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Gong, Gong, Gong!

Making Sense, by Michael Reagan

Gong, Gong, Gong!

I don’t know about you, but watching the Republican primary season is making me feel like a judge on the “The Gong Show.”

I watched or listened to all three candidates after Tuesday night’s Illinois primary. I’m still crying.

If Mitt, Newt and Rick had given those uninspiring speeches on Chuck Barris’ twisted 1970s amateur talent show, the celebrity panelists would have gang-gonged them in 30 seconds.

The speeches Romney, Santorum and Gingrich gave were the least inspiring of this trying campaign season. Each one was too long, lacking in vision and boring as hell. I think Santorum is still delivering his Gettysburg Address.

Hasn’t anyone on his staff ever heard the advice “less is more”? Don’t any of these guys realize that their rambling, dull speeches are carried live on the cable channels?

Win or lose, here’s a free idea for one of them to try after the Louisiana primary on Saturday (March 24):

First give a quick, sharp, inspiring, enthusiastic, Obama-bashing speech for the TV cameras. Use a teleprompter if you must or, if you want to look Reaganesque, write a few notes on some index cards.

Then, after three minutes, say “God bless America!” or “On to the White House!” and exit stage right.

Save the rehashes of your positions on healthcare or family values for your supporters in the room. Ditto for your sincere thanks to your loyal cousin Shirley and the assistant precinct captain of Peoria.

I have a more strategic suggestion for our three contestants before “The Republican Gong Show” gets to Tampa.

If they are truly serious about wanting to beat Obama in the fall, they’d better dump all their advisers now. They each need to find someone like a Michael Deaver or a Lyn Nofziger, the media geniuses who ran my father’s campaigns, and listen carefully.

The cold truth is that at this point there is only one professional campaign team in this never-ending primary and, like it or not, it’s Romney’s. The Santorum and Gingrich teams may be more conservative, but they are not well funded and they’re amateur league.

Newt says Mitt can’t beat Obama, but he can’t beat Romney or Santorum, and even Ron Paul beat him in Illinois. And Rick says Mitt will say whatever he needs to say to win. Welcome to hardball politics, Rick.

Let’s face it. There is no road for Santorum or Gingrich to the White House, not even a dirt road. That is unfortunate. But now the primary has turned into a “Stop Romney” campaign and that’s much more than unfortunate. It’s destructive. And it only helps Obama.

Here’s a suggestion for Newt and Rick if they insist on going one-on-one against Romney. Since primary loss after primary loss clearly isn’t working, how about a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors and the loser goes home?

Seriously, it’s time for Mitt to get some of his own ideas and not take them from Newt (energy) and from Rick (freedom). Without his own “big ideas” and own “vision thing,” he will lose. Trust me.

Most importantly, it’s time for Mitt to reach out to the conservatives. If he doesn’t, he won’t ever be president, either, and Obama will get four more years to continue his deconstruction of America.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com.

©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike's column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. Email Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.

Making Sense, by Michael Reagan

In less than 50 years they ruined my home state. 

They over-taxed it, over-regulated it and bankrupted it. They strangled its vibrant economy, destroyed its education system and let its infrastructure crumble.

Who are these people who’ve turned the Golden State into Greece?

Not Big Business. Not the rich. Not the poor. Not millions of immigrants from Des Moines or Juarez.

“They” are the career politicians in Sacramento. Their excessive lawmaking, taxing and spending have transformed California into a European welfare state with a grim future.

It's hard for me to believe how things have deteriorated in California since the late 1960s. I can remember when Ronald Reagan was governor. We had a surplus. He actually gave money back to the people of California.

The state once was famous for having the best education system, the best business climate, the best roads and infrastructure in America. It was a growing, dynamic paradise where people came to pursue their dreams and hopes.

Now California’s a wreck that people and businesses are leaving in droves. And Gov. Brown and his gang are offering us more of the same this fall -- higher income and sales taxes and a bullet train no one wants but them.

