Freedom Line Blog

With the 100th Anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth approaching next month, Reagan supporters and detractors alike are looking to cash in on our 40th President’s legacy. Sadly, it’s not clear which of those categories his son, Ron Jr., falls into.

In a new book, “My Father at 100”, the junior Reagan claims that his father was suffering the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease during his second term. This is not a new allegation, but it’s one that has usually been limited to liberal innuendo in the past. No publisher worth his salt is going to let a book like this go to press without a pre-release date press bombshell, however, and Reagan’s closeness to his father (genetically speaking, at least) gives this claim more credence than it would otherwise enjoy.

Remarkably, a defense of the Gipper is coming from an unexpected corner of the media. On today’s episode of “The View”, Barbara Walters — who moderated the 1984 presidential debate that the younger Reagan cites as evidence of his father’s deteriorating mental state — came out hard against the allegations. As noted by the Daily Caller, she said:

“Ron, Jr.’s half-brother Michael said this is not true. This didn’t happen,” she continued. “I’m going to say something that I probably saw more of President Reagan in those years than either of his sons. He was not really close to them. And I did interview after interview. I didn’t see any signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s or whatever until after he left office.

After all these years of Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, and Rosie O’Donnell, this is hardly penance for all of “The View’s” shots at conservatism. But it’s not a bad place to start.

Saturday marked the 99th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth.  It was also the day on which “Snowmageddon” dumped two feet of snow on Washington, D.C., closing government agencies into this week.

Coincidence?  Or yet another win for the Gipper?

After all, Reagan once lamented the federal government’s counterproductive overactivity:

“We have all heard that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.  Today, if you build a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.”

Well, let’s consider this a symbolic reverse birthday gift from President Reagan, since every day on which the federal government is shut down is a day on which it isn’t devising a better mouse to unleash on us all.