No different than, Nixon, Carter, Clinton, Bush, Obama, or any of the rest...so your point is???

" I can admire Garner for his outspokenness,..."

Which isn't always a virtue.

Al Gore is outspoken...as is Al Sharpton...and too many pundits on MSNBC.

I encourage everyone to read the book "Reagan in his own hand". It contains many of his radio broadcasts that he did before he became president. I'm sure to many on this site he wasn't enough of a libertarian but I believe he had the right idea about shrinking the size and scope of the federal government His worst mistake was his selection of VP which at the time seemed like the logical choice, but has spawned the big government republican GW43 and now Jeb.

There was no one then or now that espoused the tenets of Objectivism. Damn few of those who even came close. If others fostered Reagan's ideas or speeches, at least he chose good ones for the most part. In politics, as in every thing else, talk is cheap unless it is acted upon. Reagan acted with courage and consistency. Yes he made mistakes, and when you're president, the slightest error magnifies from a razor's edge into a mountain range. I can admire Garner for his outspokenness, but he is both right and wrong at the same time. As it turns out, it is the right way to run a presidency, at least compared to others.

Comparison to Lincoln is a big insult to Reagan.

For who?

I beg to differ. Reagan had the right ideas, except for way too much faith in the Congresscritters and in the prospects of negotiation and compromise with them. Now we know how that turned out, hopefully President Rand Paul will know better.

And you mention that Reagan had a speechwriter? I can't believe I'm the only one here who's been a libertarian long enough to know the name Karl Hess. Wikipedia has a half-decent page about him, though they don't mention that Hess was a convicted tax resister who avoided ever paying by putting everything he owned in his wife's name. A hero in my book.

As for Garner, he's just a lefty like everyone else in Hollywood. But at least he's not as loudmouthed as Mel Gibson (or knows better than to drink as much as Gibson does).

That you have to reach for the father of our country to find a better president than Reagan is high praise.

I liked the Rockfod Files, but James Garner was a huge liberal and his distain for Reagan is as predictable as the sun rising.

Washington

I recall that as quickly as Reagan was elected president, Iran released the hostages.
The Iranians were so afraid of Reagan, they did not want to wait for the man to be sworn in.
Diss Reagan if you want, but just getting that peanut brained Jimmy Carter out of office may be the best thing he ever did.
Uh, besides freeing millions of East Germans . .

...and Reagan produced a lot of pudding.

Yes, people wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan, but he never delivered them. He always rewrote them in his own words. Every speech he made he, personally, wrote out by hand. Yes, he was supported by the Christian right. Had he not been, he could neither have been nominated nor elected. No Republican can be nominated or elected without at least the tacit approval of the Christian right. In my opinion, he was the greatest President since Abraham Lincoln.

Reagan was one of the best presidents we've ever had. Certainly the best in my lifetime. Of course he wasn't perfect, but tell me who was better?

I am in total agreement.

Reagan did both quite well...!

I'm not sure we need presidents with original thoughts. They need to be great leaders and surround themselves with great people.

Reagan's words were written for him, decided by a junto of right wing power brokers.

I heard Ronald Reagan's "stump speech" in 1968 at a rally for Ohio congressman John Ashbrook. (William F. Buckley, Jr., was also a speaker at that event.) I even got Reagan's autograph on the program. So, it was hard for me to come to the realization that Reagan's commitment was emotional, not intellectual. His speech writers told him what to say. Ronald Reagan had few, if any, original ideas. Moreover, it is significant that Ayn Rand refused to endorse him specifically because of his liaison with the Christian Right. That was born out in many ways, but for me, chief among them was the fact that James Watt refused a permit for the Beach Boys to play on the Reflecting Pool of the Washington Monument on July 4, calling them "the wrong element." The Beach Boys then pulled their string: Nancy Reagan. They got the gig. But note that Nancy Reagan consulted astrologers. At best, the Reagan Administrations was a mixed bag; and Ronald Reagan was just the "aggie" -- someone else was doing the "shooting."

Iran-Contra.

Could be that the goals of SAG (and perhaps Garner) were not the goals of Reagan.

Could be that Reagan's political ideas made him a less than perfect fit to run SAG, but made him a much better fit as a conservative POTUS.

Could be that Reagan cared more about America than he cared about the Screen Actors Guild.

Rockford Files, Maverick television (Garner).

MickGoodman69 gets the rest for thinking there are any heroes with the 90210 zip code....

Are you referring to Reagan or Garner?

Here is proof that having a popular TV show doesn't require much gray matter....

And even more proof that looking for your American heroes in Beverly Hills requires even less...if that is possible!

moral majority..