caller: i am a republican, but i'm not a reagan response -- i am not a reagan republican.t he did for cutting all these taxes, which actually raised the local and state income tax -- it closed down all the help for the mentally ill patients. i think what he did was wrong. if i may say, the kid who was in virginia state who shot all the people was terrible. i want to say that the teacher -- i just think it was a little -- i would like to term it reverse racism. she just had an agenda. i think that it needed help. host: we're going to leave it there. countryside, illinois. phil on the line for independents. you are on the "washington journal." caller: i think president reagan was a good man and he meant well. i did not think he had the intelligence to run the country on his own. i think that two of his advisers, bush and cheney, who advised him to take our money standard of the gold standard -- that crippled us. he took credit for what carter had done. paying off our national debt was due to the 14.9% bond that was sold by carter and completed after reagan got into office. i

out on his legacy is written by his son, reagan and called "the new reagan revolution: how ronald reagan's principles can restore america's greatness". what is the thesis of your book? >> guest: it is taken from his 1976 speech in kansas city. first time i ever saw my father lose and he steps down to the podium and really gives one of the great speeches of his career not written off the top of his head. he talks about the rights that we have today. are we going to make the right decisions today for those people who live in the 300 years of this great country. will they have the same rights? is determined by the way we vote today. that is the thesis of the book. >> host: from that 1976 speech what can we learn about a new revolution? >> guest: you learn a lot from that 1976 speech. he talked about a call to arms. we need to go forward. hy have spoken across the country quite a bit in the last few years. i talk about this in the book. the new -- "the new reagan revolution: how ronald reagan's principles can restore america's greatness," he would be nominated today in this country we live in

pieces of ronald reagan. and i think one of the mistakes we make is while looking for the next ronald reagan, we may walk right by the next great leader of the conservative movement, the great leader in this country. and i say that when i go out and speak that, you know, there's a lot of of great leaders out there. we need to find them but don't walk past them looking for ronald reagan. feel lucky that in our lifetimes we had a ronald reagan who was president of the united states of america. feel good about that, but when you start looking at everybody in relationship to ronald reagan, nobody's going to add up. we didn't vote for ronald reagan because we were looking for abraham lincoln. we didn't vote for ronald reagan because we were looking for george washington. we were electing a leader and somebody that, in fact, we trusted, and that's what we're looking for today. and if we don't find that person, we're going to keep on going in the spiraling downhill mode that we're in and what we need to do is find t

tavis: you edited the reagan diaries.know when the president went on vacation during the christmas holiday he was reading some reagan material. what is your sense about what the president is, should be taken from ronald reagan? particularly when going through the recession and the divided government is concerned? >> president obama had a few historians at the white house for a couple of dinners. i was lucky enough to be one of those asked. he was very interested in ronald reagan. part of it is what you just said, he thought reagan had a hard time in 1982 but came back. there are other parts that are similar. they both have the illinois background, the same state, although reagan is the only president born in illinois. and demeanor-wise, reagan was a conservative but a pragmatic conservative. he found a silver linings in things. he did not like to have enemies around him. he was a conciliatory person with his persona. i think president obama recognized that he likes that side of ronald reagan. he called them -- called him

at the time, reagan aides said he had been overcoached. his age became an issue until the second debate. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. [ laughter ] >> reporter: just when reagan's alzheimer's was evident has been a hot topic of debate since his diagnosis. his personal physician said clear signs didn't show up until 1993. >> to really change our knowledge of ronald reagan, you would have to go back into the presidency and find a case where one of his doctors said, i see signs of alzheimer's that is disturbing. i don't think that evidence exists. >> reporter: the book makes a startling new claim, that when reagan fell off a horse six months after leaving office, doctors found signs of alzhei r alzheimer's. ron reagan says he has no evidence that his father or anyone else was aware of the onset of alzheimer's at the time he was president. he writes if his father had been diagnosed while in office, he believes he would have stepped down.

