Posted on 11/03/2005 9:10:15 PM PST by nickcarraway
I remember it well.
But the Inauguration was the best. Standing on the corner of Penn Ave at the old Post Office building, hearing the new president on a transistor radio tell the luncheon guests on Capitol Hill that "our prisoners" had just left Iranian airspace and were headed home. The jolt rippled through the crowd and was electric.
It remained that way all day long, as Ronnie and Nancy waved from the limosine. I've never before or since seen a public crowd so celebratory.
What was really fun about election night was watching the MSM broadcasters. They seemed to be totally surprised! They were visibly disgusted.
One reporter later stated that "I don't KNOW anyone who voted for Reagan!" Of course, that statement, by itself, should have been enough to indict the media, but nobody noticed the irony.
I was 13.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
I was barely three during Reagan's first election, but I do remember watching the 1984 election coverage with my mom (I was 7) and being excited that Reagan was going to remain President. I remember him seeming "grandfatherly" and like a really good guy to my 7 year old mind.
Been a conservative ever since!
I miss Ronnie DAMN I remember his victory speech
I first heard Reagan in 1964, when he gave "The Speech" for Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign. That speech was officially entitled "A Time for Choosing" and it resonated with me. That speech was instrumental in sparking my interest in politics.
Reagan did the country right. His two landslide victories proved that Reagan was a successful conservative politician and national leader.
Some of the lines that caught my attention:
Weekend polling told Patrick Caddell what he needed to know, and he passed the word along to Carter. Reagan was going to become the next president.
25 years later, I'm still happy.
The week before, the two candidates faced off in their only debate. History remembers that night for two Reagan lines that have become part of our political vocabulary, for good or ill: "There you go again," which must be the most overhyped political one-liner of all time; and "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" which largely deserves the stature it attained, as one of the great framing devices any politician has used.
My favorite line from that debate: "'Recession' is when your neighbor loses his job. 'Depression' is when you lose yours. And 'recovery' is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
For voters, the debate performance seemed to put to rest the fear the media and the opposition had been drumming up about Reagan as a reckless cowboy who would "push the button."
"the media and the opposition"...one and the same, just as today. Worse, then, I'm sure, without the Internet as we know it. And 'reckless cowboy'...you'd think the Left would get a new script after all this time?
That was always founded in politics, not reality. Even as a mere 14-year-old at the time, I'd sensed immediately that Reagan was not dangerous, but that he was tough.
I was 11 when he was elected. Even then, I could tell the difference between he and Mr. Malaise.
The man on the screen was sublime. I'd never heard anyone talk that way before, not at my youthful age, in the waning months of the worst presidency of the American century.
AMEN to the bolded text...
It didn't seem, in Jimmy Carter's America, that politicians could say things like:
"The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral responsibility of Democratic Party leadership....They say that the United States has had its day in the sun; that our nation has passed its zenith. They expect you to tell your children that the American people no longer have the will to cope with their problems; that the future will be one of sacrifice and few opportunities.
My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view. The American people, the most generous on earth, who created the highest standard of living, are not going to accept the notion that we can only make a better world for others by moving backwards ourselves. Those who believe we can have no business leading the nation.
I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose...
(sigh) I miss him.
(Carter)Getting on television and conceding the election before the polls had closed on the West Coast was a perfect expression of the wreckage that he had brought to his country and his party.
You'll get no argument from me.
I remember Carter coming into the hall of his election headquarters to make his concession speech, wearing that hapless, hangdog look on his face, an expression that is etched into my memories of growing up. I did pity him. The poor man, I thought, he tried his best. And I thought then that he was a good man, though 25 years later I'm not so sure.
I AM sure. Weak man, horrible president, made Clinton look like Churchill. Did some good things, but so did Hussein (to throw the argument of the Left back at them).
So Carter would go. And with him would go the "crisis of confidence," which he had both inflicted and reflected; the willful refusal to distinguish friends from enemies; the "shock" at the presence of evil in the world; the hectoring self-righteousness and spiritual emptiness; the paralysis in taking action, like a father unwilling to defend his sons in a fight.
And the embarrassment of having been "attacked" by a bunnywabbit...
God help this country if another man like him comes along anytime soon. A great country's Carters should be spaced out by at least a century.
Correction...by at least a Millenium. And a half.
The important thing was that we would be seeing much more of Reagan and much less of Carter.
AMEN to that.
Eventually, Carter would develop a shadow ex-presidency every bit as sanctimonious and wrong-headed as his real one, but that is another story.
One that, unfortunately, is still being played out.
We couldn't stop smiling for an ENTIRE WEEK. It was marvelous.
I'm posting that on the refrigerator as a reminder. WE are the ones who must keep that torch lit!
I'm so ahamed. I voted for peanut head.
Not since Jeff Davis was the nation more relieved to see a southerner put out of office.
Great post. I was about the same age as the author. I already had conservative tendencies then, but Reagan made me a Republican for life. The country needed a hero right then, and he was the man. My parents, both with the FDR democrats mindset, registered Republican that year for the first time too, and stayed. Thank you, Gipper.
Does anyone have pictures from that night? I will look on the web, but if you do, please post here.
Gipper ping.
Just another reminder of how much I miss Mr. Reagan. May he rest in peace.
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