Well, now that I'm back home, I can go back to observing politics, at least part of the time. Given that Paul Ryan is noteworthy at the moment, with Romney's announcement that he was the VP pick, I thought this relevant. Ryan, like most current GOP types these days, seems to hold both Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand in pretty high regard (but see also: he seems to have renounced Rand recently). But Rand and Reagan were philosophically at odds, and despised each other. Here's Rand on Reagan (as found at dangerousminds):
What do I think of President Reagan? The best answer to give would be: But I don’t think of him—and the more I see, the less I think. I did not vote for him (or for anyone else) and events seem to justify me. The appalling disgrace of his administration is his connection with the so-called “Moral Majority” and sundry other TV religionists, who are struggling—apparently with his approval—to take us back to the Middle Ages, via the unconstitutional union of religion and politics.
Seeing quotes like this reminds me why I was rather Randian myself, once-upon-a-time. I've long since converted to a kind of euro-style liberalism, at least in politics. But my libertarian tendencies still run deep, and she was always at her best when she was defending atheism.