Donald Trump Is No Ronald Reagan

Wall Street Journal ^ | 6/28/2016 | Peggy Noonan

[poconopundit]

Peggy Noonan, ex-speech writer for Ronald Reagan, argues that you can't equate Donald Trump with Ronald Reagan.  Here are a few excerpts from the column followed by my commentary:

• Look, Mr. Trump is not Ronald Reagan.  Reagan served two full terms as the governor of a state so vast that if it were a country it would have been one of the important economies in the world.  He was a union president who served seven terms during the most fraught time in Hollywood’s history and emerged respected by all sides.  He was no novice.

• Trump supporters should be able to make an affirmative case for their candidate without diminishing Reagan or anyone else.  You shouldn’t cut down a man you know was great to make him fit your candidate’s size.  It is poor political etiquette.  It’s also historical parallelism gone mad.  Mr.  Trump isn’t Reagan, and he isn’t Andrew Jackson either.  He’s Mr.  Trump.

• Donald Trump needs serious, substantive people to help with his campaign and advise him in foreign and domestic policy.  But some will not join him because they don’t want to get Trump cooties.  They don’t want the stigma of working with him. 

• Maybe if Trump wants to be compared to Reagan he should act more like him.

[poconopundit]

Great way of putting it, tinyowl. The main principles they espouse are mostly the same, but the styles are quite different.

In work life, we've experienced different kinds of managers. Many styles can succeed.

[pepsi_junkie]

She is a high profile republican pundit yet she endorsed Obama and now is laying the groundwork to endorse Hillary. Anymore proof needed that the GOP is a fake party whuch exists solely to give the illusion of opposition to the dem agenda?

[Redmen4ever]

Donald Trump would be the richest man to be elected president. He is already the richest to be nominated. This is true whether you tab him at $10 B (as he does) or $4 (as Forbes does).

The only comparable prior nominee was Wendell Wilke. Wilke, like Trump, was a businessman with no political experience. But, while Trump was/is an entrepreneur, Wilke was a lawyer/corporate CEO type.

Plus, Trump is a major success in two fields: entertainment as well as real estate.

Do not discount this man’s charismatic appeal. So, in terms of leadership and ability to communicate, Trump is very strong.

As for RR, I honestly think he was clearly the best qualified President since Eisenhower. If RR came back from the dead, or Eisenhower, I’d strongly consider voting for them. But, if the truth must be told, the comparison is Trump versus Hillary Clinton, not Trump versus Reagan.

[AlanGreenSpam]

Thanks for sharing the motivational video by Trump.

Sure, it’s a good for a motivational video by a real estate/business magnate.

Trump has a good understanding of people and motivation, for sure.

But it doesn’t even come close to Reagan’s superior comprehensive world view as stated in the 1964 speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBswFfh6AY

Didya even watch it at all? There’s no comparison.

Nigel Farage in the UK is another superior statesman with superior intellect and speaking ability. Trump is kind of “seat of the pants.”

For now, Trump will have to do. Like I said, we need a battering ram, and that is Trump. I enjoy his directness and anti-PC theme. Finally someone will fight that battle for us.

btw, I counted 10 TIMES that Trump said “I” or “my” in the first 30 seconds of his motivational video!! Do you realize humble and classy Ronald Reagan rarely used the first person in speeches?

That’s because Reagan was far wiser than Trump to know that it wasn’t about him. I sure hope Trump takes a page from the Reagan book on that note.

[Hostage]

I have watched RR’s speeches many times over. Please don’t assume or lecture me about RR. I met the man personally.

Donald and Ronald are both in the category of great leaders. They have different leadership styles.

Right now with the sorry state of the American economy, its taxes and its spending, the demoralization of the American people, Donald is 100% the right person to be President.

If this was 1980, and the candidates were DT and RR, RR would be the best candidate for the time.

If now in 2016, the candidates were DT and RR, DT would be the best candidate for today.

[poconopundit]

Wow, 30 minutes with a man like Reagan is precious.  I've often thought about what it would be like to speak to one-on-one with someone of great power or character, and so those moments must have been special.

Can you tell us just a little more about the man you saw?  Why did you say humility, for instance?  Thanks.

[AlanGreenSpam]

Please don’t assume I was lecturing you. Just stating facts about each RR & DT.

I don’t idolize DT as you do because he comes across as a blowhard too often. He is so wise in many ways, so I just don’t understand why he hasn’t learned that he could get even more votes if he toned down his bragging. Bragging about America is one thing, but continually boasting is just off-putting and gives so many pundits an opportunity to galvanize the sheeple against him. Hillary can use that against him.