ron reagan jr.ay abc if his father had known he had alzheimer's, he believed he would have resigned. we will have more much later on "gma." >>> doctors outside a hospital in washington are keeping a close eye on sergeant shriver this morning. the 95-year-old has been battling alzheimer's himself for years. he was the first director of the peace corps and mcgovern's running mate in 1972. his wife eunice kennedy shriver died in 2009. his daughter is maria shriver. married to former california governor schwarzenegger. >>> today is martin luther king jr. people are focusing on the rights of civil rights leader. attorney general eric holder told the congregation it's time to recommit to dr. king's values., we must >> today, we must look upon our both the history of his profession and future promise, working on both his weaknesses and his strengths. appreciating both his challenges and his infinite opportunities. >> holder also said that the tucson tragedy shows us the struggle to eradicate violence and p

. >>> reagan revelations. in an abc news exclusive, ronald reagan's son says he believes the former president was already suffering from alzheimer's while he was still in the white house. we have the interview and the new details. >>> fees, fees, fees. banks are reporting big profits. but experts say more big fees are coming to your accounts very soon. we'll tell you what to expect. and if you can do anything about it. >>> and -- married in a flash. imagine you're shopping in a mall, when out of the blue pops a giant sing-a-long, followed by an impromptu wedding. it's the flash mob everyone's talking about. ♪ ain't no mountain high enough ain't no valley low enough ♪ ♪ ain't no river wide enough >>> so, dan, you know, most wedding invitations come with gift registries. >> right. >> not for this couple. the kleimans chose to send out dance steps as part of their invitation to 70 guests who came. as we see right there, made up a flash mob wedding. >> did you hear, the groomsman was asked if he took his bride on

and i believed him. >> rose: so you came back and told president reagan. >> president reagan believed him but nobody else in our government did. >> rose: number five is underscoring the on going process. there may be more negotiations and you want to be sure the lessons people take away from the process are good ones. >> i think you want to establish the reputation of being a credible negotiationor because we're going to do this deal but we're going to be back next year doing some other deal. so you need to go away from the table knowing that i am good as my word. that i'm credible. this is one of the things that president reagan worked on very hard. i'll give you an example. by chance i came back from a trip to china that's gotten a lot of publicity because it was sort of a turnaround trip and it was snowing in washington. and it snowed friday and it snowed saturday. and the reagans couldn't get up to camp david, they were stuck in the white house for the weekend. so our phone rings and nancy says "how about you and your wife coming over and have supper with us." so over we go and th

bush doubled what reagan did but you know it's all going to join reagan residents gave us seventy five percent of the total national debt that you guys are saying oh my god we've got to choke off everything to pair off well you know the interesting thing about that is that at least reagan was able to defeat the soviet union when he spend that money now letters to you know the last years i predicted a decade before reagan came into office we did two years by the. world when it happened now we want to tell anybody was paying because it was so that you would have to take about so that's really interesting me now what i actually have bought and i'm sure you have to do all of that any great on a candidate i've got a set all the spending is going to be ok you know what i actually actually if obama's spending had actually lead to positive results for the economy and actually helped to defeat unemployment well we'd be having a very different conversation and fourthly that hasn't been the case president obama's spending. these have been devoted to the project when i know we're not going to say

. >>> reagan family feud. in a controversial new book, ron reagan claims his father had alzheimer's while still in the oval office. his brother michael, though, says that's nonsense and calls him an embarrassment to the family. we'll speak with michael reagan in an exclusive live studio interview. >>> and hollywood's big night. the golden globes kicking off the awards season as "the social network" takes top honors and michael douglas returns to a standing ovation. >> there's got to be an easier way to get a standing ovation. >> we are backstage with all the big winners "early" this monday morning, january 17th, 2011. captioning funded by cbs >>> and good morning on this monday. i'm erica hill. >> and i'm chris wragge. >> good to be back with you on a monday. probably more people at home this morning than usual. martin luther king day, of course. for many people this has become a day of service. >> also, we're going to talk about the memorial, as well, in washington. we've got an exclusive tour of what that's

