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What's Still Great
Reagan’s 2012 Acceptance Speech
If the Gipper were facing off against Obama: What would Reagan say?
Ronald Reagan was famously known as The Great Communicator.
Were he still among us, and were he, through a wave of a Harry Potter wand, standing in front of the 2012 Republican National Convention to accept the GOP presidential nomination — what would he say?
Fortunately Ronald Reagan has left behind countless speeches, radio scripts and a few books. And as a young White House aide I listened personally scores of times, standing along the back of the wall with my peers as the President related conservative philosophy to this or that event of the day. It really isn’t hard to piece together the kind of things he might say were he able to survey the political landscape of 2012 — and directly confront Barack Obama himself.
He would regard what one might call the “contempt and command” Obama era with considerable disdain.
So with the help of Ronald Reagan, here is Ronald Reagan’s acceptance speech of the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Updating and combining a bit from a few of his talks across the years beginning with his famous 1964 speech for Barry Goldwater, the acceptance of the 1980 Republican nomination, his speech at the 1986 Centennial of the Statue of Liberty, and ending with his farewell address to the nation in 1989.
Herewith the speech the Gipper might deliver were he standing at the podium in Tampa next month to accept the 2012 challenge to President Obama.
*****
Mr. Chairman, Mr./Ms. Vice President to be, this convention, my fellow citizens of this great nation:
With a deep awareness of the responsibility conferred by your trust, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States. I do so with deep gratitude, and I think also I might interject on behalf of all of us, our thanks to Tampa and the people of Florida and to this city for the warm hospitality they have shown.
I am very proud of our party tonight. This convention has shown to all America a party united, with positive programs for solving the nation’s problems; a party ready to build a new consensus with all those across the land who share a community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom.
More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country; to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values.
The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility of Democratic Party leadership —in the White House and in Congress — for this unprecedented calamity which has befallen us. They tell us they have done the most that humanly could be done. They say that the United States has had its day in the sun; that our nation has passed its zenith. They expect you to tell your children that the American people no longer have the will to cope with their problems; that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities.
My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view. The American people, the most generous on earth, who created the highest standard of living, are not going to accept the notion that we can only make a better world for others by moving backwards ourselves. Those who believe we can have no business leading the nation.
I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose. We have come together here because the American people deserve better from those to whom they entrust our nation’s highest offices, and we stand united in our resolve to do something about it.
We need rebirth of the American tradition of leadership at every level of government and in private life as well. The United States of America is unique in world history because it has a genius for leaders — many leaders — on many levels. But, back in 2008, Mr. Obama said he was all about “Hope and Change” And a lot of people trusted him. Now, many of those people are out of work, unable to save their own homes, much less save and invest for the future.
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (71) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 7.17.12 @ 7:30AM
I recall Mr. Reagan pointing out that if every church in America took responsibility for helping 10 families get out of poverty and into the mainstream, poverty would disappear in no time.
If Mitt Romney has anybody advising him to do anything positive, perhaps he could lay out the Mormon programs that do exactly that -- when I was a Mormon, it was said proudly that no Mormon ever took government welfare because they took care of their own -- as individuals, finding out what they needed and giving them the assistance that would lift them out of poverty and back into the world of those who make and out of the world of those who take. There is a model and it works. Why isn't Romney pointing this out?
Hello? Is there anybody advising this man?
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.17.12 @ 9:18AM
Reagan would say:
"I've been dead since June 5th, 2004."
Albertus Magnus| 7.17.12 @ 9:35AM
As Brookschwarzenegro would say:
"My brain has been dead all my life."
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 11:51AM
I've always found it amusing ( and typically Liberal) that gays like to blame Ronald Reagan for AIDS.
In their minds, it's like this...
They didn't MEAN to go to bathhouses, and have gay experiences with other, anonymous men...
They didn't mean to have multiple sexual partners...
They didn't want to engage in risky behavior and activities that would expose them to a lethal virus...
They were just walkin' down the street, mindin' their own business when - POOF! - Reagan turned them gay!
