Jack Kingston: “I first heard about Ronald Reagan in probably 1970, when Joan Baez, on my Woodstock album, referred to the Governor of…”

“I first heard about Ronald Reagan in probably 1970, when Joan Baez, on my Woodstock album, referred to the Governor of California as Ron Ray Gun. And this was a young person, so I thought if Joan Baez is against him, it is probably a good thing. Yet as I went through my years and got in college, I had an opportunity to hear Mr. Reagan speak at the Kansas City Republican convention in 1976. And in his concession speech on the nomination going to Gerald Ford, he gave a great speech and he talked about what we have to do as Americans to preserve the great life-style that we live. I was very impressed with that speech. So in 1980, when he ran for President and was the nominee, certainly I was very enthusiastically in support of him. He was elected in a year when we had hostages in Iran, the economy was in the tank, and the spirit of America was in the doldrums. He won by a landslide, with great expectations, though, and a great mandate. He needed to cut taxes, and he did. He moved along and created an economy that gave 19 million new jobs over the next 8 years. Inflation was reduced, as well as interest rates. He built defense to the extent that we got over, finally, Vietnam. He talked about things like the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union and peace through strength.”