So Now They Think He Was Charming (Ann Coulter NAILS It Once Again -- !)

Yahoo! News ^ | 6/9/04 | Ann Coulter

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

America's greatest president has gone home. God worked through Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) on Earth and now He's taken him back. Reagan is survived by his wife, three children, and the hundreds of millions of people he saved by winning the Cold War. Thanks to him, the United States of America never ceased to be, as Reagan said, "a place to escape to" -- the last stand on Earth.

No thanks to liberals, I might add. More enraging than their revisionist history of Reagan, is liberals' revisionist history about themselves. Now liberals claim they liked Reagan at the time. This is extremely believable -- aren't we all fond of someone who regularly exposes us as liars, cowards and hypocrites? It's just human nature.

In fact and of course, liberals loathed Reagan. Their European friends loathed Reagan -- the protests against our current president are positively anemic compared to the massive protests against President Reagan when he went to visit our dear "allies," whose sorry asses we spent billions of dollars defending against the Soviets for 50 years. Even the moderate Republicans currently trying to insinuate themselves onto Reagan's legacy weren't especially fond of Reagan at the time -- especially when attacking him publicly would get them invites to the tonier Georgetown cocktail parties. Only authentic Americans loved Reagan.

From the descriptions in the media, you would think the reason Reagan was beloved by Americans was that he was an affable fellow who could tell a good joke. That's a description of Bob Dole, not Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was a March hare right-winger. He had enough faith in the American people to know that as long as the facts were clear, they would rise to the occasion and be March hare right-wingers, too. As Reagan himself said, back in 1964: "Our Democratic opponents seem unwilling to debate these issues. They want to make you and me believe that this is a contest between two men ... that we are to choose just between two personalities."

Reagan forced Americans to confront the real ideological divide between conservatives and, as he said, "our liberal friends." But now liberals are trying to muddy the political waters by passing off Reagan's popularity as a result of his personal magnetism. I note that liberals were strangely immune to that magnetism at the time. Only now do they talk about Reagan's outsized personality as if he worked some sort of beguiling magic over the electorate and tricked them into supporting policies they never quite understood.

While Reagan had undeniable magnetism, what set him apart was that he had the courage to speak the truth and trust the American people. In the 1964 speech that launched his political career, "A Time for Choosing," Reagan never smiled. He told no jokes -- though he did say some amusing things inasmuch as he was talking about "our liberal friends."

In the throes of the Cold War -- still hot in Vietnam -- Reagan forthrightly said liberals refused to acknowledge that the choice was not between "peace and war, only between fight and surrender." In words that would have come in pretty handy in Spain just a few months ago, he said liberals tell us "if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us." All who disagree with the "peace" crowd, he said, "are indicted as warmongers." To this, Reagan said: "Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace -- and you can have it in the next second -- surrender."

This wasn't sunny old grandpa carrying candy around in his pocket for children. After watching Walter Cronkite's coverage of the Vietnam War in December 1972, Reagan told President Richard Nixon, "under World War II circumstances, the network (CBS) would have been charged with treason."

Reagan quoted "Mr. Democrat himself," Al Smith, for the proposition that the Democratic Party was no longer the party of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland, but was now the party of Marx, Lenin and Stalin. (And that was 30 years before they tried to push Hillarycare on us.)

Reagan was a bulldog, completely, implacably right-wing on every issue. He was the right-wing Energizer Bunny. He never quit and he kept beating liberals. He cut taxes 25 percent across the board his first year in office; he walked away from Gorbachev at Reykjavik; he fired all those air traffic controllers -- and wouldn't let them come back even when they wanted to; he gave speeches about "welfare queens" and polluting trees; he nominated Antonin Scalia (news - web sites) and Robert Bork to the Supreme Court; and he enraged grim liberals when he warmed up his radio mike by saying, "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."

But now they're telling us Reagan was a "pragmatist." Well, not according to him. As he was wrapping up the Republican primaries in 1980 and moderate weenies in the Republican Party were trying to move him to the "center," Reagan said: "No, I'm not moving my positions any. ... I believe the same things that I've been speaking on for years, and I don't see any reason to change."

Thank God he didn't. Because Reagan lived, the world is a better place.

[It's me]

I've been waiting since Saturday for Ann Coulter's article.

[goldstategop]

He really kept on ticking even after the liberals gave him a licking. I'd say it fits. :)

[A CA Guy]

Very nice article Ann, it is a nice tribute to out hero.

[Adam36]

Streetpreacher, you say, Of course FDR's only claim to greatness is the war against Nazism and Japan, but even that is sullied (in not a small way) by the way he betrayed the Eastern European countries to the Soviet Monster.

Ok, tell me how you were going to free Eastern Europe from Russia. What did you want FDR to do? Did you want him to attack Russia in Eastern Europe. Are you prepared to lose millions of American lives?

Keep in mind, the top general in WW2 was Eisenhower. You remember Hungary 1956, when Eisenhower refused to helped the Hungarians. So i'll ask you, How could FDR have freed Eastern Europe from Russia?