To reverse its death spiral, California needs to return to a part-time legislature and turn its career politicians into part-time citizen politicians -- which is what they are in 41 other states and what they were in California until 1967.

Today the state’s 120 legislators work year-round and their $95,000 salaries are sweetened by as much as $50,000 in tax-free per diem allowances. They are the highest-paid lawmakers in the country.

Compare California to Texas and Florida. In Texas they pay legislators $600 a month and the legislature meets 140 days a year. In Florida lawmakers get $30,000 a year and meet just 60 days.

The politicians in Texas and Florida do not make politics their careers.  They have to have real jobs in the real world. When they’re not in Austin or Tallahassee, they must live and do business under the same laws they have written.

Part-time legislators are what the founding fathers wanted lawmakers to be. My father Ronald Reagan was a citizen politician. Politics was not a career for him. It was a service. He gave of himself.

People have repeatedly asked me to run for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein. But I think that a new job I have -- chairing the “Citizen Legislature Act” -- is better for me and the state.

California citizens are in the streets collecting signatures now to put the initiative on the fall ballot. The act would return the state to a part-time legislature.  Lawmaking sessions would be cut from 230 days to 90 days. And legislators would be forced to produce on-time, balanced budgets or not get paid. What a concept.

The act also would end politics as a full-time career in California. Legislators would be paid $1,500 a month. At $18,000 a year, they’d have to find real jobs and see what it’s like to live under the dumb and/or bad laws they write by the thousands in Sacramento.

The “Citizen Legislature Act,” which I will work hard to see become law, would shock the systems of the politicians. They’d have to start serving the people of California, not themselves. And I bet they wouldn’t be passing any new bullet train legislation.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com.

©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike's column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. Email Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.

Making Sense, by Michael Reagan
 
We all need to calm down and watch our mouths.
 
Last week Rush Limbaugh referred to a Georgetown University law student who had testified to Congress about contraception as a slut. Rush did the right thing. He apologized.

Last year Ed Schultz referred to talk-show host Laura Ingraham as a slut. Ed also did the right thing. He apologized.

Last year political “funnyman” Bill Maher of HBO referred to Sara Palin as a “c….” Maher, of course, didn’t do the right thing. He didn’t apologize then -- and he swears he never will.

I know there will be those who say the mainstream media only report when conservatives call people names, and never seem to report when liberals do it.
 
I say you’re right. It’s a double-standard. What else is new? And what’s the point? That it’s OK to talk mean and dirty as long as both sides get shamed for it equally by the media?

I don’t buy that bad logic. I expect my side of the political spectrum to behave better than the left side, and our side to be led by better angels. So did my father, Ronald Reagan.
 
My father was able to accomplish so much with Democrats in Congress and Communists in Moscow (or was it the other way around?) because he always looked for the good in everyone.

Inscribed on his gravesite in Simi Valley, Calif., are these words: “I know in my heart that man is good.  That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.”

So should we -- conservatives, that is -- act like Bill Maher or Ronald Reagan?
 
My father wasn’t afraid to apologize. He apologized for Iran-Contra. He apologized to the Poles and Italians in 1980 after the media made a big stink out of a harmless joke he told on the campaign bus.
 
Apologizing is the responsible thing to do when you call someone a slut or worse.  Yet it seems that when we in broadcasting, myself included, are caught with our big mouths open, we often don’t do the right thing.

Instead of manning up and saying we’re sorry, we hide behind the freedom-of-speech argument. Or we hide behind the lame argument that “I’m just an entertainer. I shouldn’t be taken seriously when I say something dumb or ugly.”
 
Yes, we have our First Amendment rights. But you might remember that more than one person has said over the course of history -- Pope John Paul II being a notable one -- that "with rights come great responsibilities.” 

And just because we have the freedom to say the raunchy stuff that Maher thinks is intellectual political comedy, it doesn’t mean it’s right to say it.

It’s time we start acting more responsibly with our God-given rights. We need to remember our children are listening to our rhetoric. We harm them and society at our peril.
 
