Thanks for all you did for the USA - You were a true patriot and statesman.
May God welcome you into eternity.
:patriot
Rest in peace, President Reagan (1911-2004)
beach! you beat me to it
WASHINGTON - Ronald Reagan (news - web sites), the cheerful crusader who devoted his presidency to winning the Cold War, trying to scale back government and making people believe it was "morning again in America," died Saturday after a long twilight struggle with Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites). He was 93.
He died at his home in California, according to a family friend, who initially disclosed the death on condition of anonymity. The friend said the family has turned to making funeral arrangements. A formal statement from the family was expected later.
In Paris, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said President Bush (news - web sites) was notified of Reagan's death in Paris at about 4:10 p.m., EDT, by White House chief of staff Andy Card.
The United States flag over the White House was lowered to half staff within an hour.
Card learned of the death from Fred Ryan, Reagan's former California chief of staff, Buchan said.
The White House was told his health had taken a turn for the worse in the last several days.
Buchan said that Bush would issue a written statement later Saturday. The president planned to participate in D-Day ceremonies in Normandy on Sunday and then fly back to the United States for an international economic summit in Georgia.
She said it was not known at this point whether Bush would change his travel plans because of Reagan's death.
Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells. He said he had begun "the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."
Reagan's body was expected to be taken to his presidential library and museum in Simi Valley, Calif., and then flown to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His funeral was expected to be at the National Cathedral, an event likely to draw world leaders. The body was to be returned to California for a sunset burial at his library.
Reagan lived longer than any U.S. president, spending his last decade in the shrouded seclusion wrought by his disease, tended by his wife, Nancy, whom he called Mommy, and the select few closest to him. Now, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton (news - web sites) are the surviving ex-presidents.
Although fiercely protective of Reagan's privacy, the former first lady let people know his mental condition had deteriorated terribly. Last month, she said: "Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him."
Reagan's oldest daughter, Maureen, from his first marriage, died in August 2001 at age 60 from cancer. Three other children survive: Michael, from his first marriage, and Patti Davis and Ron from his second.
Over two terms, from 1981 to 1989, Reagan reshaped the Republican Party in his conservative image, fixed his eye on the demise of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communism and tripled the national debt to $3 trillion in his singleminded competition with the other superpower.
Taking office at age 69, Reagan had already lived a career outside Washington, one that spanned work as a radio sports announcer, an actor, a television performer, a spokesman for the General Electric Co., and a two-term governor of California.
At the time of his retirement, his very name suggested a populist brand of conservative politics that still inspires the Republican Party.
He declared at the outset, "Government is not the solution, it's the problem," although reducing that government proved harder to do in reality than in his rhetoric.
Even so, he challenged the status quo on welfare and other programs that had put government on a growth spurt ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal strengthened the federal presence in the lives of average Americans.
In foreign affairs, he built the arsenals of war while seeking and achieving arms control agreements with the Soviet Union.
In his second term, Reagan was dogged by revelations that he authorized secret arms sales to Iran while seeking Iranian aid to gain release of American hostages held in Lebanon. Some of the money was used to aid rebels fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua.
Despite the ensuing investigations, he left office in 1989 with the highest popularity rating of any retiring president in the history of modern-day public opinion polls.
That reflected, in part, his uncommon ability as a communicator and his way of connecting with ordinary Americans, even as his policies infuriated the left and as his simple verities made him the butt of jokes. "Morning again in America" became his re-election campaign mantra in 1984, but typified his appeal to patriotrism through both terms.
At 69, Reagan was the oldest man ever elected president when he was chosen on Nov. 4, 1980, by an unexpectedly large margin over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Near-tragedy struck on his 70th day as president. On March 30, 1981, Reagan was leaving a Washington hotel after addressing labor leaders when a young drifter, John Hinckley, fired six shots at him. A bullet lodged an inch from Reagan's heart, but he recovered.
Four years later he was re-elected by an even greater margin, carrying 49 of the 50 states in defeating Democrat Walter F. Mondale, Carter's vice president.
WASHINGTON - Ronald Reagan (news - web sites), the cheerful crusader who devoted his presidency to winning the Cold War, trying to scale back government and making people believe it was "morning again in America," died Saturday after a long twilight struggle with Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites). He was 93.
He died at his home in California, according to a family friend, who initially disclosed the death on condition of anonymity. The friend said the family has turned to making funeral arrangements. A formal statement from the family was expected later.
In Paris, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said President Bush (news - web sites) was notified of Reagan's death in Paris at about 4:10 p.m., EDT, by White House chief of staff Andy Card.
The United States flag over the White House was lowered to half staff within an hour.
Card learned of the death from Fred Ryan, Reagan's former California chief of staff, Buchan said.
The White House was told his health had taken a turn for the worse in the last several days.
Buchan said that Bush would issue a written statement later Saturday. The president planned to participate in D-Day ceremonies in Normandy on Sunday and then fly back to the United States for an international economic summit in Georgia.
She said it was not known at this point whether Bush would change his travel plans because of Reagan's death.
Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells. He said he had begun "the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."
