It’s an election year stunt I tells ya. I didn’t think the neocons would go this far…
Kidding aside, My grandmother had the slow creeping alzheimers that appears to have taken Ronnie. It’s terrible to say this, unless you’ve been through it, but his death is a blessing to his family. They can take comfort that they can now look upon the memories instead of looking upon a shell of what once was.
If you’re saying that “the time he was called to answer for them” was when he was still in office, I still maintain that Alzheimer’s wasn’t responsible, at that time, for his loss of mental acuity. He was never the same after he was shot. The Alzheimer’s came later.
I know it shouldn’t bother me, but hey, cheap shots do bother me, whether they’re against a Dem or a Pub. I still get aggravated when people make jokes or snide remarks about his having been senile before he was even elected. “You won’t be too old in '80…Ron, wake up when I’m talking to you.” Ha ha. The GOP wouldn’t have nominated him if they hadn’t thought he was up to the task.
He’s a dead politician. Why is it a big deal?
I’m sure his family and friends will mourn him. Why should anyone else?
It’s a bit hard to explain if you’re too young to have been there. There is no frame of reference from which you can appreciate what the Cold War was like, what it was like to be told by your president that America’s greatest days were over, what it was like to pay 18% interest on a car loan with good credit for a car whose price had increased four times that year as it sat on the lot, what it was like to resign yourself to a bleak future of impotence and doom. Suddenly, along came a leader — just in time — whose charm, wit, and vision infused a new optimism into a nation with a proud history. Morning in America. A shining city on a hill. GDP of 3.5% for six straight years, shattered records on Wall Street (and yes, deficits too), restoration of strength and vigor. He replace fear with courage and shame with pride. He had the uncanny ability to talk over Congress and even over the press, straight into the hearts of the American people. He left office with the highest popularity numbers of any president before him. Every election he ran in, from Governor to President, was a landslide — he never experienced a squeaker. On his watch, the Soviet Union fell, the Berlin wall crumbled, and fourty years of angst disappeared. I can understand why you don’t get it, but give us this time to mourn and celebrate what we remember.
Oh I am old enough to remember him. Others may shout me down but in my belief, he started the whole “Americans think they run the world” thing. He may have been good economicaly for Americans but he certainly was not good at making America a “feel good” place for the rest of the world.
His hands were very dirty internationaly.
His “charm and wit” and always came off as smugness and a air of superiority. He was also clearly NUTS after the assasination attempt. I remember a doco when he and Nance were guests of Liz (her Queenliness), Liz was trying to have a sensible conversation with Mr “not quite there” Regan…he kept saying, REPEATEDLY…is this coffee decaf? Liz was boggled but polite, I just thought SHEESH you let this nutjob be in charge?
At the end of the day he he is a dead politician…he did his bit, now he is dead. Why should anyone but his family and historians care?
Because we aren’t you, I guess. May we have your leave to think as we please?
A couple of quotes about his death -
George W Bush - Reagan leaves behind “a nation he restored and a world he helped save. May God bless Ronald Reagan,”
Maggie Thatcher - “President Reagan was one of my closest political and dearest personal friends,” She credited him with having “won the Cold War for liberty… without a shot being fired. To have achieved so much against so many odds and with such humour and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero.”
Of course :). May I have your leave to not give a shit that that he died other then to feel for his family and friends.
Maybe because he is the most beloved (and effective) president since at least FDR, and maybe more so. When someone you love dies, you care!
And alluding to him as just a “dead politician” makes you look shallow, immature and ridiculous. Everyone who reads this thread is aware of who he was and what he accomplished, whether they approved of it or not. And he was a hell of a lot more than just a “politician.”
Oh yes! I’m sorry…ex hollywood actor/ ex president.
Shallow, shallow me. I think the man was a menace at best and a nutcase at worst.
I don’t relish in anyones death. I just think he is best mourned by his family and friends.
And, after reading your last response to Liberal, it’s obvious that you know perfectly well why we care and that you are just taking a sideways run at it in order to try to trivialize him and show your disapproval. If you want to express your disapproval, do it honestly and straight-on. :dubious:
Again, he was so much more than that. You won’t accomplish 1/1,000th in your life what he did. :wally
And just for a bit of perspective. Our current PM is my all time favourite. If she dies in state it would be a Very Bad Thing. If she carks after she has finished then it is a “boo hoo an ex politician died” thing.
They are not extra-special…we just voted for them. They do the job, after the job is finished they are no greater then the rest of us.
I don’t know why you ever thought otherwise. All I did was answer your question. When I answered it, you asked the same question again. Now that you’ve stated it so many times, we truly do understand that you think he is best mourned by his family and friends. We would like you to understand that we consider ourselves to be a part of his extended family and to be among his friends. That okay by you?
Well I won’t be running for govt any time soon, I would guess you won’t be either. Does that make us lesser people?
He did the job he applied for (not well though in my opinion) WHOOPY-DEE shit. We all do jobs. Surely we only need to be mourned by family and friends.
Sure.
It is for this reason I’m relieved to learn that he has finally died. Alzheimers is a horrific disease… I envy people who just think it means the sufferer just has memory loss. Poor Nancy and family, it takes years to get over watching someone die that way.
Rest in peace, Mister Reagan, may the next world treat you more kindly than this one did in your declining years.
They are extra-special or not depending on the type of person they are and what they did or did not accomplish. Do you have any understanding of just how difficult their jobs are? Do you understand how much better or worse off you are because of their decisions, judgement, talent and ability to accomplish the things they try (and in Reagan’s case, succeed) to do? These types of people are loved or loathed because of the type of person they are and because of what they do that people either appreciate or disapprove of. And in Reagan’s case, he appeared to be a genuinely good man of good will, and he had an eminently likable or even lovable quality that even his opponents often succumbed to. He was like a beloved, good-hearted grandfather or uncle. You, and some others around the world may have perceived him as smug or arrogant or a “cowboy,” but these were only your perceptions. We here in the U.S. (most of us, anyway) know the type of person he really was and we (again, most of us anyway) loved him for it. That feeling doesn’t evaporate just because he left office.
How did you gain your understanding of how difficult the job is? (I never thought it was easy…you just seem to know something that I don’t)
I don’t think I am much more worse off because of Mr Regan, I do think Americans are though. I only speak of your international reputation though, if he put bucks in your pocket then it is all good.
I am sensing your need to mourn him. I appreciate that.
(maybe acting is a good way to enter politics)
If he’s just a dead politician to you then why are you even reading this thread. You had to have know what it was about.
7 posts to this thread by you in the last three or so hours? I’d say he’s not just a dead politician. Either that or you’re looking to piss people off. Which is it?
Off that subject, Back to the Future is on cable right now.
“Oh, and I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady?” Growing up in the Reagan years, but never having heard of Jane Wyman, that line confused me for a long time. . . "but, Nancy is his wife!??!). 
RIP Mr. President.