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Monday, June 07, 2004
[Rich Lowry]
Then-Lt. Gov. John Kerry, in a letter to a constituent, April 1983: What we as citizens can tell our government is that President Reagan should reorder his priorities. We dont need expensive and exotic weapons systems.
Then-Lt. Gov. John F. Kerry in a statement, February 1, 1984: [Reagan] has mortgaged our future in order to pay for a bloated military budget of which 45% is spent on the research, development and procurement of more weapons of destruction.
John Kerry quoted in an article in the Berkshire Eagle on May 30, 1984 entitled Kerry asks $54 billion cut in Reagan defense budget, Berkshire Eagle, 5/30/84): The defense expenditures of the Reagan administration are without any relevancy to the threat this nation is currently facing.
Sen. John Kerry, in remarks to citizens for participation in a political action convention on January 19, 1985: [W]e are watching an administration walk away from any sense of trying to deal with what weapons systems we need to really maintain a legitimate level of defense, versus what they are willing to simply fund and fund and fund, out of their willingness to fund any weapons system. Theyve never met one they dont like.
Posted at 10:05 AM
KERRY: REAGAN DIDNT SERVE IN VIETNAM (AND I DID) [Rich Lowry]
John Kerry on 9/15/92: Ronald Reagan certainly was never in combat. I mean, many of his movies depicted him there. And he may have believed he was, but he never was. And the fact is that he sent Americans off to die.
Heres the whole quote: But, you know, Abraham Lincoln didnt serve, but he saved this nation and sent men into combat with moral authority. Ronald Reagan certainly was never in combat. I mean, many of his movies depicted him there. And he may have believed he was, but he never was. And the fact is that he sent Americans off to die. Bill Clinton I believe because of his experience, because of the agony he went through facing this kind of dilemma will understand the consensus that you need in this nation, the fact that you need a winning strategy, the fact that you do not send young people, young Americans off to war, unless you are committed to win it, and I think Bill Clinton would come to the Presidency equally as aware of those principles we learn in that agony as anybody else.
Posted at 09:44 AM
LOST THEIR NERVE [Mark Krikorian]
Even tyrannical regimes like the old Soviet Union require some degree of popular support and I think President Reagan's biggest contribution to winning the Cold War was in undermining that support. I was a student in the Soviet Union for two years in the middle of Reagan's presidency, and it wasn't so much the specifics of his speeches or the economic challenge of Star Wars that spelled the end of the USSR -- instead, it was the general sense among people there that the U.S., as embodied by Reagan's unapologetic words and actions, wasn't going to roll over for the Soviet Union, that they really weren't going to bury us after all. It's like bin Laden's strong horse/weak horse observation -- the ordinary people of the Soviet Union saw in Reagan that we were the strong horse and that their rulers were the weak horse. They still feared the Soviet regime to a degree, but they lost their respect for it, and then it was just a matter of time.
My favorite Reagan memory: It was November 1984 in Soviet Armenia and I was elated to hear on the English-language broadcast of Voice of America (which wasn't jammed) how Reagan creamed Mondale. The next morning, the dormitory chief delivered my Massachusetts absentee ballot in a plastic bag, the envelope shredded. I figured, "screw you,"and cast my vote anyway, checking in the box next to Reagan's name, and circling and underlining his name, just to make sure the censors got the message when they opened it on the way out (I assume it never made it home, though I never checked). It was an insignificant gesture, but it was my way of echoing the President's basic message: "We're going to win and you're going to lose." That was Reagan's greatest gift to his country and the world. R.I.P.
Posted at 09:29 AM
LIBERALS THEN [Jonah Goldberg]
Here's what (CNN's) Bill Schneider wrote in 1984 in the New Republic:
"Reaganism is economic elitism. It is the view that hunger in America is merely anecdotal, that the homeless are homeless by choice, and that only the morally unworthy have been hurt by the administration's policies."
Posted at 09:23 AM
LIBERALS THEN, LIBERALS NOW--ALWAYS THE SAME [Steve Hayward]
I've seen a few commentators say things like, "Gee, politics was more civil back when Reagan was around; things have really turned nasty under George W. Bush." Au contraire.