AND Reagan made them do all those risky, immoral things!
So naturally, it's Reagan's fault that gays got AIDS.
AIDS is one of the most preventable, easily avoidable diseases on the face of the globe.
If you want to drastically reduce your chances of getting it, all you have to do is STOP engaging in risky behaviors that spread AIDS.
It's wasn't Reagan's fault, fellas...
Osamas Pajamas| 7.17.12 @ 6:00PM
Right, sport, and Ayn Rand has been dead about the same amount of time, but observe that there is a seismic wave of Reaganauts, Randians, Dittoheads, and a kajillion other Americans sweeping in your direction. It's time to throw the trash out.
Mimi | 7.17.12 @ 7:40AM
We have a different kind of adversary to go against in 2012....One that Ronald Reagan never encountered or probably never imagined.
We have a bold brazen incumbent...lawless, tyrant like , yielding power...dictating laws by edict and executive priviledge. A bad guy out to make our guy the BAD guy. He cares not that he is seen as a bold liar, grossly incompetant and wrecking like a toddler everything he touches.
A moral , statesmenship, decent nominee is locked in a den of wolves....he needs to lay the true facts on the table of what this nation will endure if we have to contend with 4 more years of total lack of leadership. He's had 31/2 years now one of which was selfishly spent on being re-elected. he cares not for the country or its great people....We have a sharp, clear contrast here...The nation stands parched with thirst for a NEW President!
Osamas Pajamas| 7.17.12 @ 6:09PM
Hi, Mimi, well spoken. I too doubt that Reagan would ever have imagined an ostensibly American tyrant in the White House --- but Reagan also faced down an evil empire by alliances with Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul, Maggie Thatcher, and anyone else with more than half a brain in their heads.
OhBummer thrives on division --- he loves it when Christians and atheist Democrats declare that Romney's Mormon religion is a problem or that he is not so steady a light as one might prefer.
Only the self-deluded imagine that Romney is just "OhBummer Light." If perhaps he goes wobbly on us at some point, we are different than we were four years ago --- we are done with patience and will not hesitate to give him a sharp poke, if need be --- even the kind with which we have rightly bedeviled OhBummer these long three years or so.
John Navratil| 7.17.12 @ 6:24PM
Mimi,
Unfortunately, he has the political will to issue illegal waivers to the welfare work requirements. There is no way this will be litigated in the next 4 months. And for whom do we think those people who no longer need to attend government make-work programs will vote. And vote they will when the bus drives through the neighborhood to pick them up on voting day.
R Martin| 7.17.12 @ 8:03AM
One hopes Mr. Lord's hint is not too subtle for the Romney campaign.
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.17.12 @ 11:45AM
Reggie Love:
The greatest generation started the welfare State, which you don't like, in 1933.
JD| 7.17.12 @ 1:37PM
The "Greatest Generation" were schoolchildren in 1933. Men considerably older than them created the welfare state.
Crassus| 7.17.12 @ 1:37PM
Uh, no. The greatest generation was only 10 years old in 1933. Dumbass.
Reggie Love| 7.17.12 @ 8:19AM
The country is a lot different than when Reagan was potus sadly. Back in 1980 and 84 their were still many Greatest Generation people around and active. They loved their country and refused to let it go downhill.
vtwin| 7.17.12 @ 9:33AM
Reagan’s legacy; outsourcing, off shoring, and bankrupting…my fellow Americans, my country be dammed, it’s all about me.
Albertus Magnus| 7.17.12 @ 9:36AM
Horse manure. You're a damned liar.
Moe Blotz| 7.17.12 @ 10:13AM
Part of Ronald Reagan's legacy includes tariffs applied to Japanese large displacement motorcycles (engines over 1,000 CC). A certain Milwaukee motorcycle manufacturer was the beneficiary of the tariffs, and asked the Feds to rescind them three years before they were set to expire. Harley-Davidson has since flourished and preserved their basic engine design that was supposedly obsolete in 1970, with Japanese manufacturers developing their own V-Twins. So without Ronald Reagan, vtwin may not have chosen such a moniker because that type of engine would have died with The Motor Company back in 1981.
canuckistani| 7.17.12 @ 10:37AM
No, his legacy is one of amnesia and transferred malice.
