Featured The Greatest President of the 20th Century

OldRegular · Mar 5, 2015

The 20th Century's Greatest President

Four and a half years ago, reviewing Edmund Morris Edmund Morris ‘ much-maligned Reagan biography, Dutch, I ended the piece by saying Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan was the greatest U.S. president of the 20th century.

Well, who else?

Franklin Roosevelt is the only contender. But FDR worsened the financial collapse he inherited from Hoover by raising taxes, pursuing a tight money policy and failing to rescind the Smoot-Hawley trade tariffs. It took Reagan, with help from Paul Volcker Paul Volcker , less than three years to get the economy booming after the Carter-era malaise. FDR deserves hero status for helping to save the world in the 1940s. Let us not forget that victory cost 250,000 American lives. Yet without a shot, Reagan won the 20th century’s other great fight against tyranny. In so doing, he liberated hundreds of millions of people.

I’m sticking with my pick. Dutch was the best.

Following is the original review.

Critics flayed and skewered Dutch, the Edmund Morris biography of Ronald Reagan. I rather liked it. You could do much worse in your hunt for a good holiday book. Unlike standard biographies, this one reads like a prose version of a superbly rendered documentary, in the style of Ken Burns Ken Burns .

Many have carped about Morris’ brave but odd literary technique: The writer “fictionalized” himself as an American-born citizen and contemporary of Reagan’s. (He’s actually Kenyan-born and 59 years old.) The idea was to put a “camera” on Reagan, then follow him as he grew up in rural Illinois, reached manhood in Des Moines (as a Chicago Cubs announcer) and attained fame in Hollywood. As for the Hollywood years, Morris tells us that Reagan was not a great actor–too stiff–but he was not as bad as Warren Beatty Warren Beatty and Jane Fonda Jane Fonda have made out. Dutch, by age 30, was Warner Bros.’ top featured player, knocking on stardom’s door. Who’s the equivalent of Reagan today? Perhaps Pierce Brosna Pierce Brosnan .

The same critics who complain about the Morris technique whine that Morris tags Reagan as a middlebrow rube, an airhead and as intellectually incurious. Lighten up! It’s called I-R-O-N-Y. Morris did this intentionally! His fictional narrator in the book is a rich, spoiled boy from Chicago, who finds himself in western Illinois, close enough to catch glimpses of young Reagan. The Morris character can’t fathom how Dutch, son of an alcoholic skip-town father, is able to transcend his poverty and limitations time and again.

But isn’t that precisely how snobs and intellectuals always saw Reagan? They could never figure the guy out. “This Reagan fellow…he’s got those American boobs under his spell.” Or after any Reagan triumph: “It must be Reagan luck!” Thus, the Morris technique, odd though it may be, is a brilliant way to convey snob cynicism toward Reagan–yet the author’s neat literary trick is utterly missed by the critics. They attribute the foul sentiment to Morris. Indeed, by the book’s second half, even the fictional Morris melts under Reagan’s charm and conviction, as did we all.

The Great Communicator

One Morris revelation that may surprise even the hard-core Reagan fan: Dutch was a superb writer. His short stories at Eureka College are of professional quality. He wrote most speeches he gave until 1980; after that, he often rewrote aides’ drafts into his own words and rhythms. We advise that you have plenty of Kleenex handy when you read the poem he wrote on his last day as governor of California or his shocking 1994 letter to the American public announcing his Alzheimer’s disease and withdrawal from public life.

Dutch has its flaws, as daring innovations often do. I had hoped Morris would get past the usual gripe about the Reagan-era budget deficits. Alas, he falls for the prevailing bonehead take–that Reagan’s historic success at reviving the American economy is tainted by those record-high deficits.

Reagan fans often counter these criticisms by pointing out that the Democrats controlled the House, which submits the budgets. Or that Reagan-era deficits were as large as they were because higher defense spending was needed to refurbish the military after the neglect of the Carter years, as well as to bring down the Soviet Union–an event that is still paying dividends, not the least of which is today’s U.S.-led Internet boom. Military upgrade is indeed a sufficient argument for the Reagan-era deficits.

