barry goldwater for president 52, 56, 60 and 64. governor california, '67 to '75.publican presidential nomination, ran unsuccessfully twice for, '68 and '76. u.s. president, '81 to '89. defeating president jimmy carter. died june 5, 2004, 93 years of age. bel air, california. as president, ronald reagan tackles historically high inflation and unemployment, during his presidency inflation dropped from 12.5% to 5.5%. and unemployment dropped from 9.7% to 4.4%. reagan launched a defense build- up against the soviet union and remain forever grateful, unquote. question, what characteristics did ronald reagan possess that other post-war presidents have lacked? pat, you worked for him. kepre-world war ii depth of belief in the goodness and greatness of his country that can't be replicated by any post-war generation. a man who had great convictions, the courage of those convictions he would often say, well, if this doesn't work out, can always go back to the -- >> he never knocked the united states. >> he -- america was great, an ideal in his mind. and the idea of communis

guest: that speech was to promote barry goldwater but it turned out to be the launching pad for ronald reagan's political career. it brought in a vast amount of money, and in many ways it was a transition. reagan had been given variations of that speech for years through his work with general electric. but really it is the curtain raiser. two years later he ran for governor of california. the interesting thing about that speech, that's almost an angry reagan. that's a prosecute torle -- prosecutorial reagan. very different from the benign almost grandfatherly reagan we associate with most of the presidency. host: caller. caller: here's a man late in the government supposedly representing the government who is guns the government. it is ironic that he wanted to be president of the united states. i don't have disdain for ronald reagan. i think he did what he thought he had to do. what i remember about ronald reagan is the night he visited philadelphia when he became president of the united states people were living on the streets. they released all the people from the mental institutions

i knew barry goldwater. i knew him well. when i ran for the senate, he was one of two people i came to visit here in washington to get some advice from. i admired him so much. and it was a privilege to serve with him. the other one was chuck grassley, who was then in the house, and i count him as one of my dearest friends on earth. reagan and grassley, two great people. against the odds and conventional wisdom, ronald reagan ran for governor of california in 1966. now to the mistake of the california establishment, they underestimated the actor from the midwest and he went on to beat his more liberal primary opponent and popular incumbent governor. underestimating reagan was a mistake the washington establishment would make time and time again when he arrived here 14 years later. they never seemed to understand what was so obvious to president reagan -- for all of the superficial differences, americans of his age were not so different than the generation that fathered this nation, fought the civil war, worked through the gre

i was thinking, well, that might have meant the early retirement of, for example, bob taft or barry goldwater or even newt gingrich before he became famous. i mean, those are all important conservatives. so -- >> with also congressman frank. >> right, right. barney frank, yes, indeed. [laughter] what about, so, are you really that strongly support i of the idea of -- supportive of the idea of term limits? >> i am. >> talk about that. >> the constitution involves all kinds of compromises. human nature is human nature. and as of service -- as we have moved from a system of citizen legislators into career legislators, i think from my own experience what i've been able to see and i think from what people have been able to put together in reading and following the news carefully is the temptation to protect your right to get reelected. the ability to get reelected overwhelms your willingness to always vote the way your conscious tells you you ought to vote. when i was elected even though i was elected as a candidate of the conservative party, i joined the e republican caucus. and shortly after we

cold war and we won the cold war and why would anyone take issue with my simple claim that after barry goldwatereagan? now, there were other conservative politicians, too, but ronald reagan came to the fore, and he represented our values. i mean, they are my values and i'll tell you, ronald reagan represented them very, very well. >> edward in sacramento, california. as regards mr. tyrrell's assertion that the liberalism is dead, it is interesting to note that the exposed rise of conservatism from the 1950s onward tracks the rise of corporate influence and power in government. what is mr. tyrrell's view on the assertion that conservatism is not a political movement but an artificial construct by the corporate elite to perpetuate their power in american politics. >> the claim is always made, my and my colleagues are somehow the creature of the corporate elite, the corporate elite as a matter of fact tend to be democrats. they tend to vote democratic. wall street gave something like 70% of its political can't bugs to democrats and, as a matter of fact, this rise of conservatism he's calling the ri

this and i was thinking well, that might meant the early retirement, for example, bob kaft or barry goldwater and even newt gingrich before they became famous and those are important conservatives. >> also congressman frankie. >> yes, yes barney frank, yes indeed. are you supportive of term limits. >> yes, i am. >> talk megapixel >> the constitution involves all kinds of compromises. human nature is human nature. and service -- as we have moved from a system of citizen legislators into career legislators, i think from my own experience, if i had been able to see and i think from what people have been able to put together in reading and following the news carefully, the temptation to protect your right to get re-elected -- the ability to get re-elected overwhelms your willingness to always vote the way your conscience tells you how to vote. when i was elected -- even though i was elected as a candidate of the conservative party, i joined the republican caucus. and shortly after we were sworn in, john tower, who is then in charge of recruiting -- so i had a member with the new members. and he o

guest: that speech was to promote barry goldwater but it turned out to be the launching pad for ronaldgan's political career. it brought in a vast amount of money, and in many ways it was a transition. reagan had been given variations of that speech for years through his work with general electric. but really it is the curtain raiser. two years later he ran for governor of california. the interesting thing about that speech, that's almost an angry reagan. that's a prosecute torle -- prosecutorial reagan. very different from the benign almost grandfatherly reagan we associate with most of the presidency. host: caller. caller: here's a man late in the government supposedly representing the government who is guns the government. it is ironic that he wanted to be president of the united states. i don't have disdain for ronald reagan. i think he did what he thought he had to do. what i remember about ronald reagan is the night he visited philadelphia when he became president of the united states people were living on the streets. they released all the people from the mental institutions bec

