RONALD REAGAN AT 100: In the 1985 film endorse to the Future, the main character, played by Michael J. Fox by chance recovers to 1955. When Doc (Christopher Lloyd) discovers he has since 1985, he asked who was then president. Fox replied simply: "Ronald Reagan".
"Oh, sure," his interlocutor answers Eisenhower era, "who is vice-chairman, Jerry Lewis?
It's a funny line, of course, but what gets in curious is that the ascension of Ronald Reagan has-been actor junior chairman, inconceivable in 1955, still seemed so unlikely in 1985. Its current status, increasingly acknowledged even by the Liberals as one of a handful of great presidents was even more unlikely.
His career, indeed, was an unusual path to the White House. Most presidents were politicians effectively throughout their careers. Several (Washington, Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Taylor, Grant, Garfield, and Eisenhower) were generals. A couple was engineers (Hoover and Carter - not exactly a ringing endorsement for electing the President of Engineers). But an actor? They come to give voice to the words of others, they do not think for themselves. As Oscar Hammerstein said: "When the authors tell me / the words that make me more wit, / I'm just as smart as they. / And besides, I'm pretty. "The liberal establishment has had a field day Reagan stupid comment. (Of course, for the establishment post-war liberal, all Republican presidents were stupid, except Nixon. It was bad.)
But Ronald Reagan ignored the experts, a pretty smart thing to do, and went with the people, who increasingly loved and trusted him. In 1966, he beat a popular two-term governor to become governor of California. In 1976, he very nearly beat an incumbent for the Republican nomination for president. In 1980 he smashed a single licensee in the fence ("Well, there he goes again") and functioned on to succeed the White House in a landslide. In 1984 he won a landslide even greater, coming up just a few votes short in Minnesota to perform all 50 states.
And now, on his hundredth birthday, he is almost universally regarded as "Rushmore ready." I sincerely hope that we never add to the top of Mt. Rushmore, but if we do, the obvious candidates are Reagan and Franklin Roosevelt.
