Free Killing Reagan by Bill O'Reilly Page A

platform. The “Treaty of Fifth Avenue,” as it will be dubbed, is designed to appeal to independent and Democratic voters.
    Reagan concludes the letter, scalding John F. Kennedy: “Under the tousled boyish haircut is still old Karl Marx—first launched a century ago. There is nothing new in the idea of a government being Big Brother to us all. Hitler called his ‘State Socialism.’” 5
    Signing the letter “Ronnie Reagan,” the actor fervently hopes his offer to campaign for Richard Nixon will be accepted. Though Nixon will lose the 1960 presidential election by less than one percentage point of all votes polled, Reagan will speak on his behalf whenever asked.
    *   *   *
    â€œHave you registered as a Republican yet?” shouts a voice from the audience. The year is 1962. As Ronald Reagan predicted, Richard Nixon’s attempt to “out-liberal” John Kennedy is among the factors that cost him the presidency. Now Reagan is once again campaigning for Nixon, this time as the former vice president runs for governor of California.
    Reagan stands before a small crowd of Republican supporters. The fund-raising event is being held in a house just down the street from his Pacific Palisades home. Reagan knows many of those in attendance but does not recognize this voice speaking to him in the middle of the living room.
    â€œHave you registered as a Republican yet?” she asks a second time.
    â€œWell, no. I haven’t yet. But I intend to.”
    The truth is Ronald Reagan no longer has any reason to remain a Democrat. His conservative affiliations have become so notorious that General Electric recently fired him as a spokesman, under pressure from some powerful liberal concerns. So, once again, Ronald Reagan is an unemployed actor searching for his next paycheck. He has absolutely, positively nothing to lose by switching political parties.
    â€œI’m a registrar,” the woman says, standing up and walking toward Reagan with a slip of paper in her hand.
    She hands the paper to Reagan. It is a registration form. The woman has already filled in all the blanks, meaning that with a simple swipe of his pen, Ronald Reagan will officially become a Republican.
    The registrar hands Reagan a pen.
    He signs the form without a moment’s hesitation.
    As the room erupts in applause, Reagan smiles. There will come a time when few will even remember his thirty years as a Democrat. “I did not leave the Democratic Party,” he will tell people, borrowing a line from Richard Nixon. “The Democratic Party left me.”
    Now, in the first moments of his new life as a Republican, Ronald Reagan gets back to the task at hand.
    â€œNow, where was I?” he asks, before continuing the speech he has been perfecting for the last eight years.
    *   *   *
    A bitter Richard Nixon strides purposefully onto the stage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. The date is November 7, 1962. Despite Ronald Reagan’s campaign efforts, Nixon has just lost the election for governor of California, an election he assumed he would win easily. 6 The governorship was meant to be a job that would keep Nixon in the public eye until 1968. He believed that John F. Kennedy would be president for two terms, so he would wait until then to tender another presidential bid.
    Now an exhausted and angry Richard Nixon faces the harsh reality that he is finished. It will be a political near impossibility to recover from this loss.
    But before he goes, Nixon has a few words he would like to say.
    His face lined with tension, Nixon forces a smile as he looks at the reporters assembled before him. There is no podium, just a cluster of microphones. He is nervous about the speech he is about to give but is attempting to appear jovial. The forty-nine-year-old Nixon considers the media to be his personal enemy and believes that after years of frustrated silence, the time has