Sarah Palin is honoring one Reagan and offending another with the same speech. The former Alaska governor is scheduled to speak in Santa Barbara, Calif., on Friday at a tribute to former President Ronald Reagan - just one of the celebrations marking the centennial of the 40th president's birth on Feb. 6.
But his son, Ron Reagan, tells The Associated Press he doesn't see anything in common between his dad and the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, who was invited to speak by the event's sponsor, the conservative Young America's Foundation.
"Sarah Palin is a soap opera, basically. She's doing mostly what she does to make money and keep her name in the news," Reagan says. "She is not a serious candidate for president and never has been," said Reagan, a political independent whose politics lean left.
But former Reagan speechwriter Kenneth Khachigian praised the choice of Palin to discuss Reagan's legacy.
Palin was a teenager when Reagan took office in 1981 and like many young people "their lives and philosophy and political fortunes were shaped by the Reagan era. She can reflect on that as well as anyone could," Khachigian says.
Palin is expected to talk about Reagan's 1964 speech, "A Time for Choosing," which he gave on behalf of then-Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. In it, he touches on themes he would revisit for years to come, including the dangers of high taxes and encroaching big government.