"The Rosetta Stone of Reaganism"

The Washington Post compares the radio commentaries and Internet postings of GOP presidential hopeful Fred Thompson to the radio broadcasts that Ronald Reagan used in the 1970s as the foundation for his successful 1980 campaign. We know all about these here at Carnegie Mellon because Kiron Skinner, the director of our International Relations Program, co-edited "Reagan, in His Own Hand:  The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America." Skinner discovered the manuscripts at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

"It was estimated that the audience reached 20 million," Skinner told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2001. "Reagan probably reached more people as a private citizen than anybody before Oprah. What he was doing was expanding his political base. By the time he ran for president, a lot of people knew his message."

  

Jonathan Potts