The foregoing is meant to be constructive criticism.

In the end of your post, it looks like you and I agree. RR is too much of a gentleman for today’s political climate. We need a battering ram and that is Donald Trump.

[AlanGreenSpam]

Well, he was so real and sincere - as if we’ve been friends for a while.

What really struck me was how humble he was, in spite of his accomplishments in life.

I asked him about a picture of a river in his office and he told me that was the river where he worked as a lifeguard when he was young. Then he mentioned that he did quite a few rescues as a lifeguard, but the guys seemed to be not as thankful as the women who he rescued.

Again, it wasn’t boasting as if he was a ladies man. Rather, I think it was a comment about men’s egos.

[poconopundit]

Great testimony. Thanks for sharing the lifeguard story of Reagan. We are struck when a man of great life accomplishments talks frankly...

To speak with kings and not lose the common touch - Kipling.

In an airport I guess right after college, I ran into Dean Rusk, Secretary of State for JFK. I spoke with him for 15 minutes and he was very down to earth. At times like these, you wish you could have prepared a few questions in advance!

And I now discover that Rusk was born in Georgia and died in Athens, GA where I now live.  I'll have to visit and say a prayer at his grave site nearby.

[AlanGreenSpam]

Great story about Dean Rusk. I remember him too. Definitely go visit him at his grave!

I went to pay respects to Reagan (and now Nancy) on June 5th this year. 12th anniversary of the passing of a giant of a man.

Actually I had my smartphone with his “Time for Choosing” 1964 speech loaded up on Youtube and I started playing it as loud as my smartphone can go (which isn’t really loud) so his voice and words permeated the air at his gravesite. There were a few other people there at the time and everyone got quiet and listened. They thanked me.

[poconopundit]

Very nice.  Quite a beautiful tribute to the great man at his gravesite.

You know, the words of a speech are not enough.  A corrupt and evil leader like Hillary Clinton could be given the words for a great speech, but she could never deliver it with conviction and force.  And the words would never be credible to people who know who she is.

There must be a strong and genuine man or woman behind noble words.  When Julius Caesar uttered the words, "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered), it was significant because people knew Caesar's history and his conquest of Gaul.

Likewise, Margaret Thatcher and Reagan were people of solid character, strength, and accomplishment.  And so the listener's knowledge of that nobly animated the words of their speeches.

It's like listening to symphonic music.  The first time you here a masterpiece work, your mind is getting used to the piece and so its power is somewhat muted.

However, once you hear the piece a few times, your mind learns the melody and anticipates the next notes.  Only then do you begin to "hear" the symphony in its fullness.

So I really love the way you honored Mr. Reagan. You made the gravesite visit memorable for yourself and the other visitors.

[AlanGreenSpam]

You’re so right about a symphony or another piece of music. The first time you hear it, the full richness isn’t comprehensible.

Likewise with Reagan’s “Time for a choosing” when I first heard it, I was impressed, but now I’ve listened to it many times and each time, I focus on new things.

If you haven’t been to the Reagan presidential library, it’s an amazing tour. Takes about 2-3 hours. So many memorabilia. I learned so much more about him there.

I am an accomplished person in my life, but after that visit, I told a good friend: “Just think of Reagan’s accomplishments in his life and compare his life to our lives.,, How our accomplishments are so dwarfed by a man who changed the world and touched so many people. It is staggering to think of all the things he did in his minutes/days/years here on earth!”

[PLMerite]

Reagan is gone. So, like Sigourney Weaver said in “Cabin in the Woods” when she learned that the intended sacrifice wasn’t a virgin... “we work with what we have.”

[Kickass Conservative]

Who said he was?

Reagan was the greatest President in my Lifetime and even he made some bad moves and mistakes while in Office.

Whatever he did right or wrong, he loved America just as Trump loves America.

I’m thinking Trump is a mix of a Truman Democrat and a Reagan Republican. Truman may have been the last honest Democrat POTUS.

Today’s Democrats are closer to Soviet Communists, so comparing Trump to any previous Republican POTUS means nothing.

Democrat Politicians are pure unadulterated Evil.

[poconopundit]

Well, being the guy who posted this thread, I'm pleased how it turned out. FReepers took Peggy Noonan to task for underestimating Trump's potential -- and her duplicity in elevating Barack Obama in her columns.

And yet, several kilobytes of words were digitized in praise of the great president and man, Ronald Reagan -- and even Harry Truman.