American Wealth Doubles

There is yet another argument. Most commentators, Morris included, miss it. The Reagan years added $1.4 trillion to the federal debt; that much is fact. But that figure is a teeny blip set against the spike in American asset values, a rise created by the tax-cut boom; i.e., a rise created by Dutch himself. When Reagan took office in 1981 the market value of all American assets–stocks, land, crops, houses, commercial buildings, capital equipment, cars, collectibles, precious metals, etc.–was about $16 trillion. When he left office in 1989, that number had doubled to $33 trillion. Consider this bump of $17 trillion next time The New York Times kvetches about the debt and proposes to wipe it out with a tax hike.

Can you imagine a chief executive officer who would refuse to issue $1 of debt in the knowledge that $12 would come back in asset value? Such a CEO would be a shortsighted fool, deserving of a swift kick out the door. Reagan, no fool, never liked deficits but was not unduly troubled by them, either. He pondered his priorities and took out the loan. Then he shattered the Soviet Union and created the conditions for a doubling of American asset value in eight years. For that, Ronald Reagan is the best president of this century. Likewise, for all its flaws, Dutch is a fresh look at this great man.

Rich Karlgaard is publisher of Forbes magazine.

http://www.forbes.com/2004/06/07/cz_rk_0607reagan.html
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OldRegular · Mar 5, 2015

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OldRegular · Mar 6, 2015

This man and his policies defeated the Soviet Union without the shedding of blood. Great job I think. Of course I understand that the liberal/leftist on this BB are not enamored by Reagan but I thought I would at least get an Amen or two.

kyredneck · Mar 6, 2015

I probably agree. But I also like ol' Teddy from what I know about him.

Reagan's real strength was in surrounding himself with really smart, talented people and letting them do their job. An egomaniac or micro-manager he was not. Methinks Nancy was a bit of a kook.

Crabtownboy · Mar 6, 2015

Too many myths about Reagan. He was not a great president.

Reagan kicked the mentally ill out of hospitals and increased homelessness. Did not see people sleeping in parks and under bridges prior to Reagan.

Reagan ignored AIDS refusing to fund medical research or help for those who had it.

Reagan supported the apartheid government in South Africa.

Iran-Contra scandal.

His complete failure in Lebanon.

He did some good things. He will go down as an average president.

Truman probably made more right decisions on exceedingly important issues than any other president, at least in the latter half of the 20th century.

Jerome · Mar 6, 2015

kyredneck said: ↑

I also like ol' Teddy from what I know about him.
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Amen.

Check this out:

https://books.google.com/books?id=j...er+to+start+a+Zionist+State+around+Jerusalem"

OldRegular · Mar 6, 2015

Crabtownboy said: ↑

Too many myths about Reagan. He was not a great president.

Reagan kicked the mentally ill out of hospitals and increased homelessness. Did not see people sleeping in parks and under bridges prior to Reagan.

Reagan ignored AIDS refusing to fund medical research or help for those who had it.

Reagan supported the apartheid government in South Africa.

Iran-Contra scandal.

His complete failure in Lebanon.

He did some good things. He will go down as an average president.

Truman probably made more right decisions on exceedingly important issues than any other president, at least in the latter half of the 20th century.

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I don't expect any Marxist to believe Reagan was the greatest because he brought down the Marxist Soviet Union, so I understand where you are coming from Crabby! But how can you live when you keep your head in a dark smelly place all the time!

kyredneck · Mar 6, 2015

Jerome said: ↑

Amen.

Check this out:

https://books.google.com/books?id=j...er+to+start+a+Zionist+State+around+Jerusalem"
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So? I wonder what his opinion would be if he could see the mess it would create and how our own foreign policy would be drastically affected to our detriment.

[add]

And I can just about assure you that he would be aghast at the atrocities that the Zionists committed against the Palestinian inhabitants of the land.

OldRegular · Mar 6, 2015

Crabtownboy said: ↑

Reagan supported the apartheid government in South Africa.
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As usual Crabbie your mouth kicks in well ahead of your brain!