as reagan had 9% growth. the goal of this stimulus, which i don't think he has ever gotten on just his own with the democrats, that's the irony of this, will probably kick the economy -- many say this into a self-sustaining recovery. once we do, he has really succeeded. chris: given that political assessment, is he better off at the end of this year than now? >> the biggest worry is that the same thing will happen this time that happened the last time with the stimulus. after a year, it will peter off and there will be a tailing off at the beginning of 2012 when the voters are really paying attention. and things may deplate a little bit. chris: the american economy has to do it on its own. >> he remains personally popular. we are talking about him -- chris: he is below 50, will he be above 50? >> a little bit. chris: is he going up this year? >> just a bit. >> i agree this is a 5-5 country. he could be above 5% next year which is a critical barometer. chris: it's hard to move that thing off the 50-yard line.

ronald reagan was known for usually signing his name. he wrote wonderful tribute to my daughter about the red dress, about her future. and similarly, wrote inscription like that to me, recalling all the travels which i had brought up during the meeting with him. and i wrote about it. i wrote about how he was not impressed with the smog of los angeles. here's a guy that was never once ever credited for being an environmentalist, and for five minutes, he just talked about how his view is now ruined of the pacific ocean. he talked about his ranch and the outdoors and how he loved it. that was sort of the flavor. i talked a little bit about maggie thatcher, who was his, i think, favorite of all leaders in the free world. and it shocked me, several days later, when there was this announcement that he was suffering from alzheimer's disease, and i realized then what fred ryan might have done for me, extreme honor, and retrospect, i will never forget that day and that opportunity, and we have just buried him, and i am very happy to say that i am

reagan was when he announced his first presidential candidacy? >> no, but based on the town of the question, i suspect it was here. [laughter] >> jimmy carter and john kennedy announced their candidacies here as well but i did not think you'd find a convincing. [laughter] how would america be different today had been chosen as john mccain's running mate in 2008 rather than sarah palin? >> with all due respect to my friend john mccain, i don't think it was going to matter who he picked as his vice presidential running mate. once the economy cratered in the late summer-early fall of 2008, he or whoever the republican candidate turned out to be was likely to lose the election. i think will end up in the same spot for that same moment in time. >> the sarah palin can this is provided with her -- provided her with her first national exposure. what has her influence been on america? >>large. [laughter] i don't know her well but she is an acquaintance and i have had a chance to spend time with her when we were both governors. i think she is a remarkable

in a new book, ron reagan jr. says his father showed signs of alzheimer's while he was president, even during his first term. he spoke to abc's elizabeth vargas. >> there was just something that was off. i couldn't quite put my finger on it. >> reporter: now, ron's conservative half-brother michael reagan is blasting him. on twitter he writes, "my brother was an embarrassment to his father when he was alive and today, he became an embarrassment to his mother." and he goes on to write, "my brother seems to want to sell out his father to sell books. my father did not suffer from aalzheimer's in the '80s." incident incidentally, michael also has a book coming out this week. the brothers now feuding. >>> when we come back, late word from the hospital tonight. encouraging news on congresswoman giffords. wow. it's really coming together. yep. this way, everyone will know about all our great discounts. safe driver, online, homeowner's -- more discounts than ever before. and they still get great service. ♪ ow! [ disco mus

did, initially -- connect with people no way that not even reagan did, initially. >> he had a problem, a crowd that was -- appeared in at appropriate -- inappropriate, a lot of according and hollering and cherry pie and it is as it stood on its in -- a in hooting and hollering in an auditorium he was uneasy. he walked in with michelle, there was cheering, and he looked uneasy but what he did in his speech, the first half when he talked about the dead, again, a he looked slightly uncomfortable when that would receive applause. then he reached the point with that electric moment when he said she opened her eyes, "gabby opened her eyes," and that is when the motion that everyone experience was in tune with the enthusiasm of the audience. he repeated it four times, and the second half of the speech, inspirational, referring to the 9-year-old girl, was successful. it was an amazing display of oratorio skill in capturing and harnessing an audience. >> high praise indeed. sarah palin talked about the shootings in a video posted on facebook. >> acts of monstrous criminality begin at end with

