April 1st is April Fool’s Day and kicks off National Humor Month. It is tempting to write about how foolish our elected officials are, but it would be impossible to do that in a Webb Weekly article. It would likely result in a book the size of War and Peace. Therefore, I decided to highlight a president who used humor the right way — President Ronald Reagan. He truly represented the saying that laughter is the best medicine.

This was especially true when he was challenged about his age. Ronald Reagan was a month away from hitting 70 years when he took office, the oldest president to take office in America’s history at that time. In his first State of the Union address, he opened with a quote from George Washington and then finished it by saying that he did not hear Washington give it personally.

Throughout his political career, Ronald Reagan used humor to take the sharp edge off serious messages and to alleviate the hurt of detractors. Reagan’s age was the subject of many jokes during his presidency, and in a famous moment during the October 28, 1984, presidential debate with former Vice President Walter Mondale, President Reagan spun the issue in his own favor, deadpanning, “I want you to know also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

Some more of his most famous zingers:

“The most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”

“It’s true that hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?”

“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April 15.”

“It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.”

“I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.”

“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

“When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.”

But what made President Reagan so special and unique is that he did not just tell jokes but seemed to be able to say the right thing at the right time. The most famous was on June 12, 1987, when he was standing in front of the Berlin Wall that divided Germany into free and communist sectors, and out of the 2,700 words he spoke that day, the four strong words that resonated around the world were, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Even during terrible events, he found a way to lighten the mood. During the 1981 assassination attempt on his life, with an assassin’s bullet just millimeters from his heart, President Reagan looked at his doctors just prior to surgery and joked to them, “I hope you are all Republicans.”

He was not a comedian as much as a wordsmith, one who was skilled with words. And some of them resonate for today:

“We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.”

“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”

“A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”

And to close with one of my special Reagan quotes:

“Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don’t have that problem.”