While many of us never knew Ronald Reagan personally we felt close to him because we shared his lighthearted sense of humor admired his uncommon virtue and were moved by his remarkable wisdom.

From Jefferson to Jackson to Lincoln to FDR to Reagan every great president inspires enormous affection and enormous hostility. We'll all be much saner I think if we remember that history is full of surprises and things that seemed absolutely certain one day are often unimaginable the next.

I think Ronald Reagan was one of the great presidents period not just recently. I thought he had the demeanor. I thought he had the bearing. I thought he had the thought process.

President Reagan was elected on the promise of getting government off the backs of the people and now he demands that government wrap itself around the waists of the people.

As president Reagan worked very well with Democrats to do big things. It is true that he worked to reduce the size of government and cut federal taxes and he eliminated many regulations but he also raised taxes when necessary.

All Americans and freedom-loving people around the world owe President Reagan our deepest gratitude for his strong principled leadership that ended the Cold War and brought freedom to millions of people.

The words spoken by the leader of the free world can expand the frontiers of freedom or shrink them. When Ronald Reagan called on Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall ' a surge of confidence rose that would ultimately breach the bounds of the evil empire.

Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan conservatives have succeeded by adhering to a platform that rests firmly on three legs: smaller government faith and family and a strong national defense. These three legs do not merely represent a political coalition they are three necessary components of a strong and secure America.

You know my father as governor as president but I knew him as dad. I was so proud to have the Reagan name and to be Ronald Reagan's son.

Ronald Reagan's well documented final battles with Alzheimer's disease were fought with the same conviction and courage that his many public battles were fought.

I have three favorite politicians: Reagan Truman and Bobby Kennedy - Bobby for showing remarkable political courage despite being loathed by many on both sides.

With his trademark courage and conviction President Reagan led us out of the Cold War spreading his vision of freedom resulting in the release of millions of people from the yoke of communism.

I think that Obama is very cool. And I think he's clever and I think he can be witty. But I don't think he's funny in either the way that Reagan was funny - or John McCain and Dick Cheney are both funny in that ruthless kind of mean way.

Maybe that first gigantic deficit the Reaganites piled up was an accident just a combination of deluded 'supply side' tax cuts and a huge bag of good stuff for the Pentagon. But pretty quickly conservatives discovered that deficits when done correctly did something really cool: deficits defunded the Left.

If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years which rejected it.

Global political conditions make a direct American intervention difficult but President Reagan's messianic and visceral attitude toward the Nicaraguan revolution could mean it will happen as an act of desperation.

The day before the anniversary of D-Day we lost a man who was equaled by few and surpassed by none as a leader in the cause of freedom: Ronald Reagan.