What a great man.... HAPPY 100th Ronald Reagan, you are truly missed.

[rdking647]

ah yes I can see why Repukes love Reagan. the one who sold arms to our enemys. which last i checked is called TREASON. Reagans nickname instead of the great communicator should be the great traitor

 

[HUGGY]

I have to admit that compared to today's republican leaders Reagan is missed. As flawed as the real Ronald Reagan was there are no contemporary republicans yet emerged with his appeal. That says a lot more about the lack of quality at the top in the GOP than how good Reagan was. It is the same problem with Bachmann and Palin. All of these people are better suited as characters in a Simpson's cartoon than residents of the White House.

Ronnie's presentation as "the great communicator" is apparently too high a bar for the GOP hopefuls in 2012. They must give him some phony God status as an admittedly and rightfully unachievable standard.

Reagan did have the general appeal of a movie star. Try in your own mind to cast one of the wannabees in national republican politics in some Hollywood hero's role. They all fail. Who would YOU cast as the hero? Some of them might get bit supporting parts as villains or quirky whacky sidekicks but nary a one can wear the white hat. Sadly that was Ronnies only claim to fame. A second rate hero capable of wearing the white hat ...that is until a real hero enters the scene...when Brando or Wayne show up ...someone with appeal and depth...even precious Ronnie must exit the set leaving the hat for a better head.

 

[sparky]

The real effect of 'Reaganomics'
The real effect of 'Reaganomics' | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

it's always an interesting exercise trying to create legacy for a former potus, in the economic sense they serve a term that is a blink of the eye, the effects taking a generation

 

[Sarah G]

I don't know if this has been mentioned but there's a doc on HBO airing tonight called Reagan. The life and legacy of him.

No, I didn't and thanks for the info. I watched one on the history channel, and the Military Channel yesterday.

Sure Thomas. Hope you got to watch it, I have it recorded but haven't watched yet.

 

[HUGGY]

A love song to the now silent Ronnie Reagan... from his adoring neo republicans...

 

[candycorn]

Reagan doesn't belong on Mt. Rushmore. He deserves his own Mountain.

Reagan, if he had been elected in 1992 probably would have been average. If he had been elected in 2000, he may have been average. If he had been elected at any other time in recent memory besides 1980...he may have been quite average. But his election after President Carter was an interesting quirk of American society that almost leads me to believe in the old myth of divine providence. He was the right man at the right time in the right place and single-handedly pulled the country out of a nosedive that may have been fatal. We could use him again in 2012.

Happy Birthday.

The problem with his legacy is that other POTUS look at his popularity and think that deficits don't matter. Hence the VP's comments during Bush 43's reign. They do so a redux of Reagan is unlikely.

 

[sparky]

I heard he killed Kennyishanism though.....

 

[Foxfyre]

I have to admit that compared to today's republican leaders Reagan is missed. As flawed as the real Ronald Reagan was there are no contemporary republicans yet emerged with his appeal. That says a lot more about the lack of quality at the top in the GOP than how good Reagan was. It is the same problem with Bachmann and Palin. All of these people are better suited as characters in a Simpson's cartoon than residents of the White House.

Ronnie's presentation as "the great communicator" is apparently too high a bar for the GOP hopefuls in 2012. They must give him some phony God status as an admittedly and rightfully unachievable standard.

Reagan did have the general appeal of a movie star. Try in your own mind to cast one of the wannabees in national republican politics in some Hollywood hero's role. They all fail. Who would YOU cast as the hero? Some of them might get bit supporting parts as villains or quirky whacky sidekicks but nary a one can wear the white hat. Sadly that was Ronnies only claim to fame. A second rate hero capable of wearing the white hat ...that is until a real hero enters the scene...when Brando or Wayne show up ...someone with appeal and depth...even precious Ronnie must exit the set leaving the hat for a better head.

I don't think it is a 'God status' at all. Most of us who appreciated Reagan know all the flaws and foibles and mistakes that are part and parcel of his Administration. But one does not have to assign godlike status to a person to appreciate qualities that we admire. And Reagan had them. It is what he stood for, what he believed in, what he helped us to believe in ourselves, and the fact that it was largely due to his conviction that hundreds of millions of people should not have to live under totalitarian communism, that we admire him for. If he wasn't perfect.....well, nobody is.