He pandered to the birchers but governed to the left of BHO.
He cut and ran from Lebanon.
Sold missiles to the Iranians
Dealt directly with Saddam with his waterboy Rummy as messenger.
Was asleep for most of his remaining six years in office and permitted the S&L fiasco to occur.
The Oct '87 crash was on his watch too.
Gave us Daddy Bush.
Went to church one time in office and had astrologers and the Ultra Supreme King of Fraudsters Billy Graham tiptoeing around the west wing countless times.
The dismantling of America occurred minutes after his inaugural and hasn't stopped in 30 years.
He did push the Reds to the brink with his profligate spending, but left no plan in place when and if the bloc crumbled - typical of
He actively did business with every scumbag regime on the planet if they signed the Norquist-esque pledge to hate pinkos.
C. Vernon Crisler | 7.17.12 @ 12:28PM
Hmm, are you trying to channel Murray Rothbard?
canuckistani| 7.17.12 @ 3:41PM
I forgot one more:
ONLY DIVORCED PRESIDENT IN HISTORY
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 12:44PM
You REALLY are a fool.
Really.
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.17.12 @ 1:12PM
It is a possibility Reagan was the Antichrist:
Ronald= 6
Wilson= 6
Reagan= 6
Dixon| 7.17.12 @ 5:57PM
There is a much greater possibility Brookschwarzenegro is the antichrist...but unlikely due to the intelligence deficit.
It is a much greater possibility Brookschwarzenegro is a left wing loon, all symbolism over substance...emotion over logic...a proud member of the moocher class.
JD| 7.17.12 @ 1:39PM
I thought Bush invented offshoring and outsourcing. Or Romney. Now it's Reagan? Make up your mind!
The grand irony is that selfish Americans do more to help society than your people do.
Osamas Pajamas| 7.17.12 @ 6:12PM
Whenever government taxes and regulations become oppressive, the rights of revolution or deflection obtain. We actually could smash these bxstxrds until they are stone cold dead, but the lesser response has been to shrug off their greed-for-the-unearned and move operations away from the victim company --- either domestically or offshore. We are under no obligation whatever to support or obey a dictatorship, large or small.
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 1:54PM
Reagan's Legacy:
The GREATEST President of the 20th Century.
One of the TOP 3 GREATEST Presidents of all time.
Liberals are desperately jealous of Reagan's track-record of economic success, and the special place he holds in the hearts of the public. That's why poseurs and clowns like Obama keep trying to compare his pathetic, ignorant, illiterate butt to Reagan.
Ain't gonna' work.
Reagan = GREATNESS.
Obama = Abject failure
It must suck to be a liberal; everything you believe in is a lie.
vtwin| 7.17.12 @ 9:22AM
Jeffrey , do you think the Gipper would join the growing chorus of Republicans calling on Mitt Romney to release his tax returns? And what do you think the Gipper would make of a presidential candidate with secret Swiss bank accounts?
Anthony| 7.17.12 @ 10:19AM
vtwin, do you think Obozo will tell us why he wrote a bio for his book publisher that said he was a Kenyan? Maybe show his real birth certificate, not the fake one on line?
Do you think MOOcheele will tell us how she got that no show $300,000 job at that Chicago hospital?
Why is it corrupt Ds, like Obozo and Chris Dodd, borrow money from the felons like Tony Rezco and Angelo Mozillo?
Can we see Obozo's Connecticut S.S. card? Maybe a few of his college transcripts and his application, which will show a "foreign student" status??
Maybe tell us why the professor emeritus of Columbia's Poly Si department has no recollection of ever seeing Obozo?
I think you and your biker buddies need to get back to picking up 5 cent deposits to help save California from bankruptcy.
Does Gov. Moombeams have a Swiss bank account, or only a brain that looks like Swiss cheese?