[applause] barry goldwater mentions one supreme court case in that book. many of you know it.california who wants to grow corn 20 acres of wheat. the governor says you can only grow 10 acres of wheat. he says by what authority do you tell me this? they said the commerce clause. he says i am not even want to sell the wheat, i am going to feed it to my cattle. they say to him, my. activity, by not doing anything, you can indirectly affect the price of wheat. and they enforce this. the ruling was in the 1940's. for 60 and 70 years now we have been working with this notion that the commerce clause says that our government can do anything, until obamacare came along. they scoffed at us when we set it was not constitutional. nancy pelosi looked like a deer in headlights. she could not believe that anyone would question the constitutionality. judge napolitano asked about the constitutionality and represented cliburn readily admitted most of the things we do in washington have no constitutional authority. it is amazing and appalling. the supreme court case will be much more than healt

i knew barry goldwater. i knew him well. when i ran for the senate, he was one of two people i came to visit here in washington to get some advice from. i admired him so much. and it was a privilege to serve with him. the other one was chuck grassley, who was then in the house, and i count him as one of my dearest friends on earth. reagan and grassley, two great people. against the odds and conventional wisdom, ronald reagan ran for governor of california in 1966. now to the mistake of the california establishment, they underestimated the actor from the midwest and he went on to beat his more liberal primary opponent and popular incumbent governor. underestimating reagan was a mistake the washington establishment would make time and time again when he arrived here 14 years later. they never seemed to understand what was so obvious to president reagan -- for all of the superficial differences, americans of his age were not so different than the generation that fathered this nation, fought the civil war, worked through the gre

i knew barry goldwater. i knew him well. when i ran for the senate, he was one of two people i came to visit here in washington to get some advice from. i admired him so much. and it was a privilege to serve with him. the other one was chuck grassley, who was then in the house, and i count him as one of my dearest friends on earth. reagan and grassley, two great people. against the odds and conventional wisdom, ronald reagan ran for governor of california in 1966. now to the mistake of the california establishment, they underestimated the actor from the midwest and he went on to beat his more liberal primary opponent and popular incumbent governor. underestimating reagan was a mistake the washington establishment would make time and time again when he arrived here 14 years later. they never seemed to understand what was so obvious to president reagan -- for all of the superficial differences, americans of his age were not so different than the generation that fathered this nation, fought the civil war, worked through the gre

cpac did not exist, when ronald ray began was still an -- ronald reagan was still an actor, when barry goldwaterident, and we only worried about socialism outside of the united states. [cheers and applause] now, i'm honored the receive this defender of the constitution award and especially to be with so many people who understand how important it is for us all to defend the constitution. people in this room, i know, keep that flame burning and inspire so many millions of americans who share in our belief in limited government, a strong national defense and a sound fiscal base for a growing economy. and, and our thoughts today are with the many thousands of other defenders of our constitution who are not in this room or even in this country. they're thousands of miles away risking their lives to protect our free society. the enemy they face is radical islamism, the totalitarian ideology that exalts death and loathes our values and the ideals we cherish. so if it's all right with you, i would like to share this award with the men and women of the united states armed forces -- [cheers and applause]

he's published 17 books, as well as biographies of ronald reagan, barry goldwater, and edwin meese amonghers. he served on the political journalism at georgetown, as well as a fellow at the institute of politics at the john f. kennedy school at government at harvard. he's been a media fellow at the hoover institution, as well as the past president of the wonderful society where some of our panelist are members of the philadelphia society. please join me in welcoming my colleague, lee edwards. lee? [applause] >> well, thank you, john. and thank you all very much for coming. did william f. buckley jr. ever write a dull page? never. a dull paragraph? impossible. a dull sentence? well -- perhaps once or twice. but only to demonstrate that man is not perfect. but bill buckley was as close to a perfect writer as we shall ever see. he wrote millions of words in the second half, everything from liberal arrogance to conservative prudence and the dangers of nation building. a man of inany fit interest, he dissected politicians. he's a gem. a lot of champions of freedom like alexander, and margaret