What Reagan Got Right About South African Sanctions

“Apartheid is an affront to human rights and human dignity. Normal and friendly relations cannot exist between the United States and South Africa until it becomes a dead policy. Americans are of one mind and one heart on this issue.”

So said Ronald Reagan in his 1986 message to Congress vetoing the “sweeping and punitive sanctions” Congress was seeking to impose.

Reagan equated the sanctions to “declaring economic warfare on the people of South Africa.”

His Treasury Secretary James Baker said Sunday that Reagan likely regretted this veto. But having worked with the president on his veto message and address on South Africa, I never heard a word of regret.

Nor should there have been any.

For in declaring, “we must stay and build not cut and run” from South Africa, Reagan, whose first duty was the defense of his nation in the Cold War with the Soviet empire, saw not only the moral issue but the strategic imperative.

In 1986, there were 40,000 Cuban troops in Angola, where South Africa was a fighting ally and backer of anti-Communist Jonas Savimbi.

In Zimbabwe, Robert “Comrade Bob” Mugabe, having butchered thousands of Ndebele of rival Joshua Nkomo, was communizing his country. Southwest Africa and Mozambique hung in the balance.

Reagan was determined to block Moscow’s drive to the Cape of Good Hope. And in that struggle State President P. W. Botha was an ally.

Second, as Reagan declared, the sanctions ban on sugar imports would imperil 23,000 black farmers, and cutting off Western purchases of natural resources would imperil the jobs of 500,000 black miners.

“The Prime Minister of Great Britain has denounced punitive sanctions as immoral and utterly repugnant,” said Reagan in July of 1986, “Mrs. Thatcher is right.”

“Are we truly helping the black people of South Africa—the lifelong victims of apartheid,” said Reagan in his veto, “when we throw them out of work and leave them and their families jobless and hungry in those segregated townships? Or are we simply assuming a moral posture at the expense of the people in whose name we presume to act?”

Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi had come to see Reagan to implore him to block sanctions, as they would harm his people.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/what-reagan-got-right-about-south-african-sanctions/
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And no mention of Bummer reducing sanctions on Iran!

The American Dream · Mar 6, 2015

Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan

OldRegular · Mar 6, 2015

Crabtownboy said: ↑

Reagan ignored AIDS refusing to fund medical research or help for those who had it.
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Same hoof in mouth disease Crabbie!

Ronald Reagan and AIDS: Correcting the Record
By Carl M. Cannon - June 1, 2014

For the record, Reagan first mentioned AIDS, in response to a question at a press conference, on Sept. 17, 1985. On Feb. 5, 1986, he made a surprise visit to the Department of Health and Human Services where he said, “One of our highest public health priorities is going to be continuing to find a cure for AIDS.” He also announced that he’d tasked Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to prepare a major report on the disease. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, Reagan dragged Koop into AIDS policy, not the other way around.

As for Waxman’s recollections about AIDS funding, he does an unusual thing for a politician: He’s forgotten the success he and other Democrats had in convincing Reagan to spend more money. The administration increased AIDS funding requests from $8 million in 1982 to $26.5 million in 1983, which Congress bumped to $44 million, a number that doubled every year thereafter during Reagan’s presidency.

Finally, the claim that Reagan spoke about AIDS sufferers with “disdain” is simply a smear. Nothing like that ever happened, except maybe in the fictional “The Reagans” miniseries in which Barbra Streisand’s husband played Reagan as a bigot and rube.

In real life—that is to say in 1983, early in the AIDS crisis—HHS Secretary Margaret Heckler (accompanied by New York City Mayor Ed Koch, another Larry Kramer target), went to the hospital bedside of a 40-year-old AIDS patient named Peter Justice. Heckler, a devout Catholic, held the dying man’s hand, both out of compassion and to allay fears about how the disease was spread.

“We ought to be comforting the sick,” said Ronald Reagan’s top-ranking health official, “rather than afflicting them and making them a class of outcasts.”

“I’m delighted she’s here,” Justice said. “I’m delighted she cares.”

