We lost a true patriot today.

I agree with The Fall Guy he was a true ambassador to this great nation

I wasn't found of him as a President, but I always thought he was essentially a good man in over his head.  And while I didn't particularly agree with his politics, he dedicated himself to his country and was loved by most Americans.  

I'm the primary care-giver for my Aunt, who is currently suffering with the ravages of Alzheimer's, so I can commiserate with what Mrs. Regan went through these last several years... All in all, his passing is probably a relief for his family and ultimately for the best.  It's heartbreaking to see a shell of the former person you've known and loved all of your life.

May he rest in peace.

Eddie, my friend. You mean you preferred the wimpy Jimmy Carter who let the Irainians humiliate us, gave us 18% interest rates, and let the Arabs embargo the oil? HE was a guy in over his head!

When Reagan ran for reelection, did you really want Walter Mondale? I think Reagan won 49 states that year.

Ronald Reagan used to be a Democrat and ran a union out here in Hollywood before he ran for Governor of California as a Republican. He won 2 terms as Govenor and two as President. Perhaps you will consider becoming an honory "Reagan Democrat" seeing how he helped win the cold war and removed the Soviet Union as a threat to us forever.

You are a good and smart fellow, look at all of the good this man did. He was the right President at the right time in our history.

Let's all gather round and speak ill of the dead. The man who broke the back of labor unions, increased the power of a corrupt corporate America, opposed social programs and began the heartlessness so rampant in our country today, increased military spending and busted the budget, despoiled the environment, took credit for the end of the Soviet Union which basically collapsed from within, and is most responsible for the rightward tilt that threatens our liberties today, including our right to practice our dear little hobby incidentally. And above all else, spawned the Bush dynasty!!!! Gimme a break. Reagan was an unmitigated disaster for the course of our country's history.

Visitors to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, in the grounds of which the 40th president of the United States will be laid to rest later this month, frequently depart somewhat baffled. The Reagan museum and library are magnificently set out on a matchlessly beautiful hilltop setting north of Los Angeles. The optimistic feel of the visitor experience, with its prominent displays about Mr Reagan's movies and Mrs Reagan's gowns, is undeniably attractive. But there is also something missing. The nitty-gritty documentary political records of the president's toughest moments, the sort of sweaty detail that makes a visit to John Kennedy's or Richard Nixon's presidential libraries so compellingly interesting, is largely absent here. The visitor to Simi Valley emerges feeling extremely benevolent towards Mr Reagan, but without quite knowing what he really did. It is as though he presided over his years in office rather than leaving a conventional political imprint upon them.
This is, in many respects, also the case with Mr Reagan's remarkable life, which came to a close on Saturday, nearly 10 years after his poignant and dignified announcement of his Alzheimer's diagnosis. Mr Reagan is chiefly remembered now for three things - his tax cutting economic policies, his role in bringing about the end of the cold war and his ability to make America feel so good about itself after the turmoil of Vietnam, civil rights and Watergate.

These are formidable legacies. As his veteran secretary of state George Shultz rightly put it yesterday, Mr Reagan was one of the few presidents who shook things up. Yet Mr Reagan also had the magic ability to appear to be achieving things when he was not. In economics, he made no serious attempt to balance the financial books. His budget forecasts, in David Stockman's words, were "absolutely doctored", Enron before Enron. An enemy of big government, Mr Reagan tripled the deficit and left the largest government debt in America's history. Everyone can now agree that Mr Reagan had something to do with the collapse of communism, but as Garry Wills has written, "even his admirers are not clear on the exact chain of causality". Some believe that Mr Reagan spent the Soviet Union into submission, others that with Star Wars he scared it into surrender. At the time he left the White House, though, these were not widely shared views. The CIA, along with many conservatives, had barely recovered from Mr Reagan's apparent willingness at Reykjavik to destroy the US nuclear arsenal if Mikhail Gorbachev would do the same (an event which Mr Reagan always regarded as the most important of his presidency). When he left office in 1989, many believed he had delivered communism a hand-up rather than a knock-down.

What is beyond doubt is that Mr Reagan made America feel good about itself again. He was, to quote Mr Wills again, "the first truly cheerful conservative". He gave American conservatism a humanity and hope that it never had in the Goldwater or Nixon eras, but which endures today because of him, to the frustration of many more ideological conservatives. Unlike them, Mr Reagan was a congenital optimist, "hardwired for courtesy", as his former speechwriter Peggy Noonan puts it.

Mr Reagan had a rose-tinted view of America's past and America's future alike. He elided things he saw in the movies with reality. At times he could seem oblivious to the facts; when he gave evidence on Iran-Contra in 1990 he used the phrases "I don't recall" or "I don't remember" a total of 130 times. He was the bane of biographers, one of whom, Edmund Morris, actually felt himself driven to produce a part-fictionalised account in order to make the former president more understandable.