that is the reagan wisdom and the reagan legacy and he was successful in advancing it. we can also learn stylistically from ronald reagan. he was a strong, strong conservative. he had strong views, strong convictions. he had the confidence in knowing who he was, that his feet were planted in the right place, that his compass was set to true north. so he was definitely a movement conservative, but you did not see him very often the mean or judge or get angry. he certainly expressed his views in strong ways, but ronald reagan was a hopeful, optimistic, can do, of a person -- thoughtful person. at the end of the day, americans are looking not just for an indictment of the problem, a bill of particulars around all the wrong things. they want to know, show us the way out. what is the better way forward? ronald reagan was able to do that, and the country really needs that now. >> do you know where ronald reagan was when he announced his first presidential candidacy? >> no, but based on you and the tone of that question, i suspect it was here. >> jimmy carter and john kennedy

>> caller: by far, ronald reagan. ronald reagan fairs i'm concerned is first of all, i think if you analyze his initial economic -- he faced on economic crisis not unlike the latter bush and current president. >> host: all right. we got the point. thank you. >> guest: first, i disagree with the caller m i think there's bipartisan agreement on right, left, democratic or republican side. it was an eventful presidency. it kept us busy at the white house. i do take what the caller said seriously about the financial crisis and one point he makes is that he didn't want to dump this on obama and wanting to get this out before hand. i thought that was an important point. yeah, it damaged his legacy with conservatives, but he saw it important to pass on a somewhat stable system, and i thought that was important. >> guest: yeah, i mean, i think this was eventful and i argue a transformative presidency. one of the things we look for in terms of how to evaluate presidents is how much do they remake public policy? how much do thei

. >>> the man who wounded president reagan. plus, take a look at the young man who still takes on three dozen people at the university on campus. >>> some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. all straight ahead tonight on a second look. >>> good evening, i'm julie haener and this is a second look. authorities in arizona, are still sorting through the life of jared loughner, the 22-year- old man accused of killing six people and critically wounded a congresswoman last weekend at a public appearance outside a grocery store. much has been said about loughner's apparent mental stage and what some says a greater need for gun control. america has been here before. the nation's first significant gun show laws did not come out and about after the assassination of john and robert kennedy and martin luther king jr. and the law known as the brady bill came in eventually of the shooting of reagan and the crippling wounds to james brady. that requires federal background checks and a five- day waiting period to buy a handgun. in

ronald reagan had no lack of self-assurance. but two very different presidencies. >> guest: right, i don't think self-confidence is the right -- necessarily the right requirement. no. i'm talking about temperament. such as jfk showed. the ability to distance yourself a the bit. to stand back, you know? looking at the way jfk handled the cuban missile crisis, to listen to the advise that you are getting from your cabinet and your national security advisors, but to be able to filter that through your own mind as an independent mind and to remember that you were elected by the people of the united states. not by these people sitting around the table. and you owe your loyalty to them. i think that was -- is a terribly important. and i'm not sure jimmy carter really had that. he had the absolute sincerity, and visionary quality that he saw the challenges of the united states. it wasn't a lack of patriotism, or at least in the national interest. >> host: right. >> guest: on the contrary. he believed that so deeply. the problem was he

clark, ronald reagan's top hand." his newly-released book, "dupes," we are really looking forward to hearing your discussion of this troubling aspect of history, the prominent role of the dupe. please join me in welcoming dr. paul kengor. [applause] >> thank you, heather. john, and everybody here at heritage, everybody for coming. lee edwards, i see him here. i really struggled with how to organize this talk because i turned in a manuscript of 250,000 words and about a i thousand pages. and i think the book "god and ronald reagan "was somewhere around 100,000 words. so that gives you an idea of just how enormous the task was and just how much dupes -- how many dupes are out there. i'm not joking when i said this could be volume one in a multivolume set. and there were a number of people that i thought i'd have full chapters on, and there turned out to be so much information, i'd fill up an entire box, and i'd just mark, for example, henry wallace. and at some point, i've got to punt p on this one, i could do a whole b

