That president would be Ronald Reagan and he would be 99 today.

Reagan is a great conservative hero for what he wasn’t as well as for what he was.  In an era when people thought the portal to political leadership was a degree from an elite university and a lifetime of working within the establishment.  Reagan was a small-town midwesterner that went from an obscure college and spent most of his adult life doing other things; a sportscaster, an actor, etc.  He was well into middle age before he entered into electoral politics.

This baffled his critics, who believed that the true measure of a 50-something man of accomplishment was a degree he’d gotten when he was 22.  Yet instead he was much like the rest of us:  An ordinary man who became an extraordinary president.  And today we may be seeing the ultimate tribute to Reagan–Millions of Americans are rising up and doing the Reagan thing for themselves.

Reagan’s first inaugural:

Let’s recap a few points:

“We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around…”
“Our government has no power except by the people…”
“All of us need to be reminded that the federal government did not create the states, the states created the federal government…”
“It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of the federal government…”
“We can and will resolve the problems, which now confront us.  And after all, why shouldn’t we believe that.  We.  Are. Americans.”

Sweet Jesus, this guy sure can give a speech.  Notice how he doesn’t nod back and forth like he is watching a tennis match like Obama does.

Presidential.