Reagan Enters Bipartisan Pantheon, Joining FDR, HST, JFK

by Philip Weiss on January 21, 2008 · 21 comments

I don’t think Obama misspoke when he praised Ronald Reagan over the weekend and was then attacked by the Clintons, of course, for doing so. He’s on to something. Reagan himself won in part by invoking great Democratic presidents, FDR and Truman. Personally, I was against Reagan from start to finish (Iran Contra, defense budget, supply-side economics), but Reagan was positive and popular, and he had a vision. Call it a simplistic vision, but the guy knew what he stood for, and it was bigger than his own ambitions. People remember Reagan very positively, and Obama is wise to invoke his name. At some point, larger-than-life presidents take on a bipartisan glow, and I believe this is happening with Reagan. Other Dems are sure to follow suit. While other former presidents lose stature by the second. Oh, who could I be thinking of?

Related posts:

  1. …And Obama’s Like Reagan, Not Stevenson
  2. Reagan Revolution, Meet Obama Revolution
  3. Obama Is Brilliantly Marketing Leftwing Answers to an American Majority (as Reagan Marketed the Right)
  4. Obama could study Reagan and grow a pair
  5. Why the Media Are for Obama: Self-Interest

{ 21 comments }

1 Pvt. Keepout January 21, 2008 at 10:13 pm

Ronald Reagan was an arrogant, hypocritical, self-aggrandizing B movie actor with career decline who sold out to peddle GE corponomics to maintain a dubious celebrity. To maintain a modicum of equanimity, he early mastered the art of self-delusion in order to perform elementary grooming and hygiene rituals requiring looking into a mirror, eventually becoming the nation's foremost delusionary. He was a corporate tool who excelled at reading scripts prepared by economic, intellectual and social superiors, themselves achievers of minimal significance. His administration's most notable accomplishments were the callous murder and robbery of thousands of Latin and North Americans and the resucitation, nourishment and seconding of middling reactionary arms peddlers cum theorists later to become know as the Neocons, responsible for the 18 month "New American Century" and architects of the declining American empire's terminal phase. No one in their right mind mourned the passing of this grinning, monstrous lout.

2 ANON January 21, 2008 at 10:53 pm

Why is Truman great?
He took the Zionist bribe money in exchange for backing Israel in '48.. source Abba Eban biography,

he got us into a strategic dead end war in Korea….we are still there

and dropping atom bombs…not a good precedent.

3 the sword of gideon January 22, 2008 at 12:19 am

You know it Anon my man. Fucking guy ended WW2, pulled Europe out with the Marshall plan. Saved the krauts in the Berlin airlift, ( personally I think he should have let the Russians take all of Berlin but what the hell ) And stoped the communists in Korea. But of course in your sick little mind recognizing Israel makes him what, the devil. Leaving aside the arms embargo that he kept on Israel who got most of their arms from the Czechs.

4 David Seaton January 22, 2008 at 2:04 am

Instead of Reagan, could we talk about Gaza?

5 The Sword of Gideon January 22, 2008 at 2:14 am

Yah Dave, we know the drill. The Jews are the odious satanic creatures that are puting the Palestinians, you know those peaceful gentle people under the yoke of oppression. yada, yada, yada, it's boring.

6 Daveg January 22, 2008 at 4:10 am

Yeah, like this grand experiment in starving people into submission is receiving SO much coverage in the American press.

I mean, can we stop HARPING on the most amazing example of collective punishment from a supposedly western nation I have seen in my lifetime!

7 the swoed of Gideon January 22, 2008 at 4:32 am

Guess what asshole, Hamas has the right to wage war. But, they don't have a God given right to win. The idea that Israel is supposed to keep supplying electricity to an enemy controlled entity is a new one in the annals of warfare. The Rafah crosssing is in the hands of the Palestinians and Egypt. What the fuck is the problem.

8 Daveg January 22, 2008 at 6:24 am

Ah, calling someone an a-hole. Nice argument.