We should recall what the libs said about Reagan back then. Sample: Henry Fairlie in the Washington Post, writing on the Republican convention in 1980:
"The Reaganites on the floor were exactly those who in Germany gave the Nazis their main strength and who in France collaborated with them and sustained Vichy. Fairlie was just warming up; adding that Reagans constituency was narrow minded, book banning, truth censoring, mean spirited; ungenerous, envious, intolerant, afraid; chicken, bullying; trivially moral, falsely patriotic, family cheapening, flag cheapening, God cheapening; the common man, shallow, small, sanctimonious. One imagines that Farlies thesaurus could have outlasted the Posts printing press.
Posted at 09:17 AM
THE ULTIMATE ADVERSARY [KJL]
An e-mail:
K-Lo,
As someone who continues to care for someone with Alzheimer's, and has done so since 1995, I can only think that while sad, the President's passing is a relief to Mrs. Reagan and his family. The toll of seeing such a great man succumb to a disease that does not discriminate, is a heavy burden. And whether it is your husband or father, mother or wife, there are times when it seems the weight of the world is on your shoulders. And while the President had shoulders broad enough to take on communism, to challenge the America people to reach their potential, and to look at the good no matter how small, rare is the individual who can shoulder the weight of caring for someone with Alzheimer's.
My dad, who is currently in a nursing home, first came to this country during the 1950's, and in many ways was the American that the President often spoke of. Hard working, independent, caring, and confident in his own convictions. Sadly, like the President in 1994, my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and like the President, he tried to put on a brave face for those of us around him. Seeing my dad's struggles with the disease, and my experiences caring for him, have given me a deeper respect, and greater gratitude for not only the man who is my father, but also the man who was and will always be, my President. My dad always spoke of what a privilege it was to be in this country. I think it is safe to say that he would have said that it was a privilege to have as our President, Mr. Reagan.
I think we could all say that.
Respectfully,
Paul Marc Oliu
Princeton, New Jersey
www.facesofalzheimers.org
Posted at 09:06 AM
RE: KURTZ [Tim Graham]
Michael, I thought the Kurtz piece read as an anti-gush piece, the kind that uncritically recirculated all the old attack lines on Reagan: he implies the tax cut led to recession, that Reagan was uninterested in details, that Grenada and Lebanon weren't great moments, ketchup was a vegetable, too many aides were corrupt, and siding with the contras was "enormously divisive." Was the media right to echo these criticisms? Were these criticisms accurate? It doesn't seem to matter. It's especially sad to end the story by quoting Mark Hertsgaard, who wrote a ludicrous book titled "On Bended Knee" that suggested the media was way too soft on Reagan. His thesis wasn't backed by any study of the actual news stories, just interviews with journalists and Reagan aides like David Gergen about their impressions.
Posted at 09:03 AM
QUICK--MY SMELLING SALTS! [KJL]
Thomas Oliphant praises Reagan in the Boston Globe today:
[W]hat the critics forget is that Reagan stuck with this extremely tough medicine and made sure it worked, even at the large personal and political cost of the worst recession since the Depression itself.
In addition, the shouting match that still goes on about tax cuts obscures Reagan's truly lasting achievement: his refusal to let inflation any more become an automatic vehicle for higher taxes to finance a larger government. This so-called bracket creep was stopped in its tracks by the indexing of the tax rates. He retreated on his tax cuts after his initial triumph over Congress, but he left a tax system with lower rates, inflation protection, and fewer tax breaks....
History will be tough on Reagan as more is learned about his occasional sloth and inattention, but this wonderful guy could take the heat back then, and his legacy will be able to withstand more knowledgeable scrutiny far into the future.
Posted at 08:49 AM
KERRY TAKES A BREAK FRIDAY? [KJL]
Check the Kerry Spot.
Posted at 08:29 AM
USER FRIENDLY [KJL]
And, yes to answer a question posed over the weekend, we will have one page archiving all the Reagan pieces, for your ready access, probably sometime today.
Posted at 08:25 AM
REAGAN WEEK [KJL ]
Today NROs homepage is devoted to Reagan coverage. Its the least we can do for all he did. Throughout the week, Reagan will be a main focus (though today will probably be the only all-Reagan day), hitting a variety of issues. Im hoping you dont see too much overlap this week. Lots of things to say. Lots of people to say things. And lots of archives to dig up and reread.
