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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Happy Birthday, Ronald Reagan |
| 2009-02-06 |
| Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 -- June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981--1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967--1975). Born in Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s, where he was an actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and a spokesman for General Electric (GE). His start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he switched to the Republican Party in 1962, at the age of 51. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and election in 1980. As president, Reagan implemented bold new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics," included deregulation and substantial tax cuts implemented in 1981. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line against organized labor, and ordered military actions in Grenada. He was reelected in a landslide in 1984. His second term was primarily marked by foreign matters, namely the ending of the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, and the revelation of the Iran-Contra affair. The president had previously ordered a massive military buildup in an arms race with the Soviet Union, forgoing the strategy of détente. He publicly described the USSR as an "evil empire" and supported anti-Communist movements worldwide. He negotiated with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, resulting in the INF Treaty and the decrease of both countries' nuclear arsenals. Reagan left office in 1989. In 1994, the former president disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier in the year; he died ten years later at the age of ninety-three. He ranks highly among former U.S. presidents in terms of approval rating. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #3 I sill miss him, his humor and his spine. Both are lacking in the current GOP leadership in the Senate and the party in general. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-02-06 23:42 |
| #2 Sadly, he isn't coming back. We need to BE like him, not wish for his return. Conservatives have the ideas that work in the real world. But in an age of mass media, good ideas aren't (unfortunately) enough. All conservatives need to learn to articulate, politican conservatives even more so. That's Reagan's legacy - articulate it, and they will come. It seems most of today's Repubs don't get that message. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2009-02-06 16:01 |
| #1 We need him more than ever. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2009-02-06 11:59 |