and we mark the 30th -- lieberman packet in trade and we mark the 30th anniversary of ronald reagan'sinauguration in the 50th of the john f. kennedy's. >> ask not what your country can do it for you, ask what do you could do for your country. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> in the last campaign, house republicans have promised to repeal the 2010 health care reform law. this week they voted to do just that. >> we said we would have a straight up or down vote to repeal this health-care law, and that is precisely what we're doing tay. we all the gimmicks a whole lot of sense to debate a bill that thankfully will go -- we don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to debate a bill that will likely be vetoed by the president. >> paul ryan of wisconsin, chris van hollen of maryland. you did it makes it passed the senate, it will not survive the president's veto. what is the point, charles? >> you make a promise, you keep a promise. the republicans ran on repeal of health-ce anthey intend to do it. they cannot do it now, but they are setting a marker to ma

"reagan saw we are all patriots ." "he recognize that each of us has power to shape our own destiny. he h faith in e american promise and the importance of reaffirming values like hard work and personal responsibility." host: we are talking about the reagan legacy 30 years later. texas, our first call this morning on the "washington journal." craig on the line for independents. go ahead. caller: thank you for c-span. i'm a vietnam veteran. i was also stationed out of california. i knew reagan as a governor and as a president. like most presidents, there's a good, bad, and the ugly. the good parts were his wanting toecrease nuclear arms. the bad part was, when he took over, there was less than $1 trillion in debt. after reagan economics, we had $4.5 tllion debt. the dismantling of the manufacturing, and it started about that time period -- like i said, there is good. i respect the man. i thought he was a decent american citizen. i do not rate him as high. he tried. host: illinois on the line for democrats. u are on the

reagan was good at propaganda. the need to figure out a way to get around the smokescreen of propaganda. how do you better communicate directly to the american people? besides, kennedy is very impressed. not impressed with reagan. very impressed with in drop-off. they argue, kennedy would go to moscow and be with the soviet. he talks about bringing a senator with him. they would talk to them. they would help arrange for a soviet media tour in the united states, basically a kind of public relations tour in the united states, a kind of pr campaign to help communicate soviet peaceful intention. with high level soviet military and political officials they could talk directly to the american media, have sit-down interviews, and even mentioned by name walter cronkite and barbara walters as to people that could do interviews. and they could directly communicate to the american people. now, what happened with all of this? by the way, then it winds up in 1984 where it talks about the election campaign coming up. there is a

it was reagan's and because reagan was so good at this, we expected that of later presidents. >> lehrer: do you agree with that, ellen, that was the ronald reagan who began this in a major way that continues to this day? >> i think it's true in the sense of various kinds of national tragedies like the explosion of the challenger. one example, of course, an obvious one. but in acts of political violence there's an interesting history to this. in the 1935 when senator huey long was assassinated, president roosevelt issued a two-sentence statement upon that occasion saying that he deeply regretted this attack on long and that violence was un-american. but in 1968 when senator robert kennedy was assassinated when president kennedy was assassinateed in the midst of a campaign, president johnson gave an address, the rhetoric of extreme in the country. he called for congress to enact gun control laws and it was really actually quite a powerful speech. it was a different speech in many ways than the examples michael has cite which had i think more common in recent years the themes really are of

from it, because reagan worked with democrats. he was a former democrat, and he had a signature optimism, and i think divisiveness is much more the order of the day, particular well sarah palin who is kind of derided president reagan saying, oh, he was really just an actor, as a way to inflate her own credentials. >> what is that all about? >> it was her way of saying that she and i do in the 21st century. >> i do agree with pat. >> you believe in an apocalypse now? >> i do agree with pat to some extent. i think debt cry cease that we' seeing around the world, that they will lead to some great new economic reset. i don't know what form it's going to take but i will say that the macro prediction in the united states we have had very long-term and continuing and stubborn high unemployment, and i think it's going to lead to some major psychological realignment on the part of the american people, because we -- apart from the grade depression we haven't gone through anything quite like this that has shattered our very assumptions about