Posted at 08:22 AM
ALREADY IN PROGRESS [KJL ]
If you are just joining us here at NRO this morning, know we have a string of weekend postings remembering the life and successes of Ronald Wilson Reagan, all of which you can find on the homepage for a little while more and thereafter here.
Posted at 08:21 AM
MOURNING IN AMERICA [John J. Miller]
K Lo: I hope our national day of mourning on Friday doesn't involve flags at half mast. I've regarded that as a peculiar tradition. Rather than lowering our flags, wouldn't it be better if our flagpoles had telescopic extensions on them--so we could actually raise them higher on special occasions? I know, I know, it's too expensive. But it would be nice to see American flags flying all this week, at full mast. We put ours on front of the house yesterday. I'll think I'll put it out again today.
Posted at 07:27 AM
IT'S 7:05 [KJL]
and Matt Lauer has tried to get George H. W. Bush to knock Reagan twice already.
Posted at 07:06 AM
REAGAN'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS [Michael Graham]
Howard Kurtz acknowledges a truth about Reagan that's largely been ignored: "Reagan was, quite simply, a far more controversial figure in his time than the largely gushing obits on television would suggest." This fact makes Reagan's accomplishments all the more amazing. It also puts the current anti-Bush attitudes in the press into perspective. He's not the first Republican to have to do the right thing abroad while fighting the media back home.
Posted at 07:04 AM
NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING [KJL]
Friday is a national day of mourning for Reagan. It seems like the wrong word. In the case of a JFK, murdered, it is approporiate. In Reagan's case it seems like we should be celebrating his life. Remembering him. But not mourning.
Posted at 06:07 AM
HE SPOKE TO THE OPPRESSED [KJL]
Natan Sharansky in the In the Jerusalem Post: "In 1983, I was confined to an eight-by-ten-foot prison cell on the border of Siberia. My Soviet jailers gave me the privilege of reading the latest copy of Pravda. Splashed across the front page was a condemnation of President Ronald Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an 'evil empire.' Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan's "provocation" quickly spread throughout the prison. We dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us.
Posted at 06:03 AM
GORBACHEV ON REAGAN [KJL]
in the NYTimes: "I don't know whether we would have been able to agree and to insist on the implementation of our agreements with a different person at the helm of American government. True, Reagan was a man of the right. But, while adhering to his convictions, with which one could agree or disagree, he was not dogmatic; he was looking for negotiations and cooperation. And this was the most important thing to me: he had the trust of the American people."
Posted at 05:56 AM
"WIN ONE FOR THE GIPPER" [KJL]
I'm sorry, but Bush paying tribute to Ronald Reagan is basically the same as using his death for the campaign (impression the New York Times top piece on Reagan leaves)? Maybe I'm being naive, but isn't this reading way too much into very little?
Posted at 05:51 AM
NANCY REAGAN IN TIME [KJL]
"I think his faith and his comfort with himself accounts for that optimism. Since he felt that everything happens for a reason, he never saw things darkly. After he was shot and we almost lost him, he lay on his hospital bed staring at the ceiling and praying. He told me that he realized he couldn't pray just for himself, that it wouldn't be right, and that he also had to pray for John Hinckley. Hinckley's parents sent him a note and he wrote a nice one back to them. " Read the whole moving love letter, which she wrote before his death, which breaks your heart even more than if she did after.
Posted at 05:46 AM
SAFIRE ON STEM CELLS [KJL]
He hopes embyronic stem cell research will be Reagan's "next victory." (We were talking about just this in The Corner Saturday morning.) Unfortunately, he seems to overestimate the promise of embryonic stem cells and undervalue the potential of adult stem cells. And although he says "any cloning seems like the slippery slope," he leaves the impression--if I read it right in my quick scan--that he would support "biomedical cloning."
Posted at 05:32 AM
"RONALD REAGAN, MY HERO" [KJL]
An e-mail:
I wish the President's casket could be taken to and from Washington on a train, traveling through as many states as possible, across the country he loved, for no man ever loved his country more than Ronald Reagan. I and thousands more would be honored to attend such a tribute. As it is we will have to settle for the television. And surprisingly, the coverage has been wonderful, especially the D. Day speech.
