Ronald ReaganFiring Line with William F. Buckley Jr. "Presidential Hopeful: Ronald Reagan"

During the course of the 2012 national election season, I found I needed this.A good dose of excellent interviewing techniques from William F. Buckley, with one of the very best interviews of all time, and an hour of listening to one of the greatest American Presidents of all time - Ronald Reagan. I recommend it.Interestingly, listening to then-Governor Reagan's responses (it became clear that the issues today were the same as they were all of those years ago when Reagan eventually won over Mr. Carter).Whether you're a political conservative of not, this is excellent in all aspects. - Prof Michael Haller

In January 1980 presidential candidate Ronald Reagan appeared on William F. Buckley's "Firing Line." In this episode, Buckley posed several hypothetical situations to Reagan as if he had already been inaugurated. Characteristically, Reagan emphasized the Constitution and local solutions rather than federal solutions to issues. The Gipper came across as relaxed and knowledgeable on the issues the two discussed such as the Soviet threat, peace through strength, inflation, energy, taxes, and the First Amendment. Toward the end of the show a reporter asked him about the age issue and the upcoming fight for the Republican nomination. This episode of "Firing Line" is a good snapshot of Ronald Reagan at the beginning of the year in which he would be elected president.

You can really see the conservative Ronald Reagan speak to all men. Sometimes clever: Reagan corrects then President Carter's analogy of canoeing and politics, demonstrating his familiarity with the outdoors and his disagreement with paddling on "both sides" of partisan politics to move forward. Sometimes surprising: When asked by Mr. Buckley about when the Federal Government would get involved in a racial issue, Reagan replied that if there were a clear usurpation of a person's civil rights, he would send Federal Authority to defend those rights even to the point of a bayonet. (a paraphrase). Gritty and sometimes witty, but always thoughtful; This interview says a great deal about the man who would be President.

