Former President Ronald Reagan Dies at 93
 

Former President Ronald Reagan Dies at 93

2 minutes ago
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Ronald Reagan, the cheerful crusader who devoted his presidency to winning the Cold War, trying to scale back government and making people believe it was "morning again in America," died Saturday after a long twilight struggle with Alzheimer's disease, a family friend said. He was 93.

He died at his home in California, according to the friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The friend said the family has turned to making funeral arrangements. A formal statement was expected later.

The White House was told his health had taken a turn for the worse in the last several days.

Five years after leaving office, the nation's 40th president told the world in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer's, an incurable illness that destroys brain cells. He said he had begun "the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."

Reagan body was expected to be taken to his presidential library and museum in Simi Valley, Calif., and then flown to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His funeral was expected to be at the National Cathedral, an event likely to draw world leaders. The body was to be returned to California for a sunset burial at his library.

Reagan lived longer than any U.S. president, spending his last decade in the shrouded seclusion wrought by his disease, tended by his wife, Nancy, whom he called Mommy, and the select few closest to him. Now, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton are the surviving ex-presidents.

Although fiercely protective of Reagan's privacy, the former first lady let people know his mental condition had deteriorated terribly. Last month, she said: "Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him."

Reagan's oldest daughter, Maureen, from his first marriage, died in August 2001 at age 60 from cancer. Three other children survive: Michael, from his first marriage, and Patti Davis and Ron from his second.

Over two terms, from 1981 to 1989, Reagan reshaped the Republican Party in his conservative image, fixed his eye on the demise of the Soviet Union and Eastern European communism and tripled the national debt to $3 trillion in his singleminded competition with the other superpower.

Taking office at age 69, Reagan had already lived a career outside Washington, one that spanned work as a radio sports announcer, an actor, a television performer, a spokesman for the General Electric Co., and a two-term governor of California.

At the time of his retirement, his very name suggested a populist brand of conservative politics that still inspires the Republican Party.

He declared at the outset, "Government is not the solution, it's the problem," although reducing that government proved harder to do in reality than in his rhetoric.

Even so, he challenged the status quo on welfare and other programs that had put government on a growth spurt ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal strengthened the federal presence in the lives of average Americans.

In foreign affairs, he built the arsenals of war while seeking and achieving arms control agreements with the Soviet Union.

In his second term, Reagan was dogged by revelations that he authorized secret arms sales to Iran while seeking Iranian aid to gain release of American hostages held in Lebanon. Some of the money was used to aid rebels fighting the leftist government of Nicaragua.

Despite the ensuing investigations, he left office in 1989 with the highest popularity rating of any retiring president in the history of modern-day public opinion polls.

That reflected, in part, his uncommon ability as a communicator and his way of connecting with ordinary Americans, even as his policies infuriated the left and as his simple verities made him the butt of jokes. "Morning again in America" became his re-election campaign mantra in 1984, but typified his appeal to patriotrism through both terms.

At 69, Reagan was the oldest man ever elected president when he was chosen on Nov. 4, 1980, by an unexpectedly large margin over incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Near-tragedy struck on his 70th day as president. On March 30, 1981, Reagan was leaving a Washington hotel after addressing labor leaders when a young drifter, John Hinckley, fired six shots at him. A bullet lodged an inch from Reagan's heart, but he recovered.

Four years later he was re-elected by an even greater margin, carrying 49 of the 50 states in defeating Democrat Walter F. Mondale, Carter's vice president.

I did not support many of his policies, but RIP & my condolences to the family.

- Jake

I didn't agree with his politics, but he was a good man, and the president when I was born, so he will always be remembered in my mind for that. My condolences go out to Nancy and his family. God Bless!

I never agreed with him and found him to be as corrupt as they come, but hopefully he's no longer suffering and is in the afterlife, at peace with the wrong he did. RIP.

My condolences go to Nancy, she really loved him.

My condolences to his family. :angel:

Well, I was trying to think of something nice to say in this thread. You did it for me, Dissention. Thanks.

Paula

I wonder what your Eulogy for Bush will be like :laugh:

As someone who just lost a great uncle to Alzheimer's two weeks ago, I know what a horrendous disease it is and how tragic it is for the victim's family.

RIP, Ronnie. My condolences to the Reagan family...especially Nancy. She has really shown courage through this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was a President but he did not part the Red Sea. Could the Cable News people be in any higher hyper-drive mode than they currently are? And they don't bury RR til Thursday or Friday at the earliest! Jesus, don't tell me we've got to sit through an entire week of this! On the up side, I guess I'll get to see a State Funeral in the US for the first time in 31 years--the last was LBJ's which I barely remember because I was about 8 or 9 at the time.

I agree, I personally could really care less about this. I mean the facct that someone died is always a sad thing, but it's really no different for me then anyone else dying. which of course death is always bad but this is nothing to me. And I guess I "understand" why it's big news. he was the president, and I think its cool he was the president who lived the lohngest out of anyone. And I know who had the old record. Joihn Adama was 90, and I believe there was only one other president to reach 90. You know who's going to be the first to live 100 right. BUSH. And Dissention you'll be in a nursing home somewhere changin W's diapers, and he'll just keep on living JUST to piss you off, and you'll be trying you darndest to switch his heart medician with cyanide but he'll just keep living :laugh:

If a lot of Americans had their way, it would have all the pomp and expense of a Windsor funeral. Their king has died. Some one once said that Reagan was not a good president but would make a hell of a king.:o

- Jake

No - but decorum and ettiquite suggest not saying anything at all if that is the case. But, if one feels they must, who am I to keep them down :cool:

Edit: Let me clarify - he died yesterday. I think this is an in memoriam thread, but I could be mistaken. If it is not, then it is neither polite nor impolite to say deragatory things. I would suggest, however, that it might be the higher road to wait a few days, but that is just me.

Yeah, but Nancy thought she was an Emperoress! My guess is she'll be trying her darndest to out do Jackie Kennedy at the funeral! AS IF!

And on American State Funerals--we haven't had one since 1973 when LBJ kicked. I was like 8 at the time so I don't remember much about it. From what I understand, Reagan's body will lay in state at the US Capitol for a couple of days, and then they'll probably carry him on a horse-drawn cassion through the streets of Washington on the way to the service at the National Cathedral. Then it's back on a plane to California for the burial. That's my best guess. They still haven't even decided if it's going to be on Thursday or Friday at this point. Kinda suprising that they didn't have all these details worked out--it's not like they didn't have enough warning.

I was no fan of Reagan's but I'll say this for him-at least he wasn't as bad as W!

The state funeral I think is goijng to be the most interesting thing to me. It was an endless parade of right wingers on the cable news last night. While I saw some clips I hadn't seen for 20 years, which I enjoyed, I finally had to shut it off after seeing Novak, Giuliani and Michael Deaver all in a row. Ralph.

As I said in the deathbed thread, I am very saddened by the loss and his family are in my prayers.

I agree, Jason. If one feels they must use the death of a man as a golden opportunity to express their hatred of him, then the least they could do is start their own thread.