[applause] like the generation before us, another anti establishment republican candidate, barry goldwaterired a generation that led to the reagan revolution. today our next distinguished speaker has lost a revelation of his own. he has given a voice to a new generation, a generation ready to rise up against government takeover, bailouts, unconstitutional war. [applause] infringements on our similarities -- and frenchman's on are similar -- in first men on our civil liberties. rise to your feet and join me as i introduce a champion of the constitution, congressman ron paul. [applause] >> thank you very much. it is great to see everybody. i am black tuesday the revolution is continuing. -- i am glad to see the revolution is continuing. we saw some results of this revolution in november. we at youtube thank you for it. i want to take a moment to say we also have a new senator from kentucky. we like that, too. [applause] there is a lot of exciting things going on. there is truly a revolution going on in this country. we have been dealing with this and encouraging it because i believe we live

gave his televised speech entitled "a time for choosing" in support of the presidential nominee, barry goldwater. following his speech, a group of influential citizens became convinced that ronald reagan should become the next governor of california. after winning a primary and enduring a very hard-fought campaign, ronald reagan unseated the two-time governor of california, pat brown, to become the 33rd governor in california's history. during his two terms as governor, californians enjoyed a smaller, less costly and more efficient state government. governor reagan returned $5 billion to the taxpayers and used his line-item veto authority 943 times to ensure that the state's budget matched its priorities. ronald reagan had once again proved himself a determined and capable leader in difficult times. but soon the american people would learn that his best days were very much ahead of him. after an unsuccessful republican presidential attempt in 1976, he knew that he wanted to be president but would only enter the race if the people of the united states actually wanted him to run. in the years foll

energetically to the national conservative movement as one of the founders of both the draft barry goldwatern 1971, ashbrook publicly broke with the nixon administration criticizing the presentation of liberal policies in the verbal trappings of conservatism. he announced his intention to oppose nixon's renomination a number of republican primaries. he denounced the nixon administration for squandering the opportunity to build a conservative coalition to govern the country. although nixon went on to win their reelection, ashbrock's conservative challenge to the incumbent republican president paves the way for ronald reagan's gerald debate could challenge to 76. successful nomination and 80 was the beneficiary of a new conservative majority that ashbrock helped create. in 1982, ashbrook announced he would seek the republican nomination to oppose the incumbent democratic senator howard metzenbaum. sadly, while campaigning, he collapsed and died a month later. the john ashbrock center for public affairs, located on the ashlawn university campus, was established and named in honor of the late co

[applause] like the generation before us, another anti establishment republican candidate, barry goldwaterired a generation that led to the reagan revolution. today our next distinguished speaker has lost a revelation of his own. he has given a voice to a new generation, a generation ready to rise up against government takeover, bailouts, unconstitutional war. [applause] infringements on our similarities -- and frenchman's on are similar -- in first men on our civil liberties. se to your feet and join me as i introduce a champion of the constitution, congressman ron paul. [applause] >> thank you very much. it is great to see everybody. i am black tuesday the revolution is continuing. -- i am glad to see the revolution is continuing. we saw some results of this revolution in november. we at youtube thank you for it. i want to take a moment to say we also have a new senator from kentucky. we like that, too. [applause] there is a lot of exciting things going on. there is truly a revolution going on in this country. we have been dealing with this and encouraging it because i believe we live in

[applause] like the generation before us, another anti establishment republican candidate, barry goldwater generation that led to the reagan revolution. today our next distinguished speaker has lost a revelation of his own. he has given a voice to a new generation, a generation ready to rise up against government takeover, bailouts, unconstitutional war. [applause] infringements on our similarities -- and frenchman's on are similar -- in first men on our civil liberties. rise to your feet and join me as i introduce a champion of the constitution, congressman ron paul. [applause] >> thank you very much. it is great to see everybody. i am black tuesday the revolution is continuing. -- i am glad to see the revolution is continuing. we saw some results of this revolution in november. we at youtube thank you for it. i want to take a moment to say we also have a new senator from kentucky. we like that, too. [applause] there is a lot of exciting things going on. there is truly a revolution going on in this country. we have been dealing with this and encouraging it because i believe we live in a t

he gave in support of republican presidential nominee barry goldwater. we will be bringing her remarks live from santa barbara as soon as the speeches did under way. in the meantime, let's take a look at statements from earlier today. several senators made statements about the commemoration. >> the sinnett will proceed to morning business until 3:00. senators are permitted to speak for 10 minutes each. the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: madam president, there are many of us who will come to the floor this afternoon to pay tribute to one of the great presidents in american history and many of us will recollect times and experiences and contacts we had with president reagan and the way he inspired us personally as well as a nation. wh i was a prisoner of war in north vietnam, the vietnamese went to great lengths to restrict the news from home to the statements and activities of prominent opponents of the war vietnam. they wanted us to believe that america had forgotten us. they never mentioned ronald reagan to us or played his speeches over the camp lou

applause] >> and like the generation before us, another anti-establishment republican candidate, barry goldwaternguished speaker has launched a revolution of his own, and has given a voice to a new generation. a generation ready to rise up against government takeovers, bailouts, unconstitutional wars -- [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> >> -- infringements on our civil liberties and national debt that will crush our future. so i ask you to rise to your feet and join me, put your hands together as i introduce the champion of the constitution, congressman ron paul. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> thank you very much. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> thank you. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> great to see everybody. great to see you. [audience cheering] >> i'm glad to see the revolution is continuing. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> well, we have first seen some of the results of a revolution a few years ago. that was last year's election. i understand we had a few new members in the congress. and we have you to thank you for.