# Blaming Bush for North Korea: Will it work politically? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 6, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954 "2003-01-06T16:02:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/41 "2003-01-08T02:31:30Z")
We could sure get into it, **December** , about whether or not Ronnie Reagan was, well, … So howzabout this? We “co-host” a thread “Is Ronnie an Utter Airhead” or, conversely, “Will the Democrats Succeed in Portraying Ronald Reagan, Author, Philosopher, and President, as a Mentally Challenged Person (Who They Should Be Protecting If They Weren’t Such Hypocrites” Mine’s shorter. Your call. Pit or GD? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/42 "2003-01-08T20:51:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > \*\*Pithy contest? You lose. \*\* No, you loothe. Regardth, Thodan ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/43 "2003-01-08T22:06:50Z")
Reagan won the Cold War the way Inspector Clouseau solves cases–by accident. His “evil empire” remark backfired–and then the backfiring backfired. Ronnie’s bellicosity provoked a Soviet military buildup, which bankrupted them and ushered in glasnost/peristroika. This certainly wasn’t Reagan’s intention, which undoubtedly was simply to shame them into improving their behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/44 "2003-01-09T02:56:06Z")
No, the Soviet Union was building up militarily before Reagan. It was Star Wars that showed they couldn’t win, and the economic boom of the 80s and 90s that showed they could compete economically either. Reagan said the Soviet empire would wind up on the “ash heap of history”. That shows his intention to win the Cold War - which he did. Revisionist history is amusing when it isn’t disgusting. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/45 "2003-01-09T03:24:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > \*\*So howzabout this? We “co-host” a thread “Is Ronnie an Utter Airhead” \*\* As a pre-condition, each of us who want to debate should first read Reagan’s book that I mentioned and read his speeches. Otherwise, we will wind up recirculating spin out of of our derrières. Used farts have little appeal. Please let me know when you have finished the book, and I’ll be happy to co-host a thread with you. I trust you will be able to cope with the book’s length and its variety of complex technical and foreign policy topics. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/46 "2003-01-09T03:49:08Z")
Lets see now. Options. One: read a book written, or at least guided in spirit, by Ronald Reagan, plus a selection of Peggy Nooner’s Greatest Hits OR Nail my pecker to a tree and set the tree on fire. Give me time, let me think. This is a tough one. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/47 "2003-01-09T04:10:31Z")
**december:** _As a pre-condition, each of us who want to debate should first read Reagan’s book that I mentioned and read his speeches._ Well, **luc** , I’d say that entitles you to prescribe a reading list of your own for **december** in return. How about Mark Hertsgaard’s _On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency_ for starters? Or Lou Cannon’s _President Reagan: the Role of a Lifetime_? (Of course, if you wanted to balance **december** ’s partisanship you’d have to reach for something like Haynes Bonner Johnson’s _Sleepwalking through History: American in the Reagan Years_.) ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/48 "2003-01-09T04:30:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kimstu \* > Of course, if you wanted to balance **december** ’s partisanship In a debate over Reagan’s policy expertise, how is it _partisan_ to read his actual, hand-written policy essays? Are original sources a vast right-wing plot? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954/49 "2003-01-09T05:03:03Z")
**december:** _In a debate over Reagan’s policy expertise, how is it partisan to read his actual, hand-written policy essays?_ Oh, I wasn’t claiming that _In his Own Hand_ is a partisan book, any more than the Hertsgaard or Cannon ones I mentioned are. I was referring to **your** partisanship. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blaming-bush-for-north-korea-will-it-work-politically/146954.md?page=2)