President Ronald Reagan is remembered for having said, in his first inaugural address, that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Posted on 08/21/2011 1:09:04 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
During the 1980 New Hampshire Primary and around the time of a canceled Nashua Telegraph debate between Bush and Reagan (due to complaints by Baker and Dole) there was an occasion of the telling of what would now be unthinkable – a politically incorrect joke – as we are now all so sensitive and have learned not to tell jokes, or enjoy or take a joke (something so well alluded to by Herman Cain in the last primary debate: “America needs to learn how to take a joke!”).
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Rendezvous With Destiny – Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America [2009 - ISI Books]
Chapter 8 - "Descent into the Maelstrom"
[Page 135] ……..."Though in motion, Reagan still sometimes stumbled. Always fond of a good laugh, he told an ethnic joke to several aides and then was asked by a reporter — off the record — to repeat it. Reagan did: “How do you tell the Polish one at a cockfight? He’s the one with the duck. How do you tell the Italian? He’s the one who bets on the duck. How do you tell when the mafia is there? The duck wins.” The reporters all laughed, but the joke earned the condemnation of several sanctimonious elements in the national media, including ABC, which incredibly aired the off-the-record gag. Ed Meese quipped, “There goes Connecticut,” an allusion to the state’s heavy Italian population.
The New York Times surprisingly defended Reagan in an editorial, saying the joke reflected his “geniality” and not “bigotry.” The whole thing became ridiculous when the president of Yale, Bart Giamatti, released a statement calling on Reagan to apologize to everybody, “including the ducks.” Reagan did a bit of tap dancing for the media, apologized, and promised to tell only Irish jokes in the future."..... [end excerpt]
President Ronald Reagan is remembered for having said, in his first inaugural address, that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Let’s try to regain a healthy sense of humor. It will help us face 2012. I think Ronald Reagan would agree.
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. Ronald Reagan 1965
This next was testing the mic before a speech. Which shows his great sense of humor in his every day life.
My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. Ronald Reagan 8-11-84
I love it.
Then, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”
Different year. Different president. Same situation and sentiment applies.
I've never been completely convinced that Reagan didn't know the mic was live. It may possibly have been a strategy to plant a seed in Gorby's mind that RWR just could be crazy enough to do it.
I know that's a stretch, but I enjoy the thought that Reagan was capable of it.
Anyone with Reagan’s type of sense of humor are extremely brilliant people. It does sound very reasonable that Reagan did this on purpose to mess with Gorby’s mind. Reagan was just that smart and cunning and his brillance many times went way over especially the lefts heads.
Ronald Reagan televised address from the Oval Office outlining plan for Tax Reduction Legislation [July 1981]
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