William F. Buckley Jr.: 1925-2008

President George W. Bush shakes hands with William F. Buckley, Jr., Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, to honor the 50th anniversary of National Review magazine, which was founded by Buckley, and to recognize Buckley's upcoming 80th birthday. Buckley died Wednesday morning, Feb. 27, 2008. He was 82.

President Bush shakes hands with National Review founder William F. Buckley, Jr., left, after a tribute to the magazine and Buckley on Oct. 6, 2005 in Washington. After hearing the news of his death, Mr. Bush remembered Buckley as one of America's finest writers and thinkers. "He influenced a lot of people, including me," Bush said in the Oval Office. "He captured the imagination of a lot of people."

William F. Buckley Jr., smiles during an interview at his home in New York on July 20, 2004. Editor, columnist, novelist, debater, TV talk show star, harpsichordist, trans-oceanic sailor and even a good-natured loser in a New York mayor's race, Buckley worked at a daunting pace, taking as little as 20 minutes to write a column for his magazine, the National Review.

William F. Buckley Jr., the conservative pioneer and television "Firing Line" host, responds to questions during an interview July 20, 2004, in New York. His assistant Linda Bridges says Buckley died Wednesday morning Feb. 27, 2008, at his home in Stamford, Conn. She says he had been ill with emphysema and was found dead by his cook.

William F. Buckley, Jr. arrives at Washington National Cathedral to attend the funeral service for former President Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, in Washington. Buckley died Wednesday morning, Feb. 27, 2008.

William F. Buckley, Jr. is shown June 1, 1986. "I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition," he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. "I asked myself the other day, 'Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone."

William F. Buckley Jr. left, talks with former California Gov. Ronald Reagan at the South Carolina Governor's Mansion in Columbia S.C., on Jan. 13, 1978, after the two debated the Panama Canal Treaty.

William F. Buckley Jr., and his wife, Patricia, attend Truman Capote's Black and White Ball at the Plaza Hotel in New York on Nov. 28, 1966. Buckley became famous for his intellectual political writings in his magazine, the National Review, and his frequent television appearances, including on his own long-running "Firing Line."

Conservative Party candidate William F. Buckley Jr., waves to the crowd during his concession speech as his unsuccessful campaign to be New York City mayor ended, at his election headquarters in New York early on Nov. 3, 1965.

William F. Buckley, Jr. shown March 14, 1954, after he accepted Sen. Joseph F. McCarthy's invitation to reply for him to criticism by TV commentator Edward R. Murrow. Buckley, the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right's post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House.