Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan conservatives have succeeded by adhering to a platform that rests firmly on three legs: smaller government faith and family and a strong national defense. These three legs do not merely represent a political coalition they are three necessary components of a strong and secure America.

You know my father as governor as president but I knew him as dad. I was so proud to have the Reagan name and to be Ronald Reagan's son.

Ronald Reagan's well documented final battles with Alzheimer's disease were fought with the same conviction and courage that his many public battles were fought.

I have three favorite politicians: Reagan Truman and Bobby Kennedy - Bobby for showing remarkable political courage despite being loathed by many on both sides.

With his trademark courage and conviction President Reagan led us out of the Cold War spreading his vision of freedom resulting in the release of millions of people from the yoke of communism.

I think that Obama is very cool. And I think he's clever and I think he can be witty. But I don't think he's funny in either the way that Reagan was funny - or John McCain and Dick Cheney are both funny in that ruthless kind of mean way.

Maybe that first gigantic deficit the Reaganites piled up was an accident just a combination of deluded 'supply side' tax cuts and a huge bag of good stuff for the Pentagon. But pretty quickly conservatives discovered that deficits when done correctly did something really cool: deficits defunded the Left.

If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years which rejected it.

Global political conditions make a direct American intervention difficult but President Reagan's messianic and visceral attitude toward the Nicaraguan revolution could mean it will happen as an act of desperation.

The day before the anniversary of D-Day we lost a man who was equaled by few and surpassed by none as a leader in the cause of freedom: Ronald Reagan.

I think we need one recognized respected public figure to make a tough blunt statement on just what Reagan's record is and what he might do to the country let alone the Republican Party before Christmas.

Those who remember Washington's cold war culture in the 1980s will recall the shocked reactions to Reagan's intervention. People interested in foreign policy were astonished when in 1985 he met alone at Geneva - alone not a single strategic thinker at his elbow! - with the Soviet Communist master Gorbachev.

There's also some element of coming of age during the Reagan administration which everybody has painted as some glorious time in America but I remember as being a very very dark time. There was apocalypse in the air the punk rock movement made sense.

As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days.