WHAT FRANCE NEEDS IS A REAGAN-TYPE LEADER

Ronald Reagan was a born leader. Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Reagan's political soul mate once said "Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to remind people that you are, you aren't not. Reagan never hand to remind people he was in power because he had something many powerful people do not: authority. And he had authority because he knew how to lead. Reagan knew that you manage things and you can lead people. He knew that leadership is not about the self, but is about self-sacrifice. He knew leadership is about putting the interests of those you serve above your own interests. He knew leadership is not about "me" it's about "you".

He praticed leadership, which can be defined as the skill of influencing people to work enthusiastically toward goals identified as being for the common good. He influenced those around him by meeting their legitimate needs, while giving them a vision for an America that had strength, coupled with temperance, and pride, leveled by humility. And his vision set a nation and a world on fire for freedom.

Ronald Reagan tool the United States of America to new highs at a time when his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, has said that America was in a great "malaise".

All of life is relational and Ronald Reagan learned, early on, the value and importance of relationships. Truly great leaders are skilled at building healthy relationships and Reagan seemed to know that a poor relationship is at the heart of almost any problem. Reagan learned from his mistakes and worked to build positive, successful relationships. Reagan worked hard on relationships with people he came into contact with. While he was comfortable with presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens, he was most contended and at ease with the ordinary, every-day Americans he met on his travels. He enjoyed a good story and a good joke and he was known to play practical jokes on his staff. He was never afraid to indulge in self-deprecating humor, and his wit and humor helped him build his relationships, often disarming his enemies. And Reagan's good relationships with people did not stop with those he worked with or those he cared about. He built good relationships even with his political enemies. He respected them, he respected their dignity as human beings, he listened to them and he communicated with them as he did with everyone he came into contact with.

Reagan like many great leaders worked with a small cadre of trusted individuals. He had his mind set on a few issues, all very important ones, and he had a certain set of values and beliefs rooted deeply in his belief and trust in God that guided everything else. He gave direction to his people and let them worry about the details. He led his people; his people managed the details. He gave of himself to his people, to the American people and to the people of the world. He loved by serving and sacrificing. He built authority with people and he earned the right to be called "leader"

For the French, Ronald Reagan was thought as a ‘shoot-from the hip’ cowboy- Ronnie le cowboy they called him. But back in 1986 when the Socialist government gave way to conservatives under Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, the head of the Gaullist party, there was an avid courting of the American market model. Now Ronald Reagan, the “cowboy president” became a French hero because he had led the United States and the West out of decade of ‘stagflation’. Apparently, the French confirmed the Gaullist flirtation with Reaganism since, they, far more than the British or the West Germans would have voted for Reagan’s reelection in 1984. Free enterprise à l’américaine was in style. As if to crown the American fad, the Chirac government completed negotiations with the Disney corporation to build its European version of the Disneyland amusement park outside Paris.