I am a Ronald Reagan fan. 

No, not the Gipper, the Junior Gipper.  The son who said, at his father's well-publicized funeral, "Dad was also a deeply, unabashedly religious man, but he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians -- wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage."  A subtle hint to the neo-cons of today, and one that was well phrased to both leave no doubt of its intent and also to give no opennings for direct rebuttal.

The chap who was chastized by William Buckley for admitting respect for Buddhist teachings in an interview with the New York Times.  As Buckley sees it, saying he admired Buddhist teachings of ''mindfulness and loving kindness and compassion," was Ron's way to "profane/deride the faith of [his] parents, which is not very mindful.''  I guess it would be more respectful of Ron to pretend faith he does not feel and to express contempt and hatred for other religious groups.  Or perhaps he should simply not think anything his folks might potentially disagree with, since that sort of mindless obedience is every parent's hope for their offspring.

I especially like how Ron's failure to vote for George W. Bush was refered to as "the political infidelity of the son of Ronald Reagan" by the same people who accuse Ron of playing up his famous father for a personal agenda (said selfish agenda being the advance of  stem cell research for the purpose of saving lives and curing disease).  Aparently, when he votes or talks about voting, Ron Reagan is supposed to base his decisions entirely on the party his father belonged to, but when he talks about issues on which his father disagreed with that party he isn't supposed to let anybody know he's a Reagan.  Interesting. 

But best of all, Ron Reagan, Jr., wasn't afraid to make an appearance at the DNC, and he was strong enough to refuse requests to use his speech for Bush-bashing.  As Reagan told The Philadelphia Inquirer, "This gives me a platform to educate people about stem cell research."  Since the GOP was not willing to allow him that forum, and the Democrats were, the simple fact that he is there will be a message on the party differences, and trying to use Reagan as a tool for more partisan name-calling would only weaken the thrust. 

Granted, he does carry the tainted legacy of his senile, warlord-supporting, drug-dealing, economy-crippling pater, but it looks like little Ronny may be a prime example of environment and human intellect trumping genetic predisposition.