It so happens that Ronald Reagan had the same birthday as my dad. So today is a day I find myself thinking about both of them. They were very much alike in many ways. Both were staunch traditionalists who believed in the greatness of this nation and who believed that the best way to avoid war was by projecting strength.

When Reagan was in his last year in office, battered and buffeted by the Iran-Contra affair and beginning to show signs of the ravages of Alzheimer’s, the Left circled like vultures, pecking away at the legacy and reputation with a viciousness comparable to the attacks on George W. Bush. A group of history professors released a “study” showing that Reagan was ranked by the nation’s history professors as the “worst President ever.” It is odd to me how few people seem to recall how low Reagan’s star had fallen by 1988. I remember having arguments with my liberal friends where they sneered that Reagan would be remembered as an incompetent buffoon, when I said that Reagan would almost certainly be remembered as the greatest President since World War II at the very least.

Time has proven me right on this because even the most viciously partisan weak-brained liberal academic eventually was forced to admit that Reagan had transformed America and revitalized it after the disastrous Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

In the past year I have heard Reagan’s name invoked more frequently than at any time since the 2000 election. With the ongoing depredations that President Obama is determined to inflict on this country, a return to the “malaise” and “stagflation” and other indignities of the 70s seems almost certain. I can feel this nation yearning for a return to Reagan’s “Shining city on a hill.”

The only question I have is whether there is anyone on the horizon with the ability to take up Reagan’s mantle and lead this nation back to confidence, prosperity and national pride.

It’s going to be a long three years for sure. I suspect that we will hear a lot more about how another Reagan is needed before we get to 2012. If a John McCain is the best we can come up with by then, it’s going to be a long, dark winter of the soul before liberty rises again.