Riney and I were shooting a spot in Ireland and Hal spoke to me of a television campaign to re-elect Ronald Reagan. I laughed out loud. I felt and still feel that Reagan was a joke. We had a production room at our hotel and Hal left a cassette of the spot on the cassette deck, I guess hoping I would play it and change my mind. Funny.
My brother eventually filmed the commercial and the spot is considered one of the greatest in political history.
Reagan would have been elected anyway so I never knew why the spot became so famous. I don’t think Hal believed the crap he said about Reagan as well. Reagan could easily be considered the worst president ever.
Under the Reaganomics banner, the Federal Budget Deficit tripled, the Federal Government grew. Reagan was apathetic to women’s rights. He suppressed democratic reform in South America and falsely took credit for the decline of the Soviet Union. He vetoed the Anti-Apartheid Act and helped create the Taliban and Osama bin Laden by arming Islamist fundamentalists (remember Iran/Contra?) and created our present homeless problem by releasing mental patients. Reagan helped create present labor problems by his various anti-labor stances (and lots more).
Thanks, Hal.