But he had an accord with the American people, who warmed to his vision of themselves as a nation of optimistic individualists, blessed by God and by destiny, a vision that predated and outlives him, but on which he left a deep imprint. That is why, though Mr Reagan was often mocked abroad, at home he has already become something of a cult, for very ideological reasons. In this as in other things, what made America feel good about itself makes others deeply alarmed. That also continues after Mr Reagan has gone.

This is the kind of comment that makes me confident of victory.

eulogizing the dead is so much easier and "safer" than justifying their misdeads while they're still alive ... so you wait, when the ineffectual Jimmy Carter that you so vilify passes away, all manner of hardcore Republicans will come and praise his presidency (just you wait and see)

i got nothing against Reagan the *man* (frankly, he should've kept on keeping on as LaLa Land's governor!) ... the president Reagan however, quad-fucking-rupled the national debt, sanctioned Iran-Contra, SDI and had many other crises of leadership (that you all seemed to have forgotten about)

"quad-fucking-rupled the national debt"?

Singleton, congress spends the money, passes the budget, not the president.  Congress was firmly in the grasp of the Democratic party during all 8 years of the Reagan Presidency and had the votes to block Reagan in every budget.

"sanctioned Iran-Contra"?

I would probably agree with this, however, because he "may have" the people of Nicaragua were able to have free elections and kicked out the communist dictator, Daniel Ortega.  They have a strong, growing economy and a much higher standard of living now, and the spread of communist dicatorships was quelled in Central America!  I would say this was one of Reagan's best efforts.  He was right!

"SDI"?

What was wrong with SDI?  The President's job is to protect America, SDI would have made intercontental ballistic missles obsolute, what would have been wrong with that (other than pissing off the Russians who could not compete)?

"Other crises of leadership"?  Get over it, he was the Most Loved President of the 20th Century.  He left this country with  the largest peacetime eoncomic growth in the history of our country.  All the whoopla from the left about his every move was wrong, all of it.  Reagan was a Titan among our greatest generation!

His best attribute was that he never took himself too seriously, but he took his job very seriously and he was optimistic about America and its future,

I personally mourn the passing of this great man.

Massively large as a universal humanitarian and diplomat since leaving office.  He has constantly been available to serve any president who requested his assistance.  History, when all has been evaluated in the focal eye of time, will be kind to Jimmy Carter.
    My acknowlegements to both Mr. Reagan and Mr. Carter respects their valiant service to this nation, even if I disagree with some of their policies as president.

-- Modified on 6/7/2004 3:49:17 PM

2 million dollar speaking fees back to our country.

Again, here is a document of questionable quality(according to Bribite)

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/


Chapter XI of this questionabe document, or else Bribite would not think "maybe, called Concluding observations.  First paragraph, which summarizes results of study reads:



   The underlying facts of Iran/contra are that, regardless of criminality, President Reagan, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and the director of central intelligence and their necessary assistants committed themselves, however reluctantly, to two programs contrary to congressional policy and contrary to national policy. They skirted the law, some of them broke the law, and almost all of them tried to cover up the President's willful activities.

"two programs contrary to congressional policy and contrary to national policy."
 Just wanted to make sure you saw this sentance, Bribite.  MAYBE?  Gimme a break!!


-- Modified on 6/7/2004 8:47:16 PM

and don't ask for Facts James.  You never provide them.  Just Republican Pavlov responses come out of you.

What's the difference between a big business man and a small business man?

A big business man is what a small business man would be if the government would get out of his way and leave him alone!

-- Modified on 6/7/2004 8:49:43 PM

Unfortunately, he was also a role model for what NOT TO DO while in office.

He freed a nation from the tyranny of Daniel Ortega and put a stop on the spread of communism in Central America.  Congress was wrong in not assisting the Contra's, the free elections in Nicaragua with a landslide kicking Ortega out of power solidifies that fact.


"A communist is someone who has read Karl Marx and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.  An Anticommunist is someone who has read and UNDERSTANDS Karl Marx and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin!"

So all in all wonhunglow, I think it stands right up there as one of Reagan's greatest moments!  BTW, why do you always post  with an alias?  And a follow up question, how many different aliases do you post under?