Israel has had these people in a cage for 40 years, Israel continues to take their land and force them to live on something like US$1000/year, which probably looks good right about now.

If you don't want to be responsible for them just open up their borders and let people go in and out freely. Declare unilateral piece.

A human people would institute a marshall plan for the Palestinians. Any group subjected to this treatment would act the same, if not worse.

Other countries face terrorism, such as Spai (or England in the past) and they do not act as inhumanely as Israel. Heck, Israel itself was committing terrorism just decades ago.

We are all getting to see how the self labeled Jewish state acts in the face of what really amounts to essentially no threat.

So far, the track record has been abysmal, particularly for a group so found of criticizing others in the past.

9 Daveg January 22, 2008 at 6:27 am

heh, that should have been "peace."

10 the sword of gideon January 22, 2008 at 7:37 am

Ok, I'll take this slow Daveg because your not too bright. Israel has withdrawn from Gaza, Withdrawn. I'll grant you that the possible thriving export industry that they could have had they destroyed because that's what they do. The Gaza strip is now judenrein. And they are the largest per capita recipients of foreign aid in the world. And Israel is NOT at the Rafah border. And they seem to be able get weapons in there without a problem. No other country would supply power to a hostile entity, none.

11 anon January 22, 2008 at 8:01 am

So much for shared values. The values we see on display in the siege of Gaza have more to do with the Baathist Party than Judeo-Christian ones.

It is past time that Israel be labeled what it is: a rogue state.

12 Dryden January 22, 2008 at 8:41 am

I'm not sure that the USA wouldn't do the same thing to Canada if they were lobbing missiles into Lake Placid every day.

The commentary here is abysmal.

13 MM January 22, 2008 at 11:24 am

The Palestinians have NO legitimate grievances. This land is OURS, it says so in the BIBLE.

(God, being a Zionist is so easy.)

14 Charles Keating January 22, 2008 at 11:37 am

RE: "No other country would supply power to a hostile entity, none."

LOL. Look at the USA's foreign policy.

15 LeaNder January 22, 2008 at 12:11 pm

Much noise again lately, especially in the shape of incapable parody. ;)
Hopefully this wave will ebb away soon.

16 David January 22, 2008 at 12:41 pm

"LOL. Look at the USA's foreign policy."

:)

17 Jim S. January 22, 2008 at 3:15 pm

Sorry to disappoint, but Reagan is not that fondly remembered by the American people. His popularity has always been greatly exaggerated-see Joel Rogers and Rick Perlstein.

Constantly repeating the mantra won't make it true.

18 Gene January 23, 2008 at 1:23 am

"The idea that Israel is supposed to keep supplying electricity to an enemy controlled entity is a new one in the annals of warfare. The Rafah crosssing is in the hands of the Palestinians and Egypt. What the fuck is the problem. "

I guess by your reasoning the Germans had every right to do what they did to the Warsaw ghetto? Don't you see? Gaza is Israel's Warsaw getto.

19 Steve January 24, 2008 at 12:16 am

"I guess by your reasoning the Germans had every right to do what they did to the Warsaw ghetto? Don't you see? Gaza is Israel's Warsaw getto."

Are you saying the Germans had every right to cart the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto off to death camps because those Warsaw Jews were lobbing rockets at Germany?

20 Juan January 24, 2008 at 12:19 am

Sword of Gideon raises an important point: Why can't the Gazans be resupplied with free stuff by the UN through their border crossing with Egypt? This sounds like a manufactured crisis to drum up international sympathy for Gaza, which only has to stop shooting rockets at Israel to get the border traffic with Israel flowing again. Is that too much to ask, to not shoot rockets at your neighbor?

Why should the Israelis leave the West Bank, if Palestinians will only respond with rockets, like they did when Israel left Gaza?

21 Dennis D February 24, 2008 at 3:23 pm

Such silly comments on Reagan here. Simplistic Vision? B Grade Actor ? He won 93 of 100 states in 2 elections. Yes we know homosexuals and blacks did not care for him. You can't make everyone happy.

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