Welcome to the O&W, the Oldest & Wisest Website.  This site is named in tribute to Ronald Wilson Reagan, the greatest American President of the 20th Century.  During the 1980 Presidential campaign in which he gained the White House, Reagan was nicknamed the “Oldest & Wisest” by one of his supporters, Congressman Jack Kemp of New York state.

 

Some of Reagan’s other supporters that year were actually appalled at Kemp’s chosen moniker for then former Governor Reagan.  Even then, the popular culture increasingly idealized youth and novelty over age and experience (I don’t think I need to point out the parallels between the 1980 election and that of 2008) and they didn’t appreciate a label that emphasized the fact that Reagan, if he won the Presidential nomination of his party, would be the oldest man in history to do so in either major party.

 

Of course, we all know how Reagan proved his critics wrong and despite his years, proved perfectly competent to capture the Republican nomination, win the Presidency twice by landslide margins and, as the 40th President of the United States, establish prosperity in his country and set the foundations for the collapse of the Evil Empire and the end of the Cold War.  Perhaps he even set too attractive a precedent for his party, as, in later years, the GOP was to nominate two men for the office he had held who were even older than he was, Senator Bob Dole in 1996 and Senator John McCain in 2008.  Of course, both of these men were defeated for the Presidency, though I think it was more due to their personal characteristics than their ages.

 

Reagan has been my personal hero since I first became interested in public affairs, so when I decided to create my personal website, it seemed appropriate to name it after the man who I first supported for President in 1968 in my junior high school’s mock election when I was his campaign manager. (He got creamed by RFK, by about a 20 to 1 margin, but there is some consolation in hindsight at being able to recognize his potential than most people back then did.)

 

Also, I’m not so young myself anymore—not 93, Reagan’s age when he passed on to his reward—but old enough that that left-wing lobby group AARP has been sending me their propaganda for a few years.  And wise?  I’d like to think so, but of course that’s for others to judge.

 

Anyway, I have decided that you are all entitled to my opinion.  So, yes, this is another exercise in egotism, another forum for nattering narcissism, another deluded fool who thinks somebody else may actually care what he thinks.  But I don’t want to hear any complaints, none of you have to pay, I’m not subjecting you to any internet ads (I hate them as much as you do) and nobody is forcing you to read this.