There's a flip side too. There are those who can't stand for anyone to admire those qualities that at least some of us admire in Reagan--they have so little charity they can't allow somebody like him to be commemorated on what would have been his 100th birthday--so they presume to tear him down in the ugliest and most hateful manner.

So what's worse? Idolizing a man a little despite imperfections? Or demonizing all that he was/is?

 

[Sallow]

10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan

Tomorrow will mark the 100th anniversary of President Reagan’s birth, and all week, conservatives have been trying to outdo each others’ remembrances of the great conservative icon. Senate Republicans spent much of Thursday singing Reagan’s praise from the Senate floor, while conservative publications have been running non-stop commemorations. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee and former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich are hoping to make a few bucks off the Gipper’s centennial.

But Reagan was not the man conservatives claim he was. This image of Reagan as a conservative superhero is myth, created to untie the various factions of the right behind a common leader. In reality, Reagan was no conservative ideologue or flawless commander-in-chief. Reagan regularly strayed from conservative dogma — he raised taxes eleven times as president while tripling the deficit — and he often ended up on the wrong side of history, like when he vetoed an Anti-Apartheid bill.

ThinkProgress has compiled a list of the top 10 things conservatives rarely mention when talking about President Reagan:

1. Reagan was a serial tax raiser. As governor of California, Reagan “signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of any state up till then.” Meanwhile, state spending nearly doubled. As president, Reagan “raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office,” including four times in just two years. As former GOP Senator Alan Simpson, who called Reagan “a dear friend,” told NPR, “Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration — I was there.” “Reagan was never afraid to raise taxes,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan’s memoir. Reagan the anti-tax zealot is “false mythology,” Brinkley said.
Reduced to comply with board rules on Copywrite material-Meister
ThinkProgress 10 Things Conservatives Don’t Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan

Check the tax rates when Reagan came to office, as opposed to when he left. Reagan did make a deal with the dems were if he raised taxes a little he get twice that amount in spending cuts. He never got the spending cuts he was promised.

Reagan could care less about taxes or spending cuts.

 

[Sallow]

Nope because there is ZERO evidence that any oil company received any government benefit from those meetings. They were held sans press coverage so that the participants could speak freely in a brain storming session. The execs were called in to provide training and input for the Administration in advance of developing an energy policy which frankly sucked and none of the oil companies liked.

And you do know that Halliburton is not an oil company yes?

You're kidding right?

During the Bush Administration, Oil Companies, made more profit then any other commercial enterprise at any time during human history..combined.

It's completely ludicrious to come up with the notion there wasn't any connection.

Could it be because the gov't got out of their way for a short while?


Oh, and one more FACT you like to leave out... other businesses made record profits as well.

Look it up... its the truth.

Just sayin'

No..it could be that there were not one..but 2 wars started.

Catch up chief..I know you were alive back then.

 

[Sallow]

Reagan..now more then evah!

 

[MikeK]

What a load of steaming liquid shit! 17 times the agreed 40% increase? Ya right! The air traffic controllers were demanding a 628% raise in wages and benefits??? Reagan was a bald faced liar.

Reagan's entire Presidential persona was as much a scripted deception as were any of his grade-B movie roles. The man was a professional faker. A highly skilled phony.

Reagan's opportunistic destruction of the ATC union as his first significant official act clearly defined the character of this former president of the Screen Actors' Guild and former Democrat.

Ronald Reagan was one of the most effective political deceptions ever deployed against the interests of the United States and its people. The effects of his well-practiced duplicity are readily apparent today and those who fail to look beyond the veil and see this man for what he really was are victims of conditioning by Hollywood and the hypnotic effect of television.

 

[Rinata]

Here comes the jerkoff a thon!!!

Why?? Because not everybody agrees with you?? I liked RR as a person and I admired him for being such a good husband. But I think he should have stuck to acting. He was really good. I thought he did a great job in, "Kings Row". As prez?? Not so great.

And I've been wondering why there was a celebration for his 100th birthday. Lots of former presidents are dead and we haven't celebrated their 100th. Kind of weird, I think.