If anyone at the Corner knows of one or more really good videos of President Reagan, highlights of his life, presidency and speeches, please let us know. Our children, who didn't know the man, and spent most of their childhood hearing their parents moan about the "boy in the Whitehouse" need to see President Reagan and get a glimpse of the idealism of that era and the greatness of the man.
Thank you for The Corner and the whole website and magazine.
Loyal Reader
Mary Baker
Boulder, Colorado
Posted at 12:45 AM
Sunday, June 06, 2004
THEY MISJUDGED HIM [KJL]
Richard Perle in the Telegraph here.
Posted at 08:13 PM
THE MUSIC STILL PLAYS [KJL]
Ronald Reagan's yearbook quote: "Life is just one grand sweet song, so start the music."
Posted at 07:45 PM
LINES OF COMMUNICATION [KJL]
"In the mid-1980s, when I was a card-carrying liberal, I used to admire the anti-Reagan posters that wallpapered Greenwich Village. There was a whole series of them. Tellingly, I can't remember what they said, but I remember the image of Reagan. It was painted so that he was an ossified mass of deep wrinkles, at once ludicrous and terrifying. The message was that an ancient person was in charge of the most powerful country in the world. Be afraid. Twenty years later, I see that the poster-makers had it backwards...." Read the rest of Dawn Eden's blog post here.
Posted at 07:43 PM
DUTCH & THE BEAR [John Derbyshire]
A friend in Alabama sent me the text of Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign speech to Memorial Coliseum in Tuscaloosa. The whole thing is here. My correspondent pointed out the following passage in particular.
"Now, I have to leave soon, but I can't go without talking a minute about a great man that I was proud to call friend -- Bear Bryant. He was sort of the essential American. And, you know, a few years back, I set a kind of a record here at the University of Alabama. I was here to go to a formal dinner where I was to be the after dinner speaker. And Bear invited me to come out and visit practice out here -- football practice.
"Well, the only way it could be worked out and the timing and all was that I had to put the tux on first. So, there I was out on the practice field throwing a ball around with about 65 fellows, and I was in black tie. [Laughter] Bear got quite a kick out of this. But he really started to laugh when it began to rain. [Laughter]
"He was a leader, patriotic to the core, devoted to his players, and inspired by a winning spirit that wouldn't quit. And that's how he made legends out of ordinary people. He was a true American hero, and he was Alabama's own.
"The greatness of America and the solution to her problems begins with the people -- with all of you. You know that dreams, drive, courage, and creativity make all the difference. You know, better than anyone, that it's in the hearts of the people that the tide begins to roll."
Posted at 07:40 PM
HUMBLE REAGAN [KJL]
An e-mail:
Kathryn:
My favorite memory of President Reagan occurred after he left office. I was a researcher in President Reagan's speechwriting office. All former Reagan staffers were invited to visit him in his Los Angeles office, so when I made a trip out to California, I made an appointment to visit the President. As always, he made you feel completely at ease. What I remember the most about that visit is the fact that he apologized to me because he was not wearing a suit and tie. He was going to be in the office for only a few hours, so he was wearing a sports coat and a shirt open at the neck.
Before I left, I told him what an honor it was to work for him, how we didn't want to work at the White House, we wanted to work for him. He put his head down and said his trademark, "well..." I had embarrassed him.
Historians will argue for years about the effect of his policies, but there is no argument that President Reagan was a gentleman, a good, humble man.
Barbara Sedonic
Posted at 07:23 PM
HE TAUGHT US TO BELIEVE IN AMERICA AGAIN [KJL]
The Dallas Morning News editorial; they're posting reader comments, too.
Posted at 07:21 PM
"REAGAN DEAD"? JAMAIS! [Rod Dreher]
Fred Gion, a Frenchman who has a wonderful essay appreciating America and its current president in today's Dallas Morning News, writes from Paris about Mr. Reagan's passing:
The next week will certainly be filled with sadness, which is not Reaganesque at all! Oddly, this week could be the least Reaganesque week of the last 24 years. Then everything will be quiet again and we will remember the fighting spirit, the moral clarity, the optimism and the jokes. "Reagan dead" is an oxymoron.
