This is the best part
Reagan made his infamous joke less than a year after the Able Archer '83 exercise debacle that had at least some elements of the Soviet military convinced that it was a prelude to invasion. When the Soviets read of Reagan’s flipness (which was a couple of weeks afterward–it was never actually broadcast) the Soviets went a little ape; for them, it was just another indication that Reagan was a free-wheeling, unpredictable cowboy. This, combined with a succession of literally half-dead Soviet leaders who didn’t have much to live for, made for some lively tension in the pre-Gorbechev era. I agree with Mosier; it comes off as tasteless and stupid, and if its not boastful bullying then it is an obtuse conception of the responsibility of leading a major nation which was effectively in a waring stance for decades.
Reagan didn’t need much help from the kids at Spitting Image Productions to look like a buffoon; he managed to do pretty well for himself. Falling asleep during cabinet meetings and making jokes about destroying another nation were just a few in his panoply of wittlessicisms.
Stranger
Oh, well. It’s funny now.
Really? Funny that the ostensible leader of the free world took the possibility of a nuclear exchange so whimsically that he could crack wise about it? Funny now even though the United States and the Soviet Union still have a large number of nuclear-armed ICBMs and SLBMs pointed at each other, and the number of acknowledged nuclear weapon armed and nuclear weapon possible states exceeds that which can be counted on both hands?
Reagan himself was a grand joke, a grinning buffoon foisted upon a largely adoring public despite his manifest lack of intellectual fitness and experience in areas of international relations, economics, technology, et cetera. His joking about nuclear war at the peak of US-USSR tensions (following not only Able Archer '83 but the shootdown of KAL 007, uncertainty over the political succession to the terminally ill Konstantin Chernenko, and so forth), on the other hand, was more than disconcerting to any student of nuclear game theory based on the premise of a chief executive making informed decisions about the fate of nations.
It’s funny like a Polack joke. Look at those hussars, charging the tanks on horseback, dynamite strapped to their lances. Ha-ha!
Stranger
Sorry. I lived through Nixon and thought he would be the worst president in my life time. Then we got Reagan and I thought, gee, I was wrong, we’ve got the worst president of my lifetime now. The we got Bush 43 and I realized I’d been wrong both times.
I still think it was funny the way dead baby jokes are funny.
Well, I’ll grant you that; Reagan was bad taste redefined. I think Johnson was even worse than Nixon, though, and only Bush the Younger gives him a run for his money.
Stranger
There is a big disconnect here. Were it not for Watergate, Nixon would be the BEST President of the 20th century, hands down.
Since he messed up, then Reagan is the best, joking when he thought he was off-mike aside. Who else would have defeated the Soviets without a war? Carter? Mondale? Laughable…
Bush 43 may be spot on your estimates, though…
Sorry, jtgain, but not everyone agrees with you. Nixon was not universally beloved even before Watergate. Reagan wasn’t before Iran Contra.
I guess this has pretty well answered Oy!'s original thought that a good, dry sense of humor is a good quality for a President.
The fact is, there’s not a joke in the world that someone won’t say either “I don’t get it” or “That’s just not funny.”
I swear, McCain and Obama could have a pie fight and people would bitch about them wasting food.
True dat.
Almost anyone could have; Reagan didn’t defeat the USSR at all. They defeated themselves, through their own policies; Reagan just happened to be the one in office. If any one person deserves the credit for ending the Cold War without a hot war, it’s Gorbachev.
As for Reagan, as I said, could easily have provoked a war, or started one himself. He was damned scary. And he was responsible for an immense amount of evil and stupidity. He helped turn America into the scum pit heading towards disaster it is today.
Guys, if you want to debate about Reagan or Nixon, start another thread. This thread is about questionable humor in presidents and candidates.
Dude, if you don’t want a debate on worst Presidents, then don’t start one…
a) I’m not a dude.
b) I was making a point about humor. I still thought the joke was funny, even though I despised the president and his policies.
The nature of the President changes the impact of the joke.
That was my point when I raised it. If you want to debate the merits of the presidents themselves, without concentrating on the humor, then take it elsewhere. If you want to mention your opinion in passing to modify your opinion of the humor, that’s fine.
You seem to be implying that GWB “made a decision like that (starting a war, I presume)” and then “carried it out…without any leadup or warning”. I can’t say I remember him doing any such thing, what did I miss?
I still haven’t seen any source for that report other than the one tabloid, so I’m kinda doubting it’s true, but if it is, I find funny (if inaccurate, we’re number 2 now, China is #1).
Politicians shouldn’t try to be funny unless they already are funny. Nothing is worse than a joke that falls flat. Bring the funny. Know it’ll be funny. Funny is non-partisan.
[Off Topic]You’re quite right, he didn’t. But the general disrespect for the law and in fact for public opinion seems to this admitted liberal to have been growing through his years, especially in the second term, which is why I fear it now more than I did then. If you want to argue this further, please start a new thread.[/Off Topic]