Rush acted responsibly. He acted like my father. The right needs to learn a simple lesson. When we act like Ronald Reagan, we win. When we act like Bill Maher, we lose. One thing I’ve learned is liberals very rarely apologize and never want to accept an apology.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com.

Making Sense, by Michael Reagan
 
We all need to calm down and watch our mouths.
 
Last week Rush Limbaugh referred to a Georgetown University law student who had testified to Congress about contraception as a slut. Rush did the right thing. He apologized.

Last year Ed Schultz referred to talk-show host Laura Ingraham as a slut. Ed also did the right thing. He apologized.

Last year political “funnyman” Bill Maher of HBO referred to Sara Palin as a “c….” Maher, of course, didn’t do the right thing. He didn’t apologize then -- and he swears he never will.

I know there will be those who say the mainstream media only report when conservatives call people names, and never seem to report when liberals do it.
 
I say you’re right. It’s a double-standard. What else is new? And what’s the point? That it’s OK to talk mean and dirty as long as both sides get shamed for it equally by the media?

I don’t buy that bad logic. I expect my side of the political spectrum to behave better than the left side, and our side to be led by better angels. So did my father, Ronald Reagan.
 
My father was able to accomplish so much with Democrats in Congress and Communists in Moscow (or was it the other way around?) because he always looked for the good in everyone.

Inscribed on his gravesite in Simi Valley, Calif., are these words: “I know in my heart that man is good.  That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.”

So should we -- conservatives, that is -- act like Bill Maher or Ronald Reagan?
 
My father wasn’t afraid to apologize. He apologized for Iran-Contra. He apologized to the Poles and Italians in 1980 after the media made a big stink out of a harmless joke he told on the campaign bus.
 
Apologizing is the responsible thing to do when you call someone a slut or worse.  Yet it seems that when we in broadcasting, myself included, are caught with our big mouths open, we often don’t do the right thing.

Instead of manning up and saying we’re sorry, we hide behind the freedom-of-speech argument. Or we hide behind the lame argument that “I’m just an entertainer. I shouldn’t be taken seriously when I say something dumb or ugly.”
 
Yes, we have our First Amendment rights. But you might remember that more than one person has said over the course of history -- Pope John Paul II being a notable one -- that "with rights come great responsibilities.” 

And just because we have the freedom to say the raunchy stuff that Maher thinks is intellectual political comedy, it doesn’t mean it’s right to say it.

It’s time we start acting more responsibly with our God-given rights. We need to remember our children are listening to our rhetoric. We harm them and society at our peril.
 
Rush acted responsibly. He acted like my father. The right needs to learn a simple lesson. When we act like Ronald Reagan, we win. When we act like Bill Maher, we lose. One thing I’ve learned is liberals very rarely apologize and never want to accept an apology.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com.

©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike's column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Car

Making Sense, by Michael Reagan

When will they stop asking Republicans like me about our party's choice for vice
president?

In every presidential election I’ve been involved in, the press and ordinary
people are always asking, “Who will it be? Who will the presidential nominee
choose for VP?”

It happened again Tuesday when I appeared on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” with
Morgan and Andrew Breitbart, the commentator and boss of the news aggregator
Breitbart.com.

News flash to all commentators, news reporters and worried citizens: We haven’t
chosen the Republican Party nominee yet and he is the person who’ll pick his
running mate.

All the agony and strategizing over the VP choice is a waste of time. The truth
is, no one ever votes for the vice president. If you do, you must be planning on
something happening to the president.

I know, I know, you think if Marco Rubio is the VP choice it will guarantee
Florida will go Republican and might even swing a majority of Latino and
Hispanic votes to the GOP.

But the truth is, up until Dick Cheney came along and became an active player in
the Bush II administration, VPs were as invisible as they were powerless. They
usually spent their time hanging around the Senate office building smoking
cigars and waiting to break a tie vote.

Nowadays, the VP’s major duty is going to the state funerals of world leaders
who happen to pass away or, in Joe Biden’s case, making a fool of yourself and
giving pundits and talk radio hosts a fresh load of fodder.

