Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, passed away recently at the age of 80. He was a newspaper columnist, among many other things, and he wrote columns for my syndicate, Cagle Cartoons, as a conservative in a group filled with liberal political cartoonists, like me.
Michael was one of the first columnists to join our little syndicate more than 20 years ago. At that time, he was doing a daily radio show on many hundreds of radio stations, competing head to head with Rush Limbaugh. He was an important part of our getting into newspapers in the beginning. Michael could have gone with any syndicate, but he chose to support our quirky startup, and his longtime support made a big difference for us.
Michael was a conservative Republican, but in the old style of his father, not the crazy MAGA Republicans we know now. He didn’t hesitate to criticize Trump. His columns were always popular. When Michael took a vacation, editors would freak out, calling us, asking what’s wrong and when Michael would be back.
Michael invited me to join him a few times while he did his radio show, live on hundreds of stations, which was great fun and not what I expected. He sat in a dull little room, at a dull little desk that looked nothing like a radio studio, all by himself. I asked him, “Don’t you have a producer? Isn’t there someone you work with who feeds you prompts and clever responses?” There wasn’t. Michael said he used to, but didn’t want to deal with it anymore.
I recall Michael going into a passionate radio rant about some conservative subject and suddenly he stopped, stood up and said, “You want a cup of coffee?” He had just gone to a commercial and had 60 seconds to get coffee. That’s what the radio show was like, we’re having a conversation, suddenly Michael turns his head, talking into the microphone, and then his head snaps back to me, carrying on our conversation, then back to the microphone for couple of minutes, then back to me as there was a traffic report, the news, or another commercial. Never a pause.
Going out to lunch with Michael was a similar experience. Michael always seemed to be surrounded by friends. He lived in the San Fernando Valley, as I do, and I recall going out to lunch with him at Hollywood restaurants where he’d see friends and celebrities pop up like the commercials on his radio show. He’d greet these old buddies, then turn his head back to me to carry on our conversation just as he would after a traffic report on the radio. One time it was to hug his buddy Pete Rose, the baseball player I’ve drawn and syndicated in many ugly editorial cartoons.
Mike lived in a different world as a charming conservative celebrity, among the cartoon characters we editorial cartoonists bash every day. He made time for everyone, he devoted himself to charities, and he was often asked to run for political office and never did, which probably contributed to making him more likable.
Michael leaves a hole in our little newspaper syndicate and I miss him.
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Daryl Cagle is the publisher of Cagle.com and owner of Cagle Cartoons, Inc, a syndicate that distributes editorial cartoons and columns to over 500 newspapers. See Daryl’s blog at: DarylCagle.com and watch his video podcast about editorial cartoons at Caglecast.com.
