In 82 years of supremely active living, William F. Buckley transformed American conservatism profoundly and permanently. He established once and for all that the phrase “conservative intellectual” wasn’t a contradiction in terms. In the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, when the word “conservative” conjured  images of grumpy old men, the dashing Buckley showed that right wing activism could be fun, frisky, elegant and invigorating. He relished playing Bach on the harpsichord, sailing, writing spy novels, and hosting a long-running TV show on PBS—normally a bastion of establishment liberalism.

Like his friend Ronald Reagan, Buckley brought sunny, sparkling energy to the conservative moment, and shunned its bigoted, mean-spirited extremes. Ironically, his passing coincides with embarrassing controversy over an angry talk show host using Barack Obama’s middle name as a form of insult and attack. That’s the kind of cheap shot that happy warrior Bill Buckley would have characterized as beneath the dignity of his great cause.