It truly boggles the mind!

where the President of the Galaxy was elected to distract the citizens of the Galaxy from seeing who is really running the country . . .

Reagan ran around spouting platitudes about how wonderful the US is . . .

Who is our Arthur Dent?

:hi:

which is being used to torture prisoners at Guantanamo.

does not have an orafice to recite Sappho anyway

I think that clouds the fact that he was in favor of cutting every program that made america great.

would try to remind them that he was an actor! Of course, he seemed charismatic and sincere, he was acting!

...Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Just because you don't get it, you have to respect the wishes of the people. The results speak for themselves. Reagan won two huge landslides and would have won a third in 1988 if third terms were allowed, as Bush1's big victory indicates.

Reagan and Clinton are the two most successful recent presidents when it comes to connecting with people.

He did alot to harm America! We are where we are today because of him!

He didn't fool anyone. Why is that the American people are fooled when a Republican totally cleans house in two elections, but aren't fooled when a Democrat wins? It's basically the same electorate who voted in 1980, 1984, 1992 and 1996.

We are certainly not in the position we are in today because of Reagan. Our problems stem from a failed Middle Eastern policy, and that can be put right at the feet of both of the Bush's, who have basically squandered what Reagan had achieved in winning the Cold War.

On EDIT: I was going to let you slide on this but then decided against it. We are in a AIDS crisis today because of Reagan! We are in a corruption crisis today because of Reagan! We are in a Financial crisis today because of Reagan! We are in a moral crisis today because of Reagan! Would you like me to go on?


P.S.

OUR GOVERNMENT TODAY IS IN CRISIS BECAUSE OF REAGAN!

p.s.s.

for the last fucking time, reagan didn't win the cold war it collapsed!

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the Chimpinator any day. I think one of our best Presidents was Carter. he got royally screwed by the corporate whores

...even next to many of today's Democrats. I could almost wish for Nixon's return, gien the roster of corporate whores in line for the presidency on both sides of the aisle.

He used charm to mask the damage he did to the country.. and too many people think he was responsible for the fall of communism in Russia. It was falling anyway.

NT!

Sleeping, lying, and pardoning cronies? Inflation, job destruction, social contract breaking? Homelessness, the mentally ill roaming the streets unmedicated, unsupported, and armed? Private little wars for ego boosts? Iran/Contra?

You got to wonder what people use for brains these days.

I guess that could fall under social contract breaking. But when breaking the air traffic controllers was the very first thing that Mr. Morning-in-America turned his black heart to after his inauguration, it set the pace for his whole administration. Too bad he couldn't shoot union members, like he wanted to shoot protesters when he was governor. But he did a pretty good job of killing them off anyway. My god, I hate Ronald Reagan.

desirous of sitting down and having a beer with blivet. Of course they're not very smart (understatement of the decade). They cast their vote based on the criteria. That is gotta be one of the most pathetic, brain-dead reasons for anything, EVER.

He was certainly very, very good at that... and he did it by financing contras and death squads with dirty money from dealings with Iran.

What a guy!!!

:mad:

once all of the shallow propaganda wears off, I suspect he'll be seen in the same category as Bush- possibly even worse, considering the destructive trends the far right extremists in his administration started.

While Dems and Indies split their votes:

59% of votes went to a Dem while 40% went to a Republican.

This was written by a renowned Historian. Good read. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/9961300

The article is awesome.

effect on your life.

in history with the baby boomers and cold war

Arguements for and against excluding FDR dividing Democrats vs. swaying Repugs...

"peace dividend" we were all supposed to get. Well, we got it, sort of, under Clinton. Now they've stolen it back from us, ten times over. So they blame Bush, not Reagan. Little do they seem to recognize the direct line of descent. The looting gene (like the forgetfulness gene) seems to skip a generation.

I remember a high-up Dem pol I happened to meet early in the Reagan era, when some of us thought that death squads in Central America and a tax code re-write favoring the rich were bad ideas, and I will never forget what he said: "Now is the time to make some money." The era of civil rights and open government and the trend toward true democracy (no war) was over, as far as he was concerned--probably a quite accurate reflection of the Dem Party leadership as a whole.

What the fascists did, in effect, was to buy off the whole upper middle class, thus silencing and neutralizing a major progressive force. They did it with the tax code re-write (end of the progressive tax system), and de-regulation (bundles to be made, in S&L lootings, union busting, sweatshop labor, resource extraction, pollution, destruction of third world economies, private vendors replacing government services, and all the rest.) Give the upper middle-class some spending money, and they would buy into it all, and they did--including the worse buy-in of all, the loss of American sovereignty to global corporate predators (with NAFTA, GATT, and the global free piracy agenda).

THAT's why unthinking people have a "favorable impression" of Reagan. They associate him with "once upon a time" prosperity. They think--or, in the past, thought--that those tax and deregulate policies created the prosperity that continued, more or less, through the Clinton administration (with some big boosts in the tech sector and elsewhere, under Clinton). And, yeah, it did, for SOME people, but it was meanwhile eating away at the heart of the country--the lower middle- and lower class working population--destroying most of the social and political progress that had been made since WW II, and gravely undermining the prosperity of the upper middle class, which is more dependent on products, services and government solvency than is the upper class/super-rich. The deregulation then started assaulting the upper middle-class, with items like Enron's $9 BILLION theft of Calif's budget surplus--under a DEMOCRATIC governor who had SUPPORTED de-regulation.

