From Ray Barnhart:
Ronald Reagan was the epitome of what our President should be: principled, courageous, and intelligent. His seeking to be President was not to assuage his ego, but rather to serve the country he so unabashedly loved.
One of the fondest memories I have that revealed the true character of the rare political figure that he was-genuine and not pre-possessed with his own importance-occurred during our 1976 Texas Presidential Primary Campaign.
After picking him up at Hobby Airport in Houston, I proudly informed him that we had a change of plans: Saturday night we'd fly to Dallas. I'd arranged for him to participate in Reverend W. A. Criswell's Sunday worship service at his Baptist Church. Texas Baptists tended to be conservative and hang together; statewide there were some four million of them who would be mighty impressed. Criswell, I asserted, was such an icon with that denomination that some day God would undoubtedly be sitting at his right hand. Reagan could read a scripture or two before the sermon, and it would be a tremendous coup, a great boost to our campaign.
Ronald Reagan listened in silence, then said, "We're not going to do it." "Not do it?" I replied in shock, "there isn't a politician in Texas who wouldn't cut off his arm for this opportunity."
Ronald Reagan responded, "You don't understand, Ray. My relationship with my God is MY relationship, and we're not going to abuse it."
I knew at that moment there'd never be a man in politics more principled and deserving of respect.
Texas campaign in 1976 and '80,
and state Republican chairman from 1977-79,
served as Federal Highway Administrator under Reagan.
From Frank Donatelli:
When he rode Marine 1 from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base, Reagan could be seen staring intently at the landscape below. After observing this several times, I once asked him, "Sir, what are you seeing down there?"
"Look at those homes," he replied. "They are owned by working people. Many of them have swimming pools. I have to show this to [Former Soviet Leader] Gorbachev. I want him to understand how well off American workers are and how much freedom can do to improve every person's life."
The next year, Reagan indeed gave Mr. Gorbachev that tour and, presumably, an earful about the importance of freedom.
Ronald Reagan was formidable precisely because he believed fervently in the power of ideas. He was fond of quoting the title of Richard Weaver's seminal work, "Ideas Have Consequences." The idea of freedom as framed by the American experience was central to his belief that, as he said at Notre Dame back in 1982, "We will not defeat communism; we will transcend it."
campaigns in 1976 and '80,
was special assistant to the President
in the Reagan White House.