I think you're mistaken. I believe most Presidents have been acknowledged on what would have been their 100th birthday.

See this site:
LBJ100.com | Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Celebration

I've really never heard of any other big blowouts like this one. And I think what creeped me out the most was that they got him a birthday cake. The man is dead!!!

This cake cost $1000. It was 5 layers and had 400 pounds of chocolate and jelly beans. And the eagle on top of the cake was made from 50 pounds of chocolate.

Sorry, but that is just plain weird. A little remembrance is fine. But this was like a birthday party for someone that is deceased. Never saw that before ever.

 

[HUGGY]

I have to admit that compared to today's republican leaders Reagan is missed. As flawed as the real Ronald Reagan was there are no contemporary republicans yet emerged with his appeal. That says a lot more about the lack of quality at the top in the GOP than how good Reagan was. It is the same problem with Bachmann and Palin. All of these people are better suited as characters in a Simpson's cartoon than residents of the White House.

Ronnie's presentation as "the great communicator" is apparently too high a bar for the GOP hopefuls in 2012. They must give him some phony God status as an admittedly and rightfully unachievable standard.

Reagan did have the general appeal of a movie star. Try in your own mind to cast one of the wannabees in national republican politics in some Hollywood hero's role. They all fail. Who would YOU cast as the hero? Some of them might get bit supporting parts as villains or quirky whacky sidekicks but nary a one can wear the white hat. Sadly that was Ronnies only claim to fame. A second rate hero capable of wearing the white hat ...that is until a real hero enters the scene...when Brando or Wayne show up ...someone with appeal and depth...even precious Ronnie must exit the set leaving the hat for a better head.

I don't think it is a 'God status' at all. Most of us who appreciated Reagan know all the flaws and foibles and mistakes that are part and parcel of his Administration. But one does not have to assign godlike status to a person to appreciate qualities that we admire. And Reagan had them. It is what he stood for, what he believed in, what he helped us to believe in ourselves, and the fact that it was largely due to his conviction that hundreds of millions of people should not have to live under totalitarian communism, that we admire him for. If he wasn't perfect.....well, nobody is.

There's a flip side too. There are those who can't stand for anyone to admire those qualities that at least some of us admire in Reagan--they have so little charity they can't allow somebody like him to be commemorated on what would have been his 100th birthday--so they presume to tear him down in the ugliest and most hateful manner.

So what's worse? Idolizing a man a little despite imperfections? Or demonizing all that he was/is?

Well...Me..personally... I'm not a mod.. I'm in no position to censor anything. I respect everyone's right to speak their mind. This is a political message board. My own opinion of Ronnie has a lot to do with my disappointment in my party and what it has become since Nixon. So far I have not seen abusive rants against Reagan. Maybe some light hearted comment on the part of some referring to the undeserved adulation has been offered. In any case if Ronnie made you "feel good" about America and you feel he saved you and the Russians from communism, you are surely welcome to that delusion. The truth is that Reagan was opportunistic and just happened to be present with a good speech writer when the USSR crashed from it's own weight and the war it was conducting in Afghanistan. Reagan didn't invent "Star Wars". That was under way long before he took office. The Ruskies just couldn't afford to keep up with the Joneses and decided to down size and get with the program.

It is just as much the right of those of us that considered Reagan a bit of a fraud to "remember" him on his 100th birthday as we saw him as it is the apparent duty of others to continue the work of his deception. It isn't YOUR day. He was OUR president and we all have a right to comment any time..any day..any place.

Try not to take it personally.

 

[The Infidel]

I've really never heard of any other big blowouts like this one. And I think what creeped me out the most was that they got him a birthday cake. The man is dead!!!

This cake cost $1000. It was 5 layers and had 400 pounds of chocolate and jelly beans. And the eagle on top of the cake was made from 50 pounds of chocolate.

Sorry, but that is just plain weird. A little remembrance is fine. But this was like a birthday party for someone that is deceased. Never saw that before ever.

So I guess the Welstone memorial creeped you out too?

Or the memorial service for those killed in Tuscon masacre?

 

[MikeK]

You lefties can't let one damn thread go without coming in and spewing all your hate all over it.

It was a thread saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY for crying out loud.