the result was president reagan said i can't make the deal.nt away unhappy, but as gorbachev realize at the end of the summit and as he said at the press conference, this was not a failure. this was a success. we have agreed to a limit whole class of nuclear weapons. and it's the beginning of something that will continue. so gorbachev brought common security to the table. president reagan brought sdi, and it was sadly not quite as much as it might have been. however, i will add this, that people are in government on our side have said to me more than once, if you think that president reagan or president gorbachev could have gone back to their capital with a deal like that and gotten anywhere with it at all, you're crazy. so there were vested interests on both sides who certainly would have thought any such agreement. would've happened? it didn't quite happen, but it certainly makes interesting speak. spent ladies and gentlemen, let's get a big round of applause. [applause] >> richard rhodes is the author of over 20 books. in his book "the maki

i grew up in detroit, and we were reagan democrats. we thought we were democrats until we started reading. we have a tremendous opportunity, if you go and look at where the american voter is today, it is us. god, guns, and guts republicans, people who believe in the traditional values that make up probably 70% of our society. as long as we appeal to them on conservative values, we can win. it is always interesting and i think a mistake when we think we have to change. my clock was up, sorry. >> thank you all very much. i think we are ready for closing statements. we're going to go from this di --from mr. priebus and back down this way. >> this is about choices. life is about choices. god gives us different talents and given a gift. everybody up here is a good person. i'm not running against anybody paid i'm running -- i'm not running against anybody. i'm running for rnc chairman at time of different needs. chairman to his would-be workers, who is going to put on a great convention, at tackle redistricting. i have demonstrated that i ca

30 years ago with ronald reagan. we're having conservative members of congress, sitting members of congress, lots of new members are going to be there. we are going to have a chance to talk about this. this is part of the free-flowing debate taking place internally as well as on the house floor, but i'm convinced we're on the same page. in a perfect world, there are things -- we need to tackle entitlement reform. we know how difficult that is because it becomes a political football. but it's absolutely essential we do that and i know these new members are dedicated to doing it. we will be having ongoing discussions as the budget proceeds on the way to get there. >> one of the most contentious issues is raising the debt ceiling. some members coming in say they will vote against it. that matter has to be resolved. how do you get there? >> it is a tough issue. one of the things we did is we repealed the rule that allows for an automatic increase in the debt ceiling. so we are going to have to have a vote. we know it has

i never thought i was going to be president reagan -- to be president. that was a more spontaneous event. i think it was clear by age 30 are wanted to explore and see as much of the world as i possibly could. i had no sense of responsibilities. i did not feel tied down at all. i guess my advice -- i am not really answering your question because i do not know the answer, but i do know it is really hard to plan your life out. it is hard to say, i am going to years old.en i am 64 i the other thing is there are going to be things that happen to you that you did not want to have happened in -- happen to you. you are going to get dealt a hand you do not want to play. the question is how you play it. the is the way life is. i got some hands i did not want to play, but when you are the president if you play them as fast as -- as best as you possibly can. one thing i hope has helped me is i have never looked back and said what if. how would i have been different? it is hard for me to do that very good >> who is next hamlin -- it is hard for me to do that. >> who

and ron reagan joins us again.u haven't said anything since michael spoke out over the weekend. >> no, no, the feud is really one sided, i believe. i think there's some confusion here and some misunderstanding. between alzheimer's the disease, and dementia, which is a symptom of alzheimer's and shows up in the later stages. what i've deduced, given what we now know about alzheimer's, that it is a disease that's a process that takes place over years and decades, even, before actual symptoms arise. given when he was finally diagnosed, and given what we now know about alzheimer's, it's a simple deduction to say that the disease must have been present when he was in office. i did not say -- in fact, said exactly the opposite. that i did not see symptoms of dementia or anything like that while he was in office. the worries that i talked about with you and mention in the book -- >> but the early signs you saw. you were seeing little clues. >> i had no -- no. i wasn't thinking, gee, i'm seeing signs of alzheimer's here. i

