Kerry on Reagan(Kerry is saying all the right things now, but what did he say about Reagan before?)

The Weekly Standard ^ | June 7, 2004 | Katherine Mangu-Ward

[RWR8189]

The Massachusetts senator is saying all the right things now, but what did he say about Reagan before?

SENATOR JOHN KERRY issued a respectful and respectable statement in response to the news of President Reagan's death on Saturday. "Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious," he said. "Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate. Despite the disagreements, he lived by that noble ideal that at 5:00 p.m. we weren't Democrats or Republicans, we were Americans and friends." This was an appropriate, even deft, statement--followed by the announcement by Kerry that he was canceling campaign events this week.

But it's worth taking a look back at what Kerry said about Reagan during and after his presidency. Reagan was president when Kerry was elected to the Senate, and their ideological clashes were colorful and frequent. That's to be expected. Occasionally, however, during Reagan's presidency and in subsequent years, Kerry crossed the line into strident invective:

* In November 2002, U.S. News & World Report carried this Kerry assessment of Reagan's presidency: "You roll out the president one time a day. One exposure to all of you [the media]. No big in-depth inquiries. Put him in his brown jacket and his blue jeans, put him on a ranch, let him cock his head, give you a smile, and it looks like America's OK."

He repeated the same sentiments in an interview with Vogue last year, this time drawing a parallel to Bush: ''They have managed him the same way they managed Ronald Reagan," Kerry contended. ''They send him out to the press for one event a day. They put him in a brown jacket and jeans and get him to move some hay or drive a truck, and all of a sudden, he's the Marlboro Man."

* That's not the only time Kerry has offered unflattering Bush-Reagan comparisons. In an interview last September with the Manchester Union-Leader, Kerry said, "We've seen governors come to Washington, . . . and they don't have the experience in foreign policy, and they get in trouble pretty fast. Look at Ronald Reagan. Look at Jimmy Carter and, now, obviously, George Bush."

* In 1992 Kerry said, "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."

* After his first major political battle in the Senate over Reagan's support for the Nicaraguan contras in 1985, Kerry said "I think it was a silly and rather immature approach," of Reagan's dismissal of a "peace offer" from Sandinista junta leader Daniel Ortega

* Last year Kerry said to the Democratic National Committee: "I'm proud that I stood against Ronald Reagan, not with him, when his intelligence agencies were abusing the Constitution of the United States and when he was running an illegal war in Central America."

In fact, Kerry has spoken at great length about the Reagan administration's "abuse of the Constitution" and "totalitarian" inclinations: "They were willing to literally put the Constitution at risk because they believed there was somehow a higher order of things, that the ends do in fact justify the means. That's the most Marxist, totalitarian doctrine I've ever heard of in my life. . . . You've done the very thing that James Madison and others feared when they were struggling to put the Constitution together, which was to create an unaccountable system with runaway power . . . running off against the will of the American people."

Kerry was right to say kind words about Reagan on the day of his death. But they shouldn't obscure what Kerry said about Reagan during his life.

Katherine Mangu-Ward is a reporter at The Weekly Standard.

[al baby]

He was for Reagan budget before he was against it

[hole_n_one]

In light of this thread.

*ping*

[dix]

Man, this is great. I gotta save this one.

[Army Air Corps]

Aye. Let us bide our time, add verbal arrows to our quivers, and sharpen our blades and wait for the right moment to shred this opportunistic dilettante.

[Redcoat LI]

"Ronald Reagan certainly was never in combat."

Hey,Frenchy that bullet he took in the chest required more than a band-aid to close it.

[ldish]

BTT.....definitely more ad material!!! I just love Kerry's stupidity...

[CyberAnt]

I agree .. and the NYT already knows that because the title of their article was something to the effect that Bush WASN'T going to get a very good boost out of this.

[conshack]

"Ronald Reagan certainly was never in combat."

Hey,Frenchy that bullet he took in the chest required more than a band-aid to close it.



And...He didn't write himself up for any award. Nor did he quit the presidency after being wounded. And best of all, he DIDN'T become a Traitor to his country .
Mr Kerry, YOU did.

[Captain Rabbit]

"Hey,Frenchy that bullet he took in the chest required more than a band-aid to close it."

Absolutely brilliant.

[Gkubly]

Hard to stop slinging when the media is admitting they lied to all of America the entire time President Reagan was in office. We were told he was being managed by others that he wasn't smart enough, now the media is admitting they lied and they are getting a free pass while pretending to care about him. The media is doing the exact same thing to President Bush right now and I think someone needs to call them on this.

[no dems]

NOW IS THE TIME TO PUBLICIZE THIS ALL OVER THE NATION. People need to know how he really felt about the most beloved President in the last half of the 20th century.

[conshack]

The media is doing the exact same thing to President Bush right now and I think someone needs to call them on this.


And.............They're getting away with .it

[Redbob]

That's OK; you give Kerry a rest.

There are plenty here who will continue to slam that two-faced slimeball fulltime.

ME, for example.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Here are some things Kerry said in his 1984 Senate campaign... not about Ronald Reagan personally, but about his policies...

The second paragraph is truly amazing: "The Reagan Administration has no rational plan for our military. Instead, it acts on misinformed assumptions about the strength of the Soviet military, and a presumed "window of vulnerability", which we now know not to exist."

Those "misinformed assumptions" played a big role in ending the Cold War, and bringing freedom to vast areas of eastern Europe and western and southern Asia. All President Bush has to do for a resounding reelection is to turn the contest into a choice between Reagan and Kerry. President Bush can do this by embracing President Reagan's world view, and by repeatedly comparing and contrasting Reagan's 1984 policies (and their results) with Kerry's 1984 proposals.

[Captain Rabbit]

"The Reagan Administration has no rational plan for our military. Instead, it acts on misinformed assumptions about the strength of the Soviet military, and a presumed "window of vulnerability", which we now know not to exist."


The military was in shambles right before Reagan. It was an absolute mess. Drugs, racism, and God-awful benefits. Reagan put pride back to the troops. And yet he had "no rational plan"? Kuck Ferry.

[GailA]

btt

[kennedy]

John Kerry Vows to Resume Where Reagan Left Off

Massachusetts - John Kerry, distraught and teary eyed after visiting the flag draped coffin of ex-president Ronald Reagan, announced his plans to resume the era the Great Communicator left behind.

"I will make this country great again." Said Kerry. "I will go back to values Reagan set, and beyond. Beyond Reagan perhaps, many years ago. Such as a time we were still ruled by England. But say this time it is France. So my message is I will make this country great again, like Reagan, only we all speak French. I will also work on environmental and deficit issue, in French."

Kerry was then seen talking to the newly widowed Nancy Reagan. He was overheard telling others she was a somewhat attractive widow, who must have a fairly sizable net worth.

Brokennewz