Reagan's body was expected to be taken to his presidential library and museum in Simi Valley, Calif., and then flown to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His funeral was expected to be at the National Cathedral, an event likely to draw world leaders. The body was to be returned to California for a sunset burial at his library.
Reagan lived longer than any U.S. president, spending his last decade in the shrouded seclusion wrought by his disease, tended by his wife, Nancy, whom he called Mommy, and the select few closest to him. Now, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton (news - web sites) are the surviving ex-presidents.
Although fiercely protective of Reagan's privacy, the former first lady let people know his mental condition had deteriorated terribly. Last month, she said: "Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him."
Reagan's oldest daughter, Maureen, from his first marriage, died in August 2001 at age 60 from cancer. Three other children survive: Michael, from his first marriage, and Patti Davis and Ron from his second.
Over two terms, from 1981 to 1989, Reagan reshaped the Republican Party in his conservative image, fixed his eye on the demise of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communism and tripled the national debt to $3 trillion in his singleminded competition with the other superpower.
Taking office at age 69, Reagan had already lived a career outside Washington, one that spanned work as a radio sports announcer, an actor, a television performer, a spokesman for the General Electric Co., and a two-term governor of California.
At the time of his retirement, his very name suggested a populist brand of conservative politics that still inspires the Republican Party.
He declared at the outset, "Government is not the solution, it's the problem," although reducing that government proved harder to do in reality than in his rhetoric.
Even so, he challenged the status quo on welfare and other programs that had put government on a growth spurt ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal strengthened the federal presence in the lives of average Americans.
In foreign affairs, he built the arsenals of war while seeking and achieving arms control agreements with the Soviet Union.
In his second term, Reagan was dogged by revelations that he authorized secret arms sales to Iran while seeking Iranian aid to gain release of American hostages held in Lebanon. Some of the money was used to aid rebels fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua.
Despite the ensuing investigations, he left office in 1989 with the highest popularity rating of any retiring president in the history of modern-day public opinion polls.
That reflected, in part, his uncommon ability as a communicator and his way of connecting with ordinary Americans, even as his policies infuriated the left and as his simple verities made him the butt of jokes. "Morning again in America" became his re-election campaign mantra in 1984, but typified his appeal to patriotrism through both terms.
At 69, Reagan was the oldest man ever elected president when he was chosen on Nov. 4, 1980, by an unexpectedly large margin over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Near-tragedy struck on his 70th day as president. On March 30, 1981, Reagan was leaving a Washington hotel after addressing labor leaders when a young drifter, John Hinckley, fired six shots at him. A bullet lodged an inch from Reagan's heart, but he recovered.
Four years later he was re-elected by an even greater margin, carrying 49 of the 50 states in defeating Democrat Walter F. Mondale, Carter's vice president.
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Touchdown038
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Movingviolation240
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AZhitman
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Ronald Reagan wrote back to me after I wrote to him soon after he had been shot by John Hinckley...
I was SO amazed that the President would take a minute to even sign a letter to me, a kid in Alabama. He included an autographed photo, and i have kept the letter and the picture all these years.
He was the first president I voted for.
There was a great article in Reader's Digest about him about 5-10 years ago... Wish someone could find it....
I was SO amazed that the President would take a minute to even sign a letter to me, a kid in Alabama. He included an autographed photo, and i have kept the letter and the picture all these years.
He was the first president I voted for.
There was a great article in Reader's Digest about him about 5-10 years ago... Wish someone could find it....
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MaineExport
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I was watching Fox News, and they were showing humorous clips of President Reagan; he was quite the comedian at times, in one clip after being handed a bat for whatever reason, he stated something to the extent of "I can't wait until Congress gets back in session." :-) I was too young to ever actually witness any of his political moves, but considering the history of this country throughout the 80's, he is a President I have to salute. RIP, President Reagan.
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Movingviolation240
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AZhitman wrote:Speaking of funny, his first words to Nancy when she arrived at the hospital after he'd been shot:
"Honey, I forgot to duck."
Classic.
Or what he said to all the people in the hopsital before they started working on him in the ER
"I hope you all are republicans"
I just liked his way of doing things.... woke up one morning and it was on the news "we decided to bomb Omar Kadaffi (SP?). No big buildup in the region, nothing on CNN beforehand, just bombs falling out of the sky, and the next morning it's all over. And we havn't heard a peep out of Kadaffi since....
Paul
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AZhitman
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I got a kick out of his comments to his biographer...
"Well, once I got tired of being Governor, I spent the next eight years residing in public housing in Washington DC..."
LOL - solid.
Paul, I agree - I liked that style. No warning, no threats, just a simple and clear ultimatum. Then all hell breaks loose. Then our guys come home. That's the way it oughta be done.
:patriot
"Well, once I got tired of being Governor, I spent the next eight years residing in public housing in Washington DC..."
LOL - solid.
Paul, I agree - I liked that style. No warning, no threats, just a simple and clear ultimatum. Then all hell breaks loose. Then our guys come home. That's the way it oughta be done.
:patriot
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SCOOTER240
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