Back in 1976, everyone wanted Gerald Ford to choose my father for the VP slot.
Ford never asked my father. If he had, I don’t know how my father would have
responded.

But even if my father had accepted, a Ford/Reagan team still would have lost to
Jimmy Carter. Why? Because it was Ford who had to debate Carter, not Reagan, and
Ford still would not have known where Poland was.

If my father had been the ’76 VP choice, he would have given a different speech
at the convention in Kansas City that August and he most likely never would have
had a chance to run for president again.

Why? Because we don’t nominate someone for president who just lost in the last
go-around. Ask Sarah Palin.

So be careful whom you wish for as VP. You might end up ruining the political
career of your favorite future presidential candidate. And don’t you think we
need to find a nominee first before we start choosing the VP?

When our nominee does choose a running mate, he should remember this advice from
Hollywood: Don’t choose someone who outshines you.

Sarah Palin was, by far, a bigger draw than John McCain. But you just can’t have
that destructive dynamic when you are trying to win the presidency. It’s a no-no
in politics. In Hollywood, they call it “upstaging.”

Marco Rubio is a rising Republican superstar. He’ll get his own shot at the
White House. He doesn’t need to risk his political future by possibly being on a
losing ticket this year. And he doesn’t need to waste four years of his life as
VP if Obama is dethroned.

And anyway, where do you think Marco Rubio would do the most good during the
next four years? Attending funerals for the ex-presidents of Paraguay or
Ukraine, or helping a Republican Senate vote down Obamacare?

I choose voting down Obamacare.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant,
and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is
the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy
Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com.

©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike's column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons,
Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. Email
Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.

Making Sense, by Michael Reagan

Another tremendously talented American who had riches and fame beyond most people’s dreams has killed herself with drugs. Whitney Houston’s life was wrecked and cut tragically short at 48 because she became mired in the self-destructive hell of drug use.

In the late 1970s my birth brother was living in L.A. and working as a writer on “Laverne & Shirley,” the number one-rated TV show in the country. It was pretty heady stuff for a 21-year-old kid from Ohio.

I remember him telling me how cocaine and other drugs were becoming increasingly popular with the creative crowd in Hollywood at the time.

He had more money than God and he found himself facing a tough choice: Put his money up his nose like everyone else or leave town.

He chose to leave. Many other young people we know never made the right choice with drugs and their lives ended like Houston’s. 

Sunday night at the Academy Awards, Hollywood will be handing out Oscars to its brightest stars. At some point, tears will be shed for Whitney Houston.

She will be remembered, as she should be, for her great singing.  But you can bet your favorite movie star’s Malibu beach house that the drug lifestyle that sent Houston to an early grave will be conveniently forgotten.

Instead of pretending its chronic drug problem doesn’t exist, or acting like choosing drugs is simply another lifestyle choice, Hollywood needs to take a strong stand against drug use. Illegal and legal.

The Academy Awards this weekend would be a good place to start doing the right thing. As an industry, Hollywood needs to start saying “No” to drugs.

Baseball is saying “No.” Pro football is saying “No.” Cycling, for Pete’s sake, is saying “No.”  In the ‘80s my stepmother Nancy was saying “No.” In the ‘70s my 21-year-old birth brother had the sense to say “No.”

Isn’t it time for Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industry to clean itself up? Dr. Drew does what he can, but he can save only one celebrity drug addict at a time.

Hollywood needs to do more than cry at funerals. It could do so much more in the fight against drugs if its grownups had the guts to use Hollywood’s enormous cultural influence for good (for a change). 

Where are the Public Service Announcements, Mr. Spielberg or Ms. Jolie? Why aren’t Hollywood’s best and brightest cranking out anti-drug PSAs?

Why do we only hear people like Tony Bennett calling for the legalization of drugs?  The answer is not to legalize drugs, it’s to get people to stop using them.

Come on, Hollywood, come together. For all of us, help “Stop the Madness” now. Speak as an industry with one voice: “No more drugs.”
 