[Adam36]

I got a funny Energizer bunny joke.

Did you hear, the Energizer bunny was arrested.
He was charged with battery.
Luckily he had a Powered Attorney!

[Adam36]

Steve Malzberg has a great article about the Democrats Praising Reagan now. One great point Malzberg made,
Jimmy Carter (like John Kerry) criticized Reagan's retaliatory bombing of Libya in 1986, calling it a "serious mistake." Here's the article. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/6/7/114943.shtml

[swilhelm73]

Seems to me you have two clear choices for greatest president;

The man who gave us our nation and government, Washington, or the man who saved them both, Reagan.

[swilhelm73]

And to what you mention, add to FDR's bill the internment camps and knowingly refusing to save Jews fleeing Germany.

As for Churchill, I think it is more he knew what his situation was. He was quoted as saying something to the effect of "I would ally with the devil himself if he would make war on Germany."

[ChadGore]

In strict accordance with the FreeRepublic by laws,
paragraph 4, section 7, stating that, and I quote:
"any mention of our beloved Ann Coulter
must include her image", I offer the following
pictures for your exclusive viewing pleasure.

---

Carville really IS gollum.

[swilhelm73]

Keep in mind, the top general in WW2 was Eisenhower. You remember Hungary 1956, when Eisenhower refused to helped the Hungarians. So i'll ask you, How could FDR have freed Eastern Europe from Russia?

As of 1945 the Soviet Union was spent. They pulled so many men from the fields that they created a borderline famine. Luckily for them the Germans were far worse off...

Had the US simply not demobilized right after Japan surrendered, the Soviet Union could easily have been forced to abide by their agreements to allow free elections in the areas they had conquered. They could not afford a conflict in 1945 - we could afford to at least take the risk of brinksmenship.

Further, had FDR not encouraged communist inflitration of his administration (and frankly there is no other way to describe it), the Soviets would not have had all the inside knowledge they needed to judge our reactions let alone the bomb in 49...

But FDR was not a bright man. He fell for the leftist spin that communism wasn't a threat, pitifully believed that he could control Stalin by sheer personality, and payed absolutely no thought to what the world would look like post WWII.

[bigghurtt]

shorelee not ghwb?!

[Condor51]

Not a bad list - except for FDR. But why does everyone forget/overlook James Madison?!? Who btw just happened to author the U.S. Constitution.

[Taliesan]

Jean Kirkpatrick said the definition of a pragmatist was someone who was flexible enough in his process to achieve his inflexible ideological goals.

A most succinct expose of third party protest votes.

[Condor51]

Likewise, as I understand it, China was betrayed to the Communist Conspiracy by the Democratic administrations.

Darn straight, specifically Harry Truman. He de facto surrendered China to Mao by not backing Chiang Kai-Shek with adequate funds and military aid. It was something about HST seeing Chang's Army marching on film and they were... gasp... goose-stepping (allegedly). He then said words to the effect (allegedly); "They're a bunch of GD fascists".

And do to Truman weakness (soft on communism) he also in effect caused the Korean war.

And after WWII, HST also reneged on his promise to Ho-Chi-Min of aid for his help in fighting the Japs (Ho was not a commie at the time) and in helping get their Independence from France. As such, Ho turned to Stalin for aid and in setting up an Independent Government (naturally Stalinist). So in reality HST caused us the Vietnam War too.

JFK also CAUSED the Cuban Missile Crisis, but that's another topic.

So as Ann says in her book TREASON, democrats cannot be trusted with foreign policy. They keep causing wars and the republicans always have to clean up the resulting mess.

[Rummyfan]

Tough choice leaving out Madison - and Monroe too. But I rate FDR highly for getting us through WW II and discount a lot of his nonsense before that.

[Darnright]

Reagan's words, spoken in 1964, should be repeated by George Bush today:

"We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in doing so lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening."

[Condor51]

Yeah FDR got us "through" WWII (after illegally getting us involved in the first place). However, his European giveaway to Stalin was unconscionable. He should never be forgiven for that. He de facto sentenced MILLIONS of people to death.

[Enterprise]

George Washington went through hell before we could even become a Republic. That is a vote for being the greatest. Lincoln went through a dreadful civil war that threatened to split the country into two parts. The personal grief he had to suffer is something I can't truly put into words. Another vote for greatest. And as much as it pains me, Franklin Roosevelt was at the helm when our existence was threatened also. Grudgingly, I give him the respect I must give all Presidents who serve in such times, and he also gets a vote for greatest. President Reagan presided over the collapse of a nearly monolithic enemy sworn to destroy us. He too, deserves a vote as greatest. But I can only vote once. I vote for Lincoln, but on a technicality. President Washington became President after the Rrevolutionary War.

[OKSooner]

Later read.

[bondjamesbond]

Nancy Pelosi always looks as if she is supressing a gleefuld grin. Her plastic surgeon told her she could choose one expression for the rest of her life, and this is the one she chose. It really doesn't work so well for state funerals.