Disgust and resentment are not hate.

How should we feel about the S.O.B. who systematically sowed the seeds of the incremental destruction of our economy? And if those who have been successfully deluded by this movie actor cannot or will not examine the facts and effects of Reagan's egregiously flawed presidency that's not the fault of the "lefties." We happen to be consciously aware of the damage Reagan did to America and the hypnotic trance he left his cult of Conservative groupies in.

It's not hate. It's disgust.

 

[georgephillip]

Good Riddance

"Reagan was also a liar. In November 1986, he publicly denied that his administration had been illegally selling arms to Iran and using the proceeds to fund the contras. One week later he was forced to retract this statement, but denied that the sale was part of a deal to free U.S. hostages.

"The following year, Reagan admitted that there had been an arms-for-hostages deal, but denied he knew anything about it.

(Or maybe he forgot?)

"In 1992, that too proved to be a lie when former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was compelled to release notes from a January 1986 meeting revealing, 'President decided to go with Israeli-Iranian offer to release our 5 hostages in return for sale of 4,000 TOWs [U.S. missiles] to Iran by Israel.'

"The man whose administration spearheaded class warfare on behalf of the rich, dragged American politics to the right, and rebuilt US imperialism after the Vietnam debacle, is dead.

"Good riddance.

CounterPunch

 

[Rinata]

I have to admit that compared to today's republican leaders Reagan is missed. As flawed as the real Ronald Reagan was there are no contemporary republicans yet emerged with his appeal. That says a lot more about the lack of quality at the top in the GOP than how good Reagan was. It is the same problem with Bachmann and Palin. All of these people are better suited as characters in a Simpson's cartoon than residents of the White House.

Ronnie's presentation as "the great communicator" is apparently too high a bar for the GOP hopefuls in 2012. They must give him some phony God status as an admittedly and rightfully unachievable standard.

Reagan did have the general appeal of a movie star. Try in your own mind to cast one of the wannabees in national republican politics in some Hollywood hero's role. They all fail. Who would YOU cast as the hero? Some of them might get bit supporting parts as villains or quirky whacky sidekicks but nary a one can wear the white hat. Sadly that was Ronnies only claim to fame. A second rate hero capable of wearing the white hat ...that is until a real hero enters the scene...when Brando or Wayne show up ...someone with appeal and depth...even precious Ronnie must exit the set leaving the hat for a better head.

I don't think it is a 'God status' at all. Most of us who appreciated Reagan know all the flaws and foibles and mistakes that are part and parcel of his Administration. But one does not have to assign godlike status to a person to appreciate qualities that we admire. And Reagan had them. It is what he stood for, what he believed in, what he helped us to believe in ourselves, and the fact that it was largely due to his conviction that hundreds of millions of people should not have to live under totalitarian communism, that we admire him for. If he wasn't perfect.....well, nobody is.

There's a flip side too. There are those who can't stand for anyone to admire those qualities that at least some of us admire in Reagan--they have so little charity they can't allow somebody like him to be commemorated on what would have been his 100th birthday--so they presume to tear him down in the ugliest and most hateful manner.

So what's worse? Idolizing a man a little despite imperfections? Or demonizing all that he was/is?

Have people been tearing him down?? I wasn't aware of that. I think he was a good man and had many great qualities. I just didn't like his politics. And I think the right treats him in the way they accuse the left of treating Obama.

 

[Rinata]

I've really never heard of any other big blowouts like this one. And I think what creeped me out the most was that they got him a birthday cake. The man is dead!!!

This cake cost $1000. It was 5 layers and had 400 pounds of chocolate and jelly beans. And the eagle on top of the cake was made from 50 pounds of chocolate.

Sorry, but that is just plain weird. A little remembrance is fine. But this was like a birthday party for someone that is deceased. Never saw that before ever.

So I guess the Welstone memorial creeped you out too?

Or the memorial service for those killed in Tuscon masacre?

You are kidding, aren't you?? That's just dumb. Even for you.

 

[Rinata]

You lefties can't let one damn thread go without coming in and spewing all your hate all over it.

It was a thread saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY for crying out loud.

Happy Birthday to someone that is no onger with us. I doubt if it was happy. Leave it to you.