Final Question of the day: Which California city will declare bankruptcy today? Get your answer in by noon Eastern, and win a ride on vitwin's tricycle.
Anthony| 7.17.12 @ 3:16PM
Whoa, hey vtwin, look's like the next bankrupt CA city is San Bernadino. Apparently, it has no cash to pick up its citizen's garbage. Maybe the citizens should deposit their garbage at City Hall. Oh wait, they voted for these lefties.
This is a job for vtwin and his San Fran bikers!!!
I kinda like the symmetry here, garbage in.... garbage out....
Get it vtwin?
Suzyqpie| 7.17.12 @ 7:06PM
Why do we care about what Romney's do with Romney money? You need to focus on what 0bama does with our money. Get it? Stay in the now.
Kingofthenet| 7.17.12 @ 10:12AM
He would say, I won't mention your youth or the fact that your a N*gg*r, if you don't mention my age.
canuckistani| 7.17.12 @ 10:48AM
Or his absence of a brain.
RR was the antichrist, you just don't realize it.
C. Vernon Crisler | 7.17.12 @ 12:32PM
canuckistani, are you Ron Reagan Jr?
Brookschwarzenegro | 7.17.12 @ 1:16PM
Do you mean because?:
Ronald= 6
Wilson= 6
Reagan= 6
Albertus Magnus| 7.17.12 @ 1:44PM
I know you think you're funny (it is a giant leap to assume that you actually think), but this really is offensive and very unfunny. Not to mention patently abusrd, assuming you yourself take this seriously. You may now return to your domicile under that rock.
canuckistani| 7.17.12 @ 3:35PM
Numerology. Hmm, very apropos for discussing RR.
I wonder how many numerologists were in the West Wing after Nancy punted Don Regan?
I place my bet on 6....
Riff Raff| 7.17.12 @ 5:40PM
"I place my bet on 6...."
You lose.
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 1:55PM
No, he's an ignoramus masquerading as an elitist.
Reagan could run intellectual circles around ANY 20th-century Democrat President.
Canuckistani (the name says all you need to know) is a joke.
canuckistani| 7.17.12 @ 3:32PM
Not likely. He and his cabal of birchers used empty rhetoric to seduce Catholics and white working people to buy into his empty vision of the country. Where did that get them? A rust belt and a polarized country for generations. Some legacy.
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 6:22PM
Where did that get them?
Hmmmmmm...
Good question. Let's see...
1. Greatest peacetime economic expansion in US history that propelled growth for over 25 years.
2. Renewal of American national spirit after 20+ years of weak, pusillanimous Democrat power.
3. An end to the Cold War
4. The economic destruction of our greatest enemy
5. The end of Communist expansion and aggression
...should I go on?
You're an idiot.
canuckistani| 7.17.12 @ 3:30PM
No I am not, just a regular American that calls it as it is.
Look at his record and the laws broken, people's lives shattered under his regime, not his teleprompter rhetoric using skills acquired shlepping for GE and on set with the Chimp.
For whatever you think BHO is, his record is already ahead of RR's in his first term in tax relief, foreign expertise and realignment of federal priorities. Job creation is pretty close and with record low inflation and interest rates, cost of money keeps people afloat.
Anthony| 7.17.12 @ 3:44PM
Foreign Expertise= Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Realignment of Federal Priorities= Destruction of the private sector, 53 straight months of 8.5%+ unemployment, $Trillions deficits until Hell freezes over.
Laws Broken= Fast & Furious. Obozo lied, two agents died... and hundreds of Mexicans.
You have to be willfully stupid to belive your own bullshit.
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 6:24PM
If you actually believe that then you're too dumb for words.
And you are.
"Foreign expertise"?????
Blah-hah-hah-hah!!!!!!!
Suzyqpie| 7.17.12 @ 7:11PM
Debt and deficits working for you? What happens when the bond buyers don't show up for our T-bills? Run the printing press? Check on Greece, how's that's working out?
Appleby| 7.17.12 @ 7:30PM
He's Canadian. He's required by law to find out what Americans do and do the reverse, whether it makes any sense or not.