-- Modified on 6/9/2004 5:36:39 PM

Many people have reacted to the passing of Ronald Reagan with political sentiments, those of God-like praise from Conservatives and hate generally reserved for Satan from Liberals.  Getting beyond that, President Reagan made it a good thing again when he took office to be an American, and he made it not only an acceptable thing but once again an honorable thing to wear our country's uniform.  Back in his movie days he played the memorable character George Gipp of Notre Dame legend.  When we go out there to Iraq again, I promise that we will win one for the Gipper.  A great administrator is one who sees the big picture, sketches it out for his or her staff, and leaves the details to them.  In this manner, Reagan was certainly a master, the complete opposite of predecessors Johnson & Nixon.  As with any of our great leaders, either from the Left or from the Right, we shall miss him.

The oil embargo began in 1973, after we backed Israel in the Seven-Day War of that year.  And, the inflation rates were no better during the latter days of Ford/Nixon - recall President Ford's WIN (Whip Inflation Now) buttons?  I agree, the Iran matter was a disaster, but it is not fair to lay the rest at President Caters's feet and blame him for it.

The best was in my opinion by him given on June 6, 1984:

"These are the boys of Pointe Du Hoc...these are the men who won the war."

Well, first, I don't procede from the false premise that it IS a "moraly corrupt Admimistration"; given your demonstrably Democrat/Socialist credentials, it would be interesting to contemplate what you would consider a morally-acceptable one.

Second, re-that last rumination, I'm sure that Administration officials would be upset to learn that you consider it "moraly corrupt."

Your pretensions are hilarious.

-- Modified on 6/8/2004 7:37:17 PM

Speaking of hilarious pretensions.  Why not just ask the Bushies if TER could publicly endorse them and see what they would say.
Frankly, John Ashcroft would just as soon have EVERYONE on this BB tossed in jail.


-- Modified on 6/9/2004 8:55:56 AM

I already am aware of at least 3 others, besides bribite.

You just don't get it!  You are the wimp hanging out behind an alias, not me!  I've gotten critical, and complimentary PM's from other posters who have the guts to use a real handle.  I have NEVER posted under an alias, so please, show me such a post that you think might be mine, wonhunglow, or otherwise.

Secondly, because You think he did the right thing, it doesn't justify lying to Congress and illicitly going against official government policy of that time.

The arms trade and money funneling where you keep saying that the ends justify the means, the Iran/Contra report of the Independent council, catagorically says that the ends DIDN"T justify the means.

 Here is my third time posting a link to the report.
http://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/

Below is the link to the conclusions page and the first paragraph of said conclusions:

"The underlying facts of Iran/contra are that, regardless of criminality, President Reagan, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, and the director of central intelligence and their necessary assistants committed themselves, however reluctantly, to two programs contrary to congressional policy and contrary to national policy. They skirted the law, some of them broke the law, and almost all of them tried to cover up the President's willful activities"

As I said earlier, show me the money, the posts where wonhunglow is an alias and those you suspect are my aliases.

Its "put up or shutup" time.  You called me, now I am calling you!

think that if they are doing something, the other people or person must be doing it also.  Obviously, a pure,self seving rationalization when you know you are doing something illegal, or spitting out lies. WRONG!  I understand where bribites comments come from.  They come from a insecure, naive person that thinks that since they can do the dishonerable, everyone else must also be doing it.

In fact, if you check your history, then Speaker of the House, Jim Wright, went on his own trip down to Nicaragua and was negotiating with the Sandinistas.  I think that the area of foreign policy is a function of the Executive Branch.  Some might even call that treason.

I am not making pretensions to morality.  The poster who asserted that this is a "moraly [sic] corrupt admimistration [sic]" is.  

-- Modified on 6/9/2004 5:43:44 PM

I decided to never use aliases again.  How about you?

And I invite The Meal Ticket to check on that and comment!

I missed that you had a review; I made the assumption that you were posting with an alias, my apology.  For the record, I have never posted with an alias on the Political Board.

I'm sure you to believe that 'Black Ops" have not been happening since... for fucking ever!  But they indeed have, and the Iran-Contra "black op" was an extremely successful one, for freedom loving people.  Of course it did make the democrats look like the soft on communism sissies that they are, but Reagan couldn't help exposing this truth.

Only the most strident socialist/communist would think that freeing a country from tyranny of a communist dictator could be "dishonorable"  (correct spelling)!

I would say the self-serving rationalization was pretty much coming from the leftist in congress and the media, and now you.  Was anybody convicted of a crime?  NO.  Were any Americans harmed?  NO.  Did Reagan accept responsibility for it?  You bet your socialist ass he did!  Did Reagan deny any of your assertions?  NO!  He pretty much ignored them because he knew what was done was right (correct and moral)!


-- Modified on 6/9/2004 5:46:25 PM

And I know damn well that you used several aliases on TER prior to the formation of the separate political forum.  

By this BB, I meant TER.  Not some recent subset of TER.