Happy 100th Birthday Mr. President

What do you say for the celebration of Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday? I’m not sure, but I thought John Hinderaker from Powerline had a pretty good post on how the Gipper turned him into a conservative pundit.

I was still in high school in the early 1980s and finished up college in 1988 … took me four years plus one semester due to a transfer. I guess I hung out with plenty of liberals the last couple of years in college and had a few notable lefty professors who seemed to always want to be the “cool” teachers who hung out with the students.

I never really was all too interested in politics during those years since a lot of the activism and thought seemed so based on emotions instead of reality. I’d say Rush Limbaugh was more of an influence for me in the early 1990s, but I know my dad was a big Reagan fan.

John Hinderaker over at Powerline has a pretty good post, read on…

I grew up in a Republican family, became a left-winger when in college and was a Communist for a while. By 1976 I was a garden-variety liberal Democrat. I voted for Jimmy Carter, enthusiastically, in that year. But then the wheels came off. Gas shortages, inflation, chronic unemployment–“stagflation,” previously thought impossible by most economists–and weakness overseas. Liberal pundits scolded young people for expecting more. They said that America’s decline was only natural, and we should all get used to it. The best course, according to the liberal consensus, was to move toward a state industry model like Germany’s or Japan’s.

Hinderaker didn’t get used to it…

I have not had time to watch Sarah Palin’s speech at a Young America’s Foundation dinner in honor of the president’s birthday celebration.

Part One

Part Two