I grew up in Hollywood as the son of an Academy Award-winning actress. My mother Jane Wyman lived to be 90, dammit.

I want all the young talent to have the same opportunity my mother and so many others have had. I’m tired of watching our Michael Jacksons, Heath Ledgers and Whitney Houstons die young because of drugs. The list goes on: Elvis, Chris Farley, John Belushi, and so many more.

As a country we must stop glossing over the tragedy of drug abuse. We should learn a lesson  and work on the solution..

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan. .
©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike's column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. Email Cari@cagle.com(800) 696-7561.

Making Sense, by Michael Reagan:

I am an adopted son. I am a very lucky adopted son. And as an adopted son I want all adoptees like me to have the same wonderful adoptive parents I was lucky enough to have. 

My biological mother was an unmarried young woman from Ohio who had an affair with a married man. It was 1945 -- my biological father was in the Army and was shipped off to France to fight in the war while my mother went to California to give birth to me.

My mother made the painful decision to put me up for adoption. Thankfully, I was adopted by none other than the actor Ronald Reagan and his then-wife Jane Wyman. No youngster ever had more loving parents, despite their divorce.

Unlike me, however, many never find a loving permanent home. They grow up in a group home, or are shuffled from foster home to foster home. Tragically the majority of children who "age out" of foster care are not equipped to live as productive adults. Statistics show that they are less likely to graduate from high school. They are less likely to be employed and, even when they are employed, are more likely to have jobs that do not pay a living wage.

Moreover, they are more likely to experience violence, homelessness and mental illness. And they are more likely to fall victim to substance abuse and to be incarcerated. Females are more likely to have unwanted pregnancies. Our nation's foster children deserve better. They deserve the chance to be properly prepared for adulthood.

Jimmy Wayne -- country music singer, child advocate and my friend -- brought to my attention two bills now before the Tennessee Legislature -- HB 2337 in the House and SB 2199 in the Senate, which will allow youth in Tennessee to stay in foster care until the age of 21. As a national advocate for children, I strongly support this legislation and encourage all members of the Tennessee General Assembly to vote in support of it.

Children are often the real victims of divorce when parents, once apparently devoted to each other, suddenly become enemy camps with fathers on one side and mothers on the other. Tragically the children are sometimes forced to take sides in the marital combat, estranging themselves from one of their parents, perhaps forever.

In such an atmosphere, what should have been a loving home can be transformed into a field of strife.  Children deserve better. Even foster children in good situations need more time to get their lives on track.

Join me in supporting an effort that will help make a difference.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. ©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike's column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.

Making Sense, By Michael Reagan:

He had a mistress who was pregnant and his wife had terminal cancer; he was running for president and the press knew all about it.

But there was no firestorm in the media about this juicy scandal until after the election of 2008 because John Edwards is a Democrat!

Too bad Newt Gingrich is a Republican -- otherwise the media would see to it that he'd be home free, warts and all, just like John Edwards.

But he is a Republican and he's running for the presidency, so members of the liberal media feel free to apply their traditional double standard, which always seems to come into play when the target is a member of the GOP.

Now we have ABC -- with absolutely no corroboration -- putting Gingrich's ex-wife on the air to boost ratings and help keep their guy in the White House.

How things have changed in America since my mother and father divorced. My mother, the sainted Jane Wyman, was offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to write books and do interviews or anything else that could help undermine Ronald Reagan, her ex-husband and 40th president of the United States.

In fact she told producers of her hit TV series "Falcon Crest" -- for which she won a Golden Globe award -- that any interviews she granted to promote the show would end the very moment a single question was asked about my father.

My mother remained quiet about their marriage -- which ended in 1948 -- until my father's funeral in 2004, and then she merely remarked that the world had lost a wonderful man. I wish more people would follow my mother's lead instead of following the ratings and the money.

Shame on you ABC and ex-wife Marianne!

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin's Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com.

©2012 Mike Reagan. Mike's column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.