Given tonight's GOP debate at the Reagan Library, we put together a collection below including some outstanding comedy from the Gipper himself.
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The greatest speech of Ronald Reagan's career - 1964. This is not the Goldwater convention delivery that is so famous; this one is actually better.
Topics - National debt, deficits, debt ceilings, growth of government, the war in Southeast Asia, Cuba, the Founding Fathers and gold.
- "There is no such thing as Left or Right."
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Reagan tells Soviet jokes.
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Video: Reagan's famous line "I'm paying for this microphone!"
Feb 23, 1980.
In the New Hampshire primary, a single symbolic act dramatized the debut of Reagan's new image as a candidate and the demise of Bush's presidential hopes. It occurred during what was scheduled to be a two-person debate between Bush and Reagan in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Feburary 23, the Saturday before balloting. As it turned out, Bush crumpled under pressure orchestrated by Reagan's camp.
Initially, both Reagan and Bush had seen advantages in a two-person debate sponsored by a local newspaper. When the FEC ruled that newspaper sponsorship of the debate amounted to an illegal campaign contribution and when Bush refused to pay half of the debate's cost, Reagan agreed to underwrite it himself.
Reagan then moved to include the other five contenders - a move that identified him both as a candidate and a unifier. When the other candidates showed up on stage, Bush froze.
As Reagan made his case for inclusion of the other candidates, the moderator ordered Reagan's mike turned off. Reagan responded, "I'm paying for this microphone, Mr. Green." The fact that the moderator's name was Breen seemed to matter little. The crowd cheered. When neither newspaper hosting the debate nor Bush would accede to the inclusion of the others, the other candidates left the stage. Reagan's prospects had been boosted, Bush's buried. Reagan carried New Hampshire 50% to Bush's 23%.
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ABC Video - Remembering The Humor Of President Reagan
Say what you will about the man, the Gipper could tell a joke.
I was young when Reagan was first elected and I didn't know him as an actor. I was an older teenager when he was re-elected, and I was an intern for CNN Washington in the Summer of 1987, when his Alzheimer's began to seize control. I mention it because '87 was the Summer of the Iran-Contra hearings and Lt. Colonel Oliver North. We covered the hearings every day, all day for 2 months, and Reagan's fading memory played some part in that political theater. Though he wasn't publicly diagnosed at the time, you can tell by his speech patterns that the disease had been destroying his mind since before he took office in 1980.
ABC took a look back at the wit and humor of the Gipper, our 39th President.
