Fifty years ago today, Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most memorable speeches, “A Time for Choosing.” In the speech, Reagan is stumping for beleaguered Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who was about to undergo a thorough beating at the hands of Democrat Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society.

Steve Hayward, currently the Reagan Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University, and author of a two-volume narrative history of Reagan and his presidency, recently penned an opinion piece on the speech’s impact. Hayward thinks the speech launched Reagan into the political stratosphere, similar to Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address (1860), Obama’s keynote to the Democratic National Convention (2004), and Bryan’s Cross of Gold address (1896).

As Hayward notes, this is Reagan with sharp edges and probably at his most ideological. He is not as smooth as he would become later, but it is clear that his thoughts were already fully formed.

h/t: Dann Sternsher