Obama, Top Republicans Honor Reagan

President Barack Obama and top Republicans are doing their part to honor former President Ronald Reagan in advance of his 100th birthday next month. Obama, House Speaker John Boehner, Sen. John McCain and former Govs. Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney (pictured) each wrote columns extolling Reagan’s virtues that appeared in USA Today Monday, according to Politico.com.

“Perhaps even more important than any single accomplishment was the sense of confidence and optimism President Reagan never failed to communicate to the American people,” Obama writes. “It was a spirit that transcended the most heated political arguments, and one that called each of us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today.”

Reagan was “America’s lifeguard,” Palin says. “He lifted our country up at a time when we were in the depths of economic, cultural and spiritual malaise. We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism.”