When Reagan closed loopholes and raised coporate r

[ugonow]

he seemed to come out unscathed.

[handyman2]

The difference is that Reagan was a good communicator, listener and salesman. Obama is not.

[ugonow]

I think a big part is also, negotiatons and bargining were a part of politics back then instead of line in the sand school yard stuff.

[djAdvocate]

Jul 14, 2011 11:39:05 GMT -5 handyman2 said:

The difference is that Reagan was a good communicator, listener and salesman. Obama is not.

horsefeathers. i think Obama is every bit as good as Reagan in each of those three regards. the difference is that congress is no longer reasonable.

[Deleted]

horsefeathers. i think Obama is every bit as good as Reagan in each of those three regards. the difference is that congress is no longer reasonable.

President Reagan could think & talk on his feet. He didn't need to read a prepared script.

President Obama is a great TelePrompTer reader. His off the cuff remarks are terrible.

[djAdvocate]

Jul 14, 2011 14:16:37 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

horsefeathers. i think Obama is every bit as good as Reagan in each of those three regards. the difference is that congress is no longer reasonable.

President Reagan could think & talk on his feet. He didn't need to read a prepared script.

is this selective amnesia, or intentional nonsense, tex?

the myth of Reagan is far greater than his record. if you don't trust the Times, look it up for yourself:

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/a-president-and-his-teleprompter/

[billisonboard]

Jul 14, 2011 14:48:54 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

Jul 14, 2011 14:16:37 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

horsefeathers. i think Obama is every bit as good as Reagan in each of those three regards. the difference is that congress is no longer reasonable.

President Reagan could think & talk on his feet. He didn't need to read a prepared script.

is this selective amnesia, or intentional nonsense, tex?

the myth of Reagan is far greater than his record. ...

I never fully understood the concept of a "man crush" until I saw the treatment of Ronnie here.

[djAdvocate]

Jul 14, 2011 14:58:21 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Jul 14, 2011 14:48:54 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

is this selective amnesia, or intentional nonsense, tex?

the myth of Reagan is far greater than his record. ...

I never fully understood the concept of a "man crush" until I saw the treatment of Ronnie here.

Obama has way more in common with Reagan than he does with Bush. way way more. objectivity does not exist for either.

[Gardening Grandma]

Jul 14, 2011 14:16:37 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

horsefeathers. i think Obama is every bit as good as Reagan in each of those three regards. the difference is that congress is no longer reasonable.

President Reagan could think & talk on his feet. He didn't need to read a prepared script.

President Obama is a great TelePrompTer reader. His off the cuff remarks are terrible.

According to David Gergen (one of Reagan's handlers), he stood where he was told and didn't muff his lines....

[djAdvocate]

Jul 14, 2011 16:42:34 GMT -5 Gardening Grandma said:

Jul 14, 2011 14:16:37 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

horsefeathers. i think Obama is every bit as good as Reagan in each of those three regards. the difference is that congress is no longer reasonable.

President Reagan could think & talk on his feet. He didn't need to read a prepared script.

President Obama is a great TelePrompTer reader. His off the cuff remarks are terrible.

According to David Gergen (one of Reagan's handlers), he stood where he was told and didn't muff his lines....

he muffed his lines often, and he used a teleprompter often. did Gergen mention that?

[safeharbor37]

Those who don't like Reagan like to pick and choose facts to justify whatever their argument is. Reagan was a recovering New Deal Democrat, not a doctrinaire conservative as he's usually characterized. For example, after his initial attempts to stimulate the economy by tax cuts and incentives failed, he went back to the drawing board and came up with other policies. His ability to deal with Congress [including his ability to go over the head of Congress to the People] was as important, if not more so, as the mature attitude of Tip O'Neill.
History judges Presidents, although historians tend to be as biased and hypocritical as most everyone else. The point is that a calm judgment of a President's performance cannot be expected as long as condemning or idolizing him or her is politically useful. The truth is so slippery that no one is likely to pin it down even on minor details.

[billisonboard]

Presidents, as individuals, likely always get too much credit and/blame. In a practical sense, it is just convenient shorthand to say Reagan (or Truman or Garfield) rather than "the speech writers and handlers and staff, et. al who surrounded the president." I just know that it was during the time that Reagan was in the White House that we needed to seriously change our economy and instead the credit card was pulled out and and the cry went up to "Par-deeee". "Morning in American" has lead us directly to where we are today, "Mourning in America".

[djAdvocate]

Jul 14, 2011 16:49:01 GMT -5 safeharbor37 said:

Those who don't like Reagan like to pick and choose facts to justify whatever their argument is.

i never said i don't like Reagan. i just think that he is not all everyone seems to remember him to be.

ie- he presided over the largest tax INCREASE in post WW2 history. moreover, there was serious concern in his second term about his mental state, which is often downplayed and glossed over.

[djAdvocate]

Jul 14, 2011 16:49:01 GMT -5 safeharbor37 said:

History judges Presidents, although historians tend to be as biased and hypocritical as most everyone else.

that might be true, but Reagan is judged pretty favorably by historians. the last (4) polls that have been done put him in the top (10), i believe.

[Gardening Grandma]

Jul 14, 2011 16:45:00 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

Jul 14, 2011 16:42:34 GMT -5 Gardening Grandma said:

According to David Gergen (one of Reagan's handlers), he stood where he was told and didn't muff his lines....

he muffed his lines often, and he used a teleprompter often. did Gergen mention that?

No, but I heard him stumble more than once.....

The righties have pretty much rewritten history as far as he is concerned. He was a selfish, arrogant old coot. I despised him when he was gov of CA (I lived there at the time) and could not believe that the voters were dumb enough to actually elect him Pres. Boy was I wrong.

[ugonow]

Presidents, as individuals, likely always get too much credit and/blame.

IMO, we tend to judge presidents on the basis of his good/bad fortune of when he presides.If the cycle happens to be good times ,and people are running up their debt like no tommorrow, the president is a huge success. The one that presides over the ass end of that orgy is a failure.