"I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this."So began Ronald Reagan's first public address to the nation in the Autumn of 1964. So was the nature of the man: forthright, self-assured and honest to a fault. In 1964, Ronald Reagan (see:  In the Face of Evil: Reagan's War in Word and Deed ) was merely an actor; and 16 years later, on January 14, 1980, he was on the set of Firing Line - only months from becoming America's 40th president - meeting with the host, William F. Buckley (see:  The Reagan I Knew ), for one of the most stimulating and enchanting hours of television to date.Hard as it is to believe, there was a time when Ronald Reagan was best addressed as "Governor Reagan." But there was such a time when Governor Ronald Reagan's ongoing candidacy for the US presidency was thought immeasurably improbable; a time when the farsighted minds and furrowed brows at the Republican National Committee counted him out by counting in fours - each presidential electoral term.With the self-afflicted bloodbath of the Nixon Administration only six years behind them, Republican realists confessed a probable defeat in 1980, and admitted the Democratic National Committee would virtually own the White House for at least one full generation. The Republican talking points were simple and defeatist: it's a time of transition, we're rebuilding our party, and so on.... Governor Reagan, the Republican candidate for the White House during the 1979-1980 election cycle would, of course, have none of it; and so suggested his confident smile.In January of 1980, William F. Buckley extended an invitation to candidate Reagan to appear on his weekly current affairs programme, 'Firing Line.' Some of the very best repartee of the middle to late 20th century occurred on the set of Warren Steibel's creation. Buckley was always brilliant, always entertaining; but in his wisdom, he made the program, and the guests who appeared on his program, if not always brilliant in his reflecting illumination, at least entertaining.This meeting of minds was to be of a benefit for both participants, as it was not a secret that William F. Buckley would have awoken rather gleefully to understand that the Carter Administration had been truncated at the end of term one. And though Mr. Buckley's interview is not of the confrontational kind to which we're accustomed, it is, I think, still of some value to witness a conversation between two gentlemen of similar cordial customs.Host Buckley makes a further change to his interviewing technique by tossing out the prosaic Q&A style of questioning and, instead, posing questions to a PRESIDENT Reagan, assuming he's already arrived at his rendezvous with destiny.The first question asked by Buckley is a hot one. It deals with race, rioting, and police engagement. It is all a supposition, and all occurring in the city of Detroit. Asks Mr. Buckley: "In such a case, what would you be apt to do, Mr. President?"Without a pause, Reagan answers: "Well, I would be inclined to say that [this issue] was a problem for the local authorities in Detroit..."And there, without equivocation, is the Reagan we know. Not quoting Article 10, from Bill of Rights, but understanding its practical implications and knowing the value of the originalist's intent. While it's important to have a president who knows his Bills, his Constitution, his Declaration, his Doctrine, his Proclamation and his Pledge, it's twice as nice to have a president who knows what those documents mean, and how to make use of their value in a contemporary USA.Candidate Reagan then goes on to explain that Federal Government involvement - when not required; when not requested - can be as big a problem as when Federal Government is required and not received: a sentiment found living in the marrow of his conservative philosophy; and one that found voice very early in his political transformation.The finest point of Buckley's interview with Reagan is a question that seems drawn from a parallel universe only slightly ahead of our own. It is an hypothetical posed to the presumed President Reagan, and a near perfect primer for term number one:WFB: Mr. President, yesterday a union of postal employees went on a nationwide strike. Now I know you well enough to know that your instinctive answer would be "How can you tell"?" [Laughter] Having got past that, what would be your official policy toward a strike by a federal and municipal employees?REAGAN: I have thought for a long time that by law they should not be allowed to strike. Government is not the same as private business. Government cannot close down the assembly line, and isn't it significant that when government employees first began to unionize, and they had the support of organized labor but then organized labor supported them only on the condition that their unions would contain a no-strike clause. The public employees should not be allowed to strike. Movement can't close down.Eights months after the authentically-elected President Reagan took the Oath of Office, the union of air traffic controllers went out on strike, breaching their own contract strictures, and engaging in an illegal strike of public employees. True to his word - true to his beliefs - President Reagan did just what he said he would do: he demanded the striking employees return to work; when they refused, he fired the lot.The tumult created by this bold (and some accused, reckless) move was soon to be named mere classic Reagan. Whether friend of foe to the Administration, he was a man who could be trusted to keep his word. In a city replete with last minute, under-the-table glad-handing and deal-making, Reagan became known for resolutely standing by that which he said and knew to be true.His smile abounds throughout the program; and one can easily see that this man is truly enjoying himself. He is confident as ever; a man wholly prepped for the eight-year task that will soon be at hand. He is a former Democrat whose rightward reformation matches a change that is currently taking place throughout much of the country. He is, at times, gravely serious; at other times, light-hearted and jovial. Throughout, he is disarmingly affable and always confident; with the principles of conservatism sewn deep into the fabric of his governing tradition.Into the lungs of conservatism new life was drawn; and for every rightward movement, the corresponding Left moved accordingly. Ronald Reagan was the man who changed the political environment from the very moment he accepted the Oath of the Office. Today, he is marked by both Republicans and Democrats for his steady stewardship as Commander-in-Chief, and for his undying faith in the American people and the American spirit.Thirty years have past and four presidents have come and gone. Today, Democrat President Barack Obama looks to Republican President Reagan for inspiration as well as instruction; and he seems to be a rather precocious student:"I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s...government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think...he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was 'we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.'"In 1980, Ronald Reagan was in excellent form, and William Buckley, Jr. was the right man to engage him. With both men now gone, this edition of Firing Line makes a fascinating, engaging, and inspiring remembrance of the two; a DVD that should start a collection of 20th century icons.DAVID AVENDEROpinion ChronicleTuesday, January 15, 2009

Buckley calculatedly asks Reagan challenging questions in this interview, no soft balls, but Reagan displays his grasp of history and real world solutions, in giving great answers consistent with conservative ideas, as he refined them. Anyone who has read Reagan's writings and transcripts of his radio broadcasts from long before he ran for any office, knows how egregious the lies are from the left about his mentality. They mistake an ability to explain concepts in simple terms to an inability to conceptualize difficult problems -- such as the solution to end the cold war by driving the Soviet economy into the ground, that he explained in detail many years before running for President. That simple idea, that the New York Times and its acolytes ridiculed up until the very year it succeeded, ended the Soviet Union. But this program is a chance to see him answer difficult hypothetical questions on the fly with elegant solutions that would really work -- as many of them did after he became President.

Reagan holds-up well, to Buckley's tough questioning. It goes far in disproving the naysayers' unrelenting assertion that without his "handlers," Reagan was a deer in the headlights; he clearly spoke a good game when it came to free-market economics and individual liberty.

Breath of fresh air! listening to intelligent conversation. Looking forward to watching many more episodes.

Always brilliant!