Ron Reagan

Ronald Prescott Reagan (born May 20, 1958 in Los Angeles, California), usually known as Ron Reagan, is the son of former President of the United States Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan. He is currently a political pundit for the cable television network MSNBC, and was a talk show host and chief political analyst for KIRO radio in Seattle until his show was canceled on August 8, 2007. On September 8, 2008, "The Ron Reagan Show" made its debut on Air America Radio. He is notable for his liberal views despite having a conservative father.

Early life

Reagan grew up in Los Angeles and then Sacramento, while his father was Governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He has a sister, Patti Davis, five and a half years his senior, and a brother, Michael Reagan, who was adopted as an infant by Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman. He also has two half-sisters who were born to Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman and who are deceased: Maureen Reagan and Christine Reagan, who was born prematurely June 26, 1947 and died later that same day.

Reagan attended the Webb Schools of California but was expelled. Reagan attended Yale University but dropped out in 1976 after one semester. At that time his father was running in the Republican Presidential primary against incumbent Gerald Ford, and Reagan disliked the attention he received at Yale. He joined the Joffrey Ballet in pursuit of a lifelong dream to become a ballet dancer.

"Time" wrote in 1980: "It is widely known that Ron's parents have not managed to see a single ballet performance of their son, who is clearly very good, having been selected to the Joffrey second company, and is their son nonetheless. Ron talks of his parents with much affection. But these absences are strange and go back a ways."

In 1986, while his father was president, Reagan hosted "Saturday Night Live" and performed his own version of the "underwear dance" made famous by Tom Cruise in "Risky Business". His appearance made him the first (and so far only) child of a U.S. President to host "SNL".

Career

In 1991, Reagan was the host of "The Ron Reagan Show", a syndicated late-night talk show addressing political issues of the day. However, it was canceled after a brief run, unable to compete with the higher ratings of "The Arsenio Hall Show", "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", and "Nightline".

Reagan has worked in recent years as a magazine journalist, and has hosted talk shows on cable TV networks such as the Animal Planet network. In Britain, he is best known for having co-presented "Record Breakers" (based on "The Guinness Book of Records") for the BBC. Reagan presented a report from the USA each week. [ [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/571186/index.html screenonline: Record Breakers (1973-2001) ] ]

He currently serves on the board of the Creative Coalition, an organization founded in 1989 by a group that included Susan Sarandon and Christopher Reeve, to politically mobilize entertainers and artists, generally for First Amendment rights, and causes such as arts advocacy and public education. From February to December 2005 Reagan co-hosted the talk show " with Monica Crowley" on MSNBC.

During the 2007 holiday season, Reagan hosted the Neiman Marcus/Children's Hospital of Dallas' Christmas Parade.

Air America Radio announced that Ron Reagan is joining their network, hosting a one hour daily show beginning September 8, 2008. [http://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/$rol.exe/headline_id=n18357]

Political activities

In an April 2003 interview, Reagan said, "The Bush people have no right to speak for my father, particularly because of the position he's in now. Yes, some of the current policies are an extension of the '80s. But the overall thrust of this administration is not my father's – these people are overly reaching, overly aggressive, overly secretive, and just plain corrupt. I don't trust these people."

He also strongly opposed the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq. "9/11 gave the Bush people carte blanche to carry out their extreme agenda – and they didn't hesitate for a moment to use it," Reagan said. "By 9/12 Rumsfeld was saying, 'Let's hit Iraq.' They've used the war on terror to justify everything from tax cuts to Alaska oil drilling."

In July 2004, Reagan spoke at the Democratic National Convention about his support for lifting Bush's restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, a form of research which scientists believe could lead to a cure or new treatments for Alzheimer's disease, of which his father had recently died. "There are those who would stand in the way of this remarkable future, who would deny the federal funding so crucial to basic research. A few of these folks, needless to say, are just grinding a political axe and they should be ashamed of themselves," Ron Reagan said of the restrictions. "We can choose between the future and the past, between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and mere ideology."

In September 2004 he told the "Sunday Herald" newspaper that the Bush administration had "cheated to get into the White House. It's not something Americans ever want to think about their government. My sense of these people is that they don't have any respect for the public at large. They have a revolutionary mindset. I think they feel that anything they can do to prevail - lie, cheat, whatever - is justified by their revolutionary aims" and that he feared Bush was hijacking his father's reputation. [ Reagan jr warns Bush, Sunday Herald, Sep 29 2004, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0926-02.htm]

Reagan later wrote an essay titled "The Case Against George W. Bush by Ron Reagan" for "Esquire". He was quoted as saying that he voted for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

Personal life

Reagan lives in Seattle with his wife, Doria (née Palmieri), a clinical psychologist whom he married in 1980. His wife is seven years his senior. They have no children.

Ron Reagan stated, in a 2004 "New York Times" interview, that he is an atheist. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/magazine/27QUESTIONS.html?ex=1205812800&en=2cf65449d478f3c3&ei=5070 NY Times-The Son Also Rises] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0713985/ IMDB profile]
* [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/04/14/ron_reagan/ Reagan Blasts Bush (2003 interview)]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/politics/15memo.html?ei=5007&en=a80127a15c3ad4db&ex=1402632000&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position= NYT: Reaganite by Association? His Family Won't Allow It]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/magazine/27QUESTIONS.html The Son Also Rises (27 June 2004 NYT interview)]
*Fresh Air episode|url_date_arg=22-Jul-2004|date=22 July 2004
* [http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2004/040729_mfe_reagan_1.html Esquire (Sept 2004): The Case Against George W. Bush by Ron Reagan]
* [http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0603-JUN_REAGAN_rev_2 Esquire (June 2003): My Father's Memories by Ron Reagan]