Ronald Reagan’s classic punchline…
Ronald Reagan showed why he was legendary on the campaign trail with a humdinger he told before the Republican Governors Club Dinner on October 4, 1988.
“Former Congressman Prentiss Walker dropped in on a farm and introduced himself as a Republican candidate,” Reagan began his joke, “And as he tells it, the farmer’s eyes lit up, and then he said, ‘Wait ’til I get my wife. We’ve never seen a Republican before.’ And a few minutes later he was back with his wife, and they asked Prentiss if he wouldn’t give them a speech.”
“Well, he looked around for a kind of a podium, something to stand on,” he continued, “and then the only thing available was a pile of that stuff that the late Mrs. Truman said it had taken her 35 years to get Harry to call ‘fertilizer.’ So, he stepped up on that and made his speech.
“And apparently he won them over. And they told him it was the first time they’d ever heard a Republican. And he says, ‘That’s okay. That’s the first time I’ve ever given a speech from a Democratic platform.’”
Reagan showed that no matter what his critics said about him, he could still still stand up for himself and what he believed in. What made him unmatched as a politician was the way that he delivered a jab with warmth and a great sense of humor.