and the result was president reagan said i can't make the deal.nt away unhappy but is gorbachev realized at the end of the summit and as he said at the press conference, this was not a failure. this was a success. we agreed to eliminate a whole class of nuclear weapons, medium range missiles in europe and it is the beginning of something that will continue. arbatov brought, and security to the table. president reagan brought sti and there was sadly not quite as much as there might've been. however i will add this. people who are in government on our side have said to me more than once, if you think president reagan or president gorbachev could have gone back to their capital with a deal like that and gotten anywhere with it at all you are crazy. there were vested interests on both sides which certainly would have thought any such agreement so therefore who knows what they would have accomplished? it didn't quite happen but it certainly makes a. >> ladies and gents and let's give a big round of applause to richard. [applause] >> richard rhodes is t

the reagan era where they are right in the middle of that is overcharging the government, so they put a lot of money in and use the revolving door but ultimately they couldn't get over the top. they want to the federal government to run more welfare programs, medicare and they didn't get that waiver. they were up against ross perot's former company and there is this whole issue of they are not a texas company. they just jump on the factory outside of boston. so they try to use the same methodology that they would use to get a five-year plan contract with in this kind of local politics they were a little bit lost. they couldn't get it done. but they still were doing job training in florida tracking down deadbeat dads in connecticut, running similar projects in california all of which ran into some significant data that wasn't coming off right. so the question now is going to be if they are running aspects of prices in your taxes and if they are involved in transportation security where are they going to be and for the company to be able to do all this. >> host: and others the question

. >>> reagan revelation. ron reagan jr., writing a book, says he felt something was wrong with his dad's health even in the first term. >>> right way. new proof you can save gas, time and lives on the road, simply by cutting out left turns. >>> and, sorrow and strength. images from a community vowing triumph over tragedy. our "persons of the week." >>> and good evening from abc news washington bureau tonight. over these past six days, we have watched astronaut mark kelly keep a tireless bedside vigil for his wounded wife, congresswoman gabrielle giffords. and we saw that embrace by the president at the tucson memorial service. well, today, commander kelly sent a twitter message to americans, rallying at his side, saying, quote, thanks for all of the messages of support. i have some great followers. gg, that's the congresswoman, has been improving each day. something giffords' doctors confirmed again today, as one of her injured staff members actually returned to the office. and david muir tells us all he is i

you go from that to supporting reagan as part of the very broad tent that supported reagan being one of the elements that did that. in the '9 ons, as chris said, you get open warfare. all of us eisenhowers. i'm against that in america and i think that's where that battle comes from. >> i think it had a locality to do with the end of the vietnam war and the end of a cold war. there was no, and the perception that the left had let the country down. any enter p ventalists, were not present, especially after the cold war, and eventually the democrats felt chastened with identification and about foreign policy and became more meat on it. but also at the end of the cold war, liberated kohl sake yann war with informants personally. so there was a con jungz of hoom thought that the military. >> yes, the woman on the far left there. >> i would add to that last discussion is the brilliant lobbying that the defense industry has done, so when you see robert gates today trying to make very modest kulcuts in the military, you immediately see congresspeople, both republican and democrat, coming bac

30 years ago with ronald reagan. the conservative members of congress and lots of new members are going to be there. we will have a chance to talk about this. this is part of the free-flowing debate that is taking place internally as well as on the house floor. we are on the same page. in a perfect world, there are things we need to tackle. we need to tackle entitlement reform. that is a political football. it is absolutely essential that we do that. i know these new members are dedicated to doing that. we will have ongoing discussions in our quest to get there. >> on a question? >> one of the most contentious issues to come up will be the issue of raising the debt ceiling. there are some members who say they will vote against that. how will you get that done? >> we repeal the rule -- repealed the rule allows for an automatic increase. vote.w there has to be an we do not want to proceed with this unless we have a commitment from the president that we are going to be able to see dramatic reductions in the level of spe

