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He quickly gained a reputation as the Teflon president to whom bad news didn’t stick. His ability to charm almost any crowd helped keep his popularity high. I’ve been told this is all off the record and that the cameras are all off, is that right? I was told that because I’ve been waiting years to do this! (Taunting gesture with hands and fingers)

I was going to have an opening statement but I decided that what I was going to say… that I wanted to get a lot of attention… so I’m going to wait and leak it.

He exploited his own age fairly well. On that subject, he was happy to aim jokes squarely at himself. http://ronaldreaganquote.com/2012/11/self-deprecating-humor/

Reagan clearly relished the job. Missing no opportunity to joke about his favorite targets – communism, big government, high taxes. http://ronaldreaganquote.com/2012/11/joke-about-communism-big-government-and-high-taxes/

He liked to laugh, President Lincoln and as a matter of fact, he was criticized for it once. And he said, if I couldn’t laugh I couldn’t stand this job for fifteen minutes http://ronaldreaganquote.com/2012/11/reagan-quotes-his-wit-rivaled-roosevelt-and-lincoln/

Yes, because for many years I was a Democrat. http://ronaldreaganquote.com/2012/11/ronald-reagan-quotes-i-was-a-democrat/

Howard Baker told me on the steps of the capital, at the time of the inaugural, He said “Mr. President I want you to know I will be with you through thick.” And I said “What about thin?” He said “Welcome to Washington” http://ronaldreaganquote.com/2012/11/president-reagans-humor-washington-d-c-loyalty/

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help. http://ronaldreaganquote.com/2012/10/the-nine-most-terrifying-words-in-the-english-language/

Winston Churchill said, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits—not animals.” And he said, “There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.” You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness. Ronald Reagan http://ronaldreaganquote.com/2012/10/ronald-reagan-quotes-winston-churchill-were-spirits-not-animals/

Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand—the ultimatum. And what then—when Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we’re retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he’s heard voices pleading for “peace at any price” or “better Red than dead,” or as one commentator put it, he’d rather “live on his knees than die on his feet.” And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don’t speak for the rest of us. You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin—just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn’t die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it’s a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.” “There is a point beyond which they must not advance.” Winston Churchill said, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits—not animals.” And he said, “There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.” You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”