming he’s still alive)
Hollywood is filled with collectivists, probably because of a combination of guilt over immense wealth and a shallow desire to be trendy and chic.
Well, here’s a video of an actor campaigning for statist politicians. Do you think you could vote for him if he ran for office at some point in the future?
Very rarely does one find a politician with the moral clarity to provide the blunt and necessary truth about a controversial issue, but that has finally happened. But this is a good news/bad news situation for American taxpayers. The good news is that a politician has proposed to slash both bureaucrat pay and public pensions and publicly stated that, “The state sector is like a fat man of 200kg sitting on the back of a 50kg little man who is the real economy.” The bad news is that this politician is the President of Romania. A caveat is probably appropriate at this stage. I have no idea whether Presdident Basescu actually is a genuine small-government proponent. Perhaps he is just an ordinary politician forced to do the right thing by extraordinary circumstances. Nonetheless, I have a hard time imagining we will see a better quote from an elected official this year. Here’s an excerpt from a story in the Irish Times:
President Traian Basescu said officials had decided…to reduce the pay of state employees by 25 per cent from next month and pensions and unemployment benefits by 15 per cent this year. …He said the cutbacks would also help reinvigorate an economy that is being crushed by a bloated and inefficient state sector, and allow Romania to avoid steep tax hikes that could hamper investment and destroy hopes of a swift recovery from recession. “This plan was inevitable. The state sector is like a fat man of 200kg sitting on the back of a 50kg little man who is the real economy,” said Mr Basescu, who narrowly won re-election at the end of last year.