and i have to many people , the prime minister of the slow slovakia republic, and reagan cam goa was to bring down the soviet union. and he referred to it as, you know, an evil empire. and that to a man all of these leaders in the former warsaw the soviet unionve said that an e mill 'em vie -- evil empire gave them the courage and inspiration to fight on against commune itch. but -- communism. but i would like to know from your viewpoint what effect reagan and the west had on the pressure they brought on the soviet union to bring down the soviet union and caused it to fail. >> i think, you know, the biggest -- [inaudible] the west was very important in disbanding the soviet union, the kgb personal. and former kgb chief uri kitsch cough and other generals, they constantly talk to press and said, well, there's so many agents of influence of the west in our government, so the soviet union collapsed. but, in fact, i think that the -- because you're right, the importance and the role of the west because dissidents grew up very small and an drop above was so harsh to persecute them that by

michael reagan has called his younger half brother, ron reagan, an embarrassment after ron suggestedmy father at 100" that their father showed early signs of alzheimer's while he was in the white house. i recently had the chance to speak with ron, and i began by asking him how his mother was handling it all. >> she's doing fine actually. she'll be 90 in july this year, but she's sharp as a tack. and i just spoke to her last night, as a matter of fact. >> and i'm assuming you asked her for feedback or she gave you feedback about the book. >> i did. i said i am going to be on tv. and i know they're going to ask me what you think of the book. what should i tell them? she said, "you tell them i read it, i loved it, it made me cry, and i'm very proud of you." >> she's very proud of you. >> such a mom thing to say. >> it's such a mom thing to say. obviously we've heard about what your brother thought about the book and he called you an embarrassment to the family. how do you respond? >> well, i don't respond to that sort of thing. again, given what my mother told me, apparently he was inco

actor, the dean martin roast, had a great time with ronald reagan.ge bush, god bless him, you know, i was at the inaugural, did a show and frank sinatra said, we're going to have rickles -- the ronald reagan inaugural. goes to have don rickles on the show for the -- for the inaugural for ronald reagan. and the cabinet said, no, what are you crazy, we're not going to have him. and frank said, you don't have him, you don't have me. and he said, look at how quiet it got. of course, he had a gun on him. [ laughter ] i can say that because his guys are all dead. anyway -- [ laughter ] anyway -- give me a minute. because everything i say, i'm going to do up in my room later and laugh my ass of. >> jimmy: so, he insisted that you be apart of the inauguration? >> yeah, i got on the show, i never know what i'm going to say. it was a great night, kidding the cabinet and everything. they were wonderful to me. and ronald reagan was great and he became president and i didn't hear from him. but -- no. he was always so nice and the guy -- i met clinton just for a f

two ronald reagan. this is by his son ron reagan, my father at 100, and this is by his other son, michael reagan. how the new ragen revolution can restore greatness today. when you see march of 2011, what stands out to you? >> guest: i think that the trend that we saw over christmas of, you know, a lot of political memoirs and more of the conservative ones, i think that that sounds like that's what's going to stand from what's comes out soon. we have conservative political memoirs and, you know, the rogue books like we had and the "warmth of other sons" and the books just for fun. it sounds like that pattern is going to continue. >> host: one of the books coming out, and i want to ask you if you have word on this one yet. donald rumsfeld's autobiography, "known and unknown". do you know anything about this book? >> guest: yeah, i got a little information on this today. i believe it's coming out february 8. there's a huge amount of media going to be going on about this. the suggested printing that we're

. >>> startling news about the late ronald reagan. his son said he may have suffered from alzheimer's while serving in the white house. in a new book, ron reagan says he was concerned about his father's mental state as early as three years into his first presidential term. when his father fumbled through a 1984 campaign debate with walter mon dale, he was alarmed. reagan also claimed that when his father fell off a horse six months after he left, a doctor's office found signs of alzheimer's. clear signs of the disease did not show up until years later in 1993. >>> used iphones are going for big bucks on web sites like craigslist and ebay. the reason? people are jailbreaking the phones, cracking the software restrictions so the phones work on other carriers and allow any apps to be installed, not just those from apple. the iphone underground is more common than most people think. >> reporter: nadar jackson is working with his third client of the night. his job? jailbreaking or unlocking iphones. >> once i knew how to do it, everybody t