Here in We're Not America, capitalism died when Pierre Trudeau took over. Canuckistani probably voted for him.
C. Vernon Crisler | 7.17.12 @ 12:31PM
Talk about crackpot theories. I've got a book called *Rethinking Race* (1996) in which the author accuses Ronaldus Magnus of being a racist. Apparently, in the extremist liberal mindset, being opposed to statism and welfarism is to be a racist.
JD| 7.17.12 @ 1:40PM
After 3.5 years of Obama, we've kinda put that question to rest, haven't we?
Crassus| 7.17.12 @ 1:47PM
I remember that famed author James Michener once called Reagan a racist because he cut taxes. So include being opposed to high taxes is another reason to be considered a racist by a liberal.
Crassus| 7.17.12 @ 1:40PM
This one ought to earn this assclown a ban.
Riff Raff| 7.17.12 @ 5:41PM
I see "Kingofthenet" the racist is back.
DaPicayune| 7.17.12 @ 10:43AM
Beautifully and brilliantly written, Mr. Lord, as if RR were speaking to us again.
You captured the spirit and the image of the co-founder of the modern Conservative movement. Perhaps you only neglected to mention his warning, that freedom/liberty is just one generation from being lost, so it’s always up to us to remain vigilant and faithful to our Constitution, our principals, and pass them on to each succeeding generation.
Just think, this speech could actually be delivered in Tampa this year, if only “Reagan’s Young Lieutenant”, the man who gave us the Second Reagan Revolution, Speaker Newt Gingrich, were our nominee. As you previously quoted RR to Newt: “"Well, some things you're just going to have to do after I'm gone." Newt’s the a man to bring RR’s words to life and make manifest their meaning.
But, it looks now like we’ll have to hope that our “Rope-A-Dope” Romney can pull us through against the worst POTUS to ever seek reelection, that Radical Alinsky Socialist, to repair and rebuild RR's Shinning City on the Hill.
Thanks for a great article, and for those who miss RR there’s still this video below:
http://w3.newsmax.com/a/reagan.....gn=Reagan1
Who Knows?| 7.17.12 @ 11:29AM
“I remember poppa”---as I was entering adulthood, dad was piquantly aware of his self-chosen future.
Many the night, lubricated by whiskey, he’d play the self-pity card, and moan---
“It’s not what you used to be, but what you are today.”
BINGO, for America!
Lots has changed since Reagan, uplifted by a majority of voters in 1980, was able to slow down the expansion of America’s decline. But, 32 years later, in 2012 = TODAY, is not 1980 = what America used to be.
The liberal cancer has just about metastasized too far.
Obama essentially stole 5 trillion dollars, and burned it. Think about what that means.
$5,000,000,000,000 divided by 300,000,000 Americans = almost $20,000 for every person, from a just-born babe to a ready-to-die old fart!
What a stick up, what a rip off, what a con job.
And, Obama and Romney are basically tied, while Intrade still has Obama favored to win 57-43.
Lincoln was wrong---you CAN fool enough of the people enough of the time to get your way. And, I thought Clinton was the ultimate fooler. He was just the appetizer.
Obama is the full feast.
Reggie Love| 7.17.12 @ 12:09PM
Does anyone think a guy with Obama's background would even win the Democrat nomination in 1980 or 84?
Crassus| 7.17.12 @ 1:49PM
A guy with Bill Clinton's background would not have won the Democratic nomination for President in 1980 or 1984. Unfortunately, we won the Cold War. That victory freed up draft dodgers and Marxists to run for President.
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 1:57PM
I still can't believe he won it in 2008.
The country was going through a national nervous breakdown after 8 years of "Bush lied, people died, Bush stole Florida, blah-blah-blah."
canuckistani| 7.17.12 @ 3:36PM
Does anyone think a guy with RR's background would win the GOP nom in 2012?
Riff Raff| 7.17.12 @ 5:40PM
Not in this environment. Too many people have been bought by the government. How much did they buy you for? (Using other people's money, of course.)
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 6:24PM
Yup.