Carl M. Cannon is the Washington Bureau Chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ar...rrecting_the_record_122806.html#ixzz3TeY9e538
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Aids in this country was caused primarily by the lifestyle of sexual perverts. Actually the emphasis should be on Alzheimers research and similar diseases such as Lewy Body dementia.

However, I would note the efforts of George W Bush in combating AIDs in Africa where it apparently originated. All Obummer has done for Africa is let the radical Muslims move in!

The American Dream · Mar 6, 2015

OldRegular said: ↑

Same hoof in mouth disease Crabbie!

Aids in this country was caused primarily by the lifestyle of sexual perverts. Actually the emphasis should be on Alzheimers research and similar diseases such as Lewy Body dementia.

However, I would note the efforts of George W Bush in combating AIDs in Africa where it apparently originated. All Obummer has done for Africa is let the radical Muslims move in!
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And all this time I thought your favorite was LBJ.

OldRegular · Mar 6, 2015

The American Dream said: ↑

And all this time I thought your favorite was LBJ.
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Not every person is able to make the tough decisions required to be president. The only thing that I know of in LBJ's favor is he had sense enough to know that he was not man enough to be president and did not run for a second term.

OldRegular · Mar 6, 2015

Crabtownboy said: ↑

Reagan kicked the mentally ill out of hospitals and increased homelessness. Did not see people sleeping in parks and under bridges prior to Reagan.
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Where were the homeless sleeping during the 8-9 year Franklin Delano Roosevelt Depression? Roosevelt policies extended the Hoover Depression 8 years until he got us involved in WWII and instituted the draft. O'Bummer just extends the Bush recession and gives us Obummercare!

Crabby you routinely make the most asinine statements of anyone on this BB. Does that require special training, is it caused by a viral or bacterial infection and is it contagious, or is it sadly a genetic disorder?

Crabby one reason I know Reagan is the Greatest President of the 20th Century is all the nut cakes on the WWW sliming him! If he were not the greatest they would not go to the trouble.

church mouse guy · Mar 6, 2015

Crabtownboy said: ↑

...Reagan kicked the mentally ill out of hospitals and increased homelessness. Did not see people sleeping in parks and under bridges prior to Reagan....
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That's a total lie. Kennedy started the closing down of mental hospitals. In this state, it was Democrat Evan Bayh, uber liberar, who shut down the mental hospital for Indianapolis. As for the garbage about homelessness, that, too, is a lie. Probably FDR had more homelessness than any other President but homelessness is as old as the human race. You would think that the Democrats would put a tax on people who don't have a home the way they put a tax on people who did not have health insurance....

The American Dream · Mar 7, 2015

OldRegular said: ↑

Not every person is able to make the tough decisions required to be president. The only thing that I know of in LBJ's favor is he had sense enough to know that he was not man enough to be president and did not run for a second term.
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In that respect he did have some sense. Next to the one in office now, I think he is the worst President of the last 100 years.

Earth Wind and Fire · Mar 7, 2015

The American Dream said: ↑

In that respect he did have some sense. Next to the one in office now, I think he is the worst President of the last 100 years.
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A total train wreck...of his own making.

OldRegular · Mar 9, 2015

Reagan was not afraid to call the Soviet Union "The Evil Empire". That gave a lot of Communist loving democrats in the country heartburn but Reagan persists and the Soviet Union fell.

When Reagan proposed his Strategic Defense Initiative the lefties called it Star Wars. Well Reagan was correct again; Star Wars works and could be expanded were it not for Obummer!

Salty · Mar 9, 2015

OldRegular said: ↑

Not every person is able to make the tough decisions required to be president. The only thing that I know of in LBJ's favor is he had sense enough to know that he was not man enough to be president and did not run for a second term.
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LBJ did not run because he knew he would loose and politicians hate to be loosers

OldRegular · Mar 10, 2015

Salty said: ↑

LBJ did not run because he knew he would loose and politicians hate to be loosers
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You may be correct.

However i really believe after being president for awhile LBJ found out he did not have what it took to make tough decisions in war. Also he was a congenital liar. This apparently helped him while in the Senate but was a liability in the White House. Apparently he was not sharp enough to keep track of his lies!

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