The return of patriotism Ronald Reagan, the nation's 40th pres

Ronald Reagan had an uncommon ability to give voice to the optimism and patriotism of the American people. The most conservative president in half a century, he bore down on Soviet communism and challenged the central assumptions about what government should do.

More than any other politician of his time, Reagan had an affectionate relationship with his countrymen that endured through his two terms.

He was "Dutch" Reagan, the radioman. He was "the Gipper," forever asking voters to win one more for him. His eyes glistened when he heard the national anthem. He was comfortable with himself. He was optimistic. He kept short office hours and joked about it; it was true, he said, that hard work never killed anyone, "but, I figure, why take the chance?"

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on Feb. 6, 1911, in a four-room apartment over the general store in Tampico, Ill., the younger of the two sons of Nelle and John Reagan. His father was an alcoholic shoe salesman who had trouble supporting his family.

The elder Reagan said the baby looked like a little Dutchman, and the nickname "Dutch" took hold.

Reagan held office from 1981 to 1989 as the 40th president, the first in a generation to serve two complete terms, and the most conservative since Herbert Hoover.

When he left office, at age 77, he held the highest popularity rating of any retiring president in the history of polling.

Reagan carried all but six states in defeating incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and independent John Anderson in 1980 but he commanded the loyalty of only 50.7 percent of the voters in that election. Bad economic times helped elect him, as he asked voters, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" and he overcame criticism of Democrats who tried to picture him a trigger-happy zealot.

After four years -- two years of recession, two of prosperity -- Reagan was re-elected by a huge margin, carrying 49 of the 50 states and getting 59 percent of the vote in defeating Democrat Walter F. Mondale, who had been Carter's vice president.

He embraced a conservative economic theory called "supply side," a belief that tax cuts would stimulate the economy and so pay for themselves. When it did not work out that way, Reagan explained that was because Democratic Congresses had been too timid in applying the concept.

In any event, by the time Reagan left office his goal of eliminating the deficit was still elusive -- his eight budgets averaged deficits of $180 billion.

Reagan was famously dismissive of the value of government and oddly detached from its daily workings.

Across the years he summed up his philosophy in a slogan: "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." He depended massively on aides and fixed his sights on a few big things.

He was frankly, openly, unblushingly patriotic and nostalgic, calling America a "city on the hill."

In a farewell address, he said those of his generation "were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions."