17. REAGAN AND KENNEDY: OPPOSITES ATTRACT.

1. Telephone interview with Ron Reagan, Jr., March 8, 2012.

2. Think through JFK's successors. No one has ever accused LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, or Obama of excessive wit, and only the unelected Ford and perhaps Bush 43 demonstrated the ability to make fun of their own shortcomings with any regularity.

3. See Thomas W. Evans, The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of his Conversion to Conservatism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 5597, and Lou Cannon, Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power (New York: Public Affairs, 2005), 83122.

4. Stephen E. Ambrose, Nixon: The Education of a Politician, 191362 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), 546; "Text of 1960 Reagan Letter," New York Times, October 27, 1984.

5. Ibid.

6. As Time reported it: "The letter was unearthed from a trove of Nixon's papers in a branch of the National Archives in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Last week Walter Mondale read the passage to campaign audiences to back up his charge that Reagan is guilty of 'political grave robbing' when he invokes the names of such Democrats as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman-and, yes, John F. Kennedy. Presidential Spokesman Larry Speakes replied that Reagan 'had been pleasantly surprised to find the difference between Kennedy the candidate and Kennedy the president.' "Source: "Dear Mr. Vice Pres.," Time 124 (November 4, 1984): 24. In addition, "Dayton Duncan, Mr. Mondale's deputy press secretary, said the campaign learned about the letter last Wednesday from a hand-writing expert who was doing research on Mr. Nixon's pre-presidential papers at a branch of the Los Angeles Federal Archives in Laguna-Niguel, Calif." Bernard Weinraub, "Mondale Says Reagan Note Compared Kennedy to Marx," New York Times, October 24, 1984.

7. Michael Reagan with Jim Denney, The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan's Principles Can Restore America's Greatness (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010), 103; Larry J. Sabato, Feeding Frenzy: How Attack Journalism Has Transformed American Politics (New York: Free Press, 1991), 3342.

8. Ronald Reagan, Speaking My Mind (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), 23.

9. Reagan, New Reagan Revolution, 110. Whether or not the allegation had a basis in truth, Ronald Reagan believed it to be true and told his son about it.

10. Reagan's speech was entitled "A Time for Choosing" and included such memorable lines as "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear" and "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness." See Ronald Reagan, "Address on Behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater: 'A Time for Choosing,' " October 27, 1964, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, American Presidency Project,

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=76121

[accessed April 2, 2012].

11. "The Ronnie-Bobby Show," Newsweek, May 29, 1967: 2631; Paul Kengor, "The Great Forgotten Debate," National Review Online, May 22, 2007,

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/220949/great-forgotten-debate/paul-kengor?pg=1

[accessed December 28, 2011]; William Kristol, "In 2008 It's Ronald Reagan vs. Bobby Kennedy," Time, March 29, 2007,

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1604937,00.html

[accessed December 28, 2011].

12. Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson, eds. 2001. Reagan in His Own Voice: Ronald Reagan's Radio Addresses. New York: Simon and Schuster. Compact disc.

13. Del Quentin Wilber, Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan (New York: Henry Holt, 2011), 6582.

14. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, "The Handgun Crime Control Act of 1981," Northern Kentucky Law Review 10, no. 1, 1982: 1; Charles Mohr, "Guns Traced in 16 Minutes to Pawn Shop in Dallas," New York Times, April 1, 1981,

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/01/us/gunstraced-in-16-minutes-to-pawn-shop-in-dallas.html?scp=i&sq=A%20Guns%20Traced%20in%2016%20Minutes%20to%20Pawn%20Shop%20in%20Dallas&st=cse

[accessed April 5, 2012].

15. Wilber, Rawhide Down, 20325.

16. Ron Reagan, My Father at 100 (New York: Viking, 2011), 19597.

17. Nancy Reagan, My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan (New York: Random House, 1989), 5. E-mail from Ron Reagan, Jr., May 10, 2012.

18. Reagan, My Father at 100, 19597.

19. Wilber, Rawhide Down, 215.

20. "The Day Reagan Was Shot," CBS News, February 11, 2009,

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-287292.html

[accessed April 3, 2012].

21. President Ford's two assassination attempts provoked little intense emotion, since Ford was not hit and the disturbing news was immediately linked to the good news of Ford's safety.

22. Unfortunately, Hinckley may soon be back on the streets. In 2009 a judge extended the length of his furlough visits to his aging mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Hinckley's doctors have told authorities that he no longer presents a danger to himself or the public. James Polk, "Doctors: Reagan Shooter Is Recovering, Not a Danger," CNN.com, March 26, 2011,

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-26/justice/hinckley.today_1_john-hinckley-furloughs-insanity?_s=PM:CRIME

[accessed April 3, 2012].

23. Eliot Brenner, "Bulletproof Vest for Hinckley," United Press International, April 2, 1981.

24. "Kennedy Gets Secret Service Guard," Associated Press, March 31, 1981.

25. Mike Shanahan, "Secret Service: 'We Were Competing With a Bullet,' " Associated Press, April 4, 1981.

26. Michael K. Deaver, Nancy: A Portrait of My Years with Nancy Reagan (New York: William Morrow, 2004), 140.

27. Draft report, "Report on the Performance of the United States Department of the Treasury in Connection with the March 30, 1981 Assassination Attempt on President Ronald Reagan," 07/02/1981, CFOA 28, p. 75, Edwin Meese: Files, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

28. Wilber, Rawhide Down, 7071, 225.

29. Regan published For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington in 1988. Joyce Wadler, Angela Blessing, Dirk Mathison, and Margie Bonnett Sellinger, "The President's Astrologers," People 29 (May 23, 1988),

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/020099022,00.html

[accessed April 3, 2012].

30. Johanna McGeary, James Kelly, and Jonathan Beaty, "Protecting the President," Time, April 13, 1981,

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,954702,00.html

[accessed April 5, 2012].

31. Stuart Spencer, interview, excerpted in "Reagan Officials on the March 30, 1981 Assassination Attempt,"