Results: Good schools gone, kaput. Ghetto schools even worse off. Skyrocketing cost of higher education. Some counties can't even afford ambulances any more. Libraries, nearly kaput. State employees' pensions about to be raided. Massive incarceration of the poor. Fearful social conditions. Medical care/insurance lost to half the population; gouging higher incomes. Energy price gouging. Gas price gouging. Environmental regulation nearly gone. All the things that make a good society--that the upper middle class would be for, in theory--are under massive assault by the fascist, corporate de-regulators. And the one thing that seemed positive in all of it--Prop 13--which was supposed to protect old people on fixed incomes from losing their homes to high tax re-assessments in truth ended up massively benefiting corporate landowners, who never die, but just keep accumulating near tax free property (and power) ad infinitum.

It's quite shallow thinking that Reagan is some sort of ikon. The Reagan worship of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies likely influences such thinking. Some people remember Iran-Contra. Few remember the tax code re-write. It's like the whole country got Alzheimer's.

------------

Sabra, your subject line is confusing. You say Bush is tops (of the worst), then you add on that Reagan and Clinton are "tops." It should say something like: Bush considered worst president ever; Reagan, Clinton, best.

peace.

the gipper.

Thanks for taking the time to write it all.

when I consider the negative impact that NAFTA has had on America. No way is Clinton the "best president" of the last 61 years.

Truman (best)
Eisenhower (second best)
JFK (third best)



W.Bush (worst)
Reagan (2nd worst)
Nixon (3rd worst)

he is the only president to aurhorize the use of nuclear weapons

Reagan and Clinton both have that ability to schmooze... well, had, in Reagan's case.

to be better understood, but in context, he did try to serve, and that's not something you can say for St. Ronnie and the Bush Boys, or Nixon. He did some marvelous restoration of a country burdened by Reagan and Bush I. Too bad Dumbya came along and undid it so badly that it will take more than 8 years to recover.

They're all mixed bags. But overall, Reagan and Clinton would have to be considered the best. I don't believe in a ranking, as it is impossible to compare circumstances and determine what someone would have done in another person's situation. But I disagree with your assessment. My opinion:

Truman - bad - atomic bombings, Korean war, Stalin ate him for lunch, first leader to recognize Israel - did nothing for Palestinians.
Eisenhower - OK - managed things OK, big mistake was in overthrowing Mossadegh in Iran
Kennedy - Medium - good economics, Bay of Pigs was bad, got us in Vietnam
LBJ - bad - anyone would have done Civil Rights Act, Vietnam
Nixon - bad - Vietnam, bad economic policies, Watergate, good on China
Ford - irrelevant
Carter - medium - most wasn't his fault, bad economics, good on Israel-Egypt
Reagan - good - good economics, ended Cold war
G Bush - bad - Iraq war
Clinton - good economics, good foreign policy, but bad on Serbian war
GW Bush - terrible all around

he was too DLC. Clinton never really did anything much at all for the liberals he really 'blew' the opportunity that he had. I'll never understand why so many repukes hate him cause they really should have loved him. x(

the response I usually get is, "I dunno. He just was. Oh, yeah, he brought down the Soviet Union."

Reagan was an awful President, and his policies have had negative repercussions that are directly related to the huge mess our country is presently in.

Either the intense RW propaganda campaigns during the '80s were enormously effective, or Reagan did a stellar job of acting in his final role.

Maybe Dems should run an actor for Prez. If s/he played the role well, Dems could have a Prez as popular as George Washington was during his tenure.

My dad was in the Navy during WWII and Korea. Like so many others in the service during Korea, he fought to curb the flow of Communism.

Whenever someone tells me that "Reagan stopped Communism," I tell them, "Yeah? You think so? My dad, along with countless others, was fighting to stop Communism when Reagan was making 'Bedtime for Bonzo!'" That usually shuts them up.

Bedtime for Bonzo (1951)

Despite the efforts of brave American soldiers, the Korean and Vietnamese wars did not cause the end of the Soviet Union. Fighting direct wars on the periphery of communism didn't have an effect, doing so made things worse for the US and the West. The brave American soldiers in Iraq, despite their efforts, aren't doing anything to reduce Islamic terrorism.

Reagan changed the Cold War policy and, through the defense buildup, forced the Soviets to go bankrupt and call it quits. Now I believe the Soviet Union was doomed to fall someday anyway, but Reagan accelerated that fall.

Reagan's actions nearly brought down the US, though. Dubya's trying to finish that job for him, despite Clinton's valiant efforts to repair the Reagan/Bush damage. I'm more and more convinced: Bush I used Reagan as his dummy, and the puppetry continues with Cheney using Bush's son as his dummy.

He made people feel good regardless of the realities of life then. I was a essentially a kid then, and a Republican and thought highly of him until the last couple of years. He had lots of people fooled. Why they still are though, is really baffling for me though. I mostly think of his racist contribution of "welfare queen" when I think of him personally.

Looks like W finally found a place to leave his mark. He is in a class by himself, far and away the worst of the worst. No competition at all in my book.

Wow.

Either way, the Dumbass Supreme(TM) wins by a mile.

both financially and morally.

ratings would drop to more appropriate levels of disgust.

Strip the Teflon off the great Obfuscator! Let Truth out and Freedom ring!

:wow: Best??? :wtf:

....the Big Dog triumphs and puts dumya in his place.

the best,where was the poll taken,republican national headquartwrs?.

but we had a facsimile of a two party system when he was president, so people didn't get the worst of his policies, like a foot-slogging war in Central America.

Even some Reagan lovers must have turned on him.