In a landslide.
You're a joke.
Kingofthenet| 7.17.12 @ 12:34PM
I wonder how long before Conservatives take the NEXT logical step and build a religion around RAYGUN. I mean for them Fast and Furious is a BIG scandal, but selling HEAVY weapons to the Iranians....not so much.
JD| 7.17.12 @ 1:41PM
Straw men are all you have.
Albertus Magnus| 7.17.12 @ 1:46PM
Are you still here? You are SO stupid you make Obama almost look intelligent.
Reggie Love| 7.17.12 @ 1:49PM
No Republican has ever made a pledge to Reagan like you assclowns did for Obama.
canuckistani| 7.17.12 @ 3:40PM
No, you assbandits jumped in head first drinking the revisionist RR koolaid.
Daddy Bush was right: it was voodoo economics, and we are paying the price for it today.
RR created Willard by legitimizing and incentivizing LBO's. Taxing wealth lower than work is also an RR legacy.
Albertus Magnus| 7.17.12 @ 5:37PM
If you really want voodoo, look at your Bozo-the-Clown-President's "economic" plan: Just print and borrow your way to prosperity. Boobs like you wouldn't know actual economics if you ate it for breakfast.
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 6:29PM
Who's "we"?
Where we're you in 1980?
Where did you live?
Look...you're here, and not in the 3rd-world cesspool that spawned you because we Americans are a gracious people.
You're here because the crap-hole country you came from sucks.
So since you're here by our grace, and living well due to the policies of great men like Ronald Reagan, do us all a favor and shut up.
Or...please enlighten us...name some great statesmen from the country you cone from, jackass.
Go ahead...we're waiting...
(What's it like to come from a useless, insignificant, backwards culture?)
Doctor Right| 7.17.12 @ 1:58PM
Just watch.
You won't like it.
(That means it's gonna' be good.)
Drunken Sailor| 7.17.12 @ 3:04PM
How quickly the left forgets that Obama was comparing himself to Regan in 2008.
So which is it, Regan was evil and your guy is just like him, or Obama lied to appeal to the legions of Regan fans?
Suzyqpie| 7.17.12 @ 7:20PM
Let's all pause and have a moment of silence for our Nobel Peace prize winning drone fleet commander, Pres 0bama's, skills in international diplomacy.
Kingofthenet| 7.17.12 @ 1:42PM
Funny you should ask:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAk7Hrf2joU
Dixon| 7.17.12 @ 6:07PM
Mr. Lord, please send a copy of this speech to Mr. Romney.
It reads similar to pages found in the book, "Reagan, In His Own Hand". If you want to see evidence of Reagan's deep appreciation for America's Freedom and Opportunity, his Faith in God and the American people this is it...his hand written speeches and notes over many years.
The man was a principled ROCK.
Thom| 7.17.12 @ 7:06PM
Unfortunately Reagan has been gone from politics for 24 years now and anyone that could deliver such a speech has long been driven out of the Party or pummeled by the elites worse than by Marxist Democrats who control the Party.
As I’ve said before, the Party has been leaderless since 1988 and none of the standard bearers since then inspire people to vote for them.
Between trying to hold politics to “Do no harm” and being unwilling to speak the truth about who the opponent is (and his supporters), the Republicans have put themselves on the same road as the Supreme Court, irrelevancy.
Politics is “war by other means” and like war you had better know your enemy and friend alike. Republicans think this is a “game” of some sort. They see “silver linings” where there is nothing but misery spreading over the fruited plane.
A well-known author wrote a trilogy about what happens when a society cast off its responsibilities to “others” and lives a life with its head up its arse…… Expecting human nature to vote responsible at the brink of the cliff is beyond naive….. It takes real leadership to unit a multitude of factions under a common cause banner. I don’t see it on stage….
Ogemaniac| 7.18.12 @ 8:59AM
Given that the Gipper was to the left of Obama on economic issues (twelve tax increases, including five of the fifteen biggest tax increases post WWII), they wouldn't have much to argue about. Perhaps gay marriage or something.