Posted at 07:15 PM
WASHPOST VS. NYT [KJL]
Matt Continetti took a close look.
Posted at 04:58 PM
RE: GOING NEGATIVE [ Jonah Goldberg]
And then there's Reuters. Apparently the only picture they -- or this site's editors -- could find was one of Reagan and Nancy with Michael Jackson (I guess pictures with, say, the Pope, Maggie Thatcher or Desmond Tutu say less than one with a reputed pederast). Anyway here's how they open their restrospective:
Reagan remembered as charming enigma
06.06.2004
11.00am - By JILL SERJEANT and ARTHUR SPIEGELMAN
LOS ANGELES - Ronald Reagan, who died on Saturday at 93, was one of the great mysteries in American politics -- was he the man in charge or simply a puppet, the master politician or a manipulated performer?
Even his official biographer didn't know what to make of him.
To his friends and supporters, Reagan was a man of charm and warmth, a politician of principle who made Americans feel good about themselves after years of doubt fuelled by the Vietnam war and the Iran hostage crisis.
But to his critics, he remained the B-movie actor of his earlier years, a puppet in the hands of aides, and a man of little substance who turned the most powerful job in the world into his last great performance.
After all, some of his best lines and stories came from the dozens of movie roles that he played, often as the male star's best friend and once as a chimpanzee's best buddy.
One of his memoirs was entitled "Where's the Rest of Me?" after a screen role he played in which his character's legs were amputated by an evil doctor.
The title posed a question that has haunted American political debate for years.
Tip O'Neill, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives with whom the Republican Reagan often jousted, once said, "He knows less than any president I have ever known."
Posted at 04:49 PM
RE: GOING NEGATIVE [Jonah Goldberg]
Steve - You know this stuff a lot better than I do, but isn't there some story about some grungy Berkeley protestors surrounding his car and they chant (or hold up signs) saying "We Are the Future!" And Reagan takes out a pen and writes something on the back of a piece paper and holds it up to the window. It read: "Sell Your Bonds."
Whenever my wife and I see particularly skeevy, grungy, kids we say to each other, "Sell your bonds."
Posted at 04:38 PM
THE SCHEDULE [KJL]
for all the official memorial events is here.
Posted at 04:33 PM
RE: GOING NEGATIVE [Steve Hayward]
Reagan also quipped about Pat Brown's despicable attack that "John Wilkes Booth was a Democrat, I believe."
My favorite Reagan slam on liberals from that period was his line: "A liberal's idea of getting tough on crime is to give out longer suspended sentences."
Or, during the Berkeley campus protests by the hippies in 1970: "I had a nightmare last night: I dreamed I owned a laundromat in Berkeley."
Posted at 04:31 PM
RE: GOING NEGATIVE [Jonah Goldberg]
I always remembered a small item from the Weekly Standard (March 4, 1996) about Reagan. Rather than paraphrase it, or deny them credit, here it is entirely from Nexis:
The recent passing of former California governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown brought back a flood of political memories. Journalist David S. Broder hailed him as "one of the true blithe spirits of 20th-century politics," "a visionary, " and "the most amiable of companions." Remarked a former Brown press secretary, "It used to drive me crazy that Pat had no mean streak."
Forgotten in all the gush was the fact that Brown ran one of the most despicable television ads in history -- against Ronald Reagan, in the 1966 gubernatorial race. The ad carried the title "Man versus Actor" and concluded with Brown's admonishing a group of balck school-children, "Remember: It was an actor who shot Lincoln." Today, we might refer to this as "hate speech."
Regan responded as only Reagan could: "Oh," he said, "Pat wouldn't say anything like that." Talk about a blithe spirit.
Posted at 04:06 PM
TOO NEGATIVE? [Tim Graham]
Reagan may have been a very positive political player, but he knew how to crack wise about the libs. I was reminded yesterday in a film clip when he related about how we was old and didn't know much about the new stuff, like Pac-Man, where this large round thing devoured all the chips in sight. He said he thought that was Tip O'Neill.
EEK!, I was only sposed to grab the last one!