Bill Clinton statement on Ronald Reagan

[bluestateguy]

``Hillary and I will always remember President Ronald Reagan for the way he personified the indomitable optimism of the American people, and for keeping America at the forefront of the fight for freedom for people everywhere. It is fitting that a piece of the Berlin Wall adorns the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington.''

http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=30756

[lancdem]

1. I like it

Very thoughtful.

[DarkPhenyx]

2. At least Bill is showing some class.

Wouldn't have expected any less from him though. Prehaps we could all take an example from our leaders. Not holding my breath though.

[Ironpost]

26. between you me and the gatepost

I always felt he to be a man of class. The way he handled all of the investigations of his family and all. I love the Big Dog. The best years of my 56 was during his administration and it wasn't handouts it was opportunities. thank you Bill Clinton, I wish you (Bill Clinton) would get a little more involved in our plight. We need you

[Tellurian]

3. Perfect not too wordy...

allowing Kerry's voice to be heard.

[Curious Dave]

4. Saying something nice

about Reagan. Bill better be careful before someone tells the mods he is a freeper!

and isn't that a sad thought... Imagine this conversation:

Moderator: What makes you think Bill Clinton is a freeper?

AngryDUer: Ummm Ummmm because he tried to put politics aside for a minute and respond to this event like a decent, caring, and compassionate human being.

sad

[LittleApple81]

5. Well, I am taken a little aback by the bile being poured about RR's death

today, albeit justified. But homilies that, per force, don't mention the REAL person but the IDEALIZED person are also sickening. Clinton's was moderate but still "freedom fighter" is not what Reagan's name invokes in my mind.
I don't know how many of you have heard of the book "Charlie Wilson's War" written by George Crile (it came out last year). This is a critique by Publishers Weekly but summarizes the book to some extent:

snip... No thriller writer would dare invent Wilson, a six-feet-four-inch Texas congressman, liberal on social issues but rabidly anti-Communist, a boozer, engaged in serial affairs and wheeler-dealer of consummate skill. Only slightly less improbable is Gust Avrakotos, a blue-collar Greek immigrant who joined the CIA when it was an Ivy League preserve and fought his elitist colleagues almost as ruthlessly as he fought the Soviet Union in the Cold War's waning years. In conjunction with President Zia of Pakistan in the 1980s, Wilson and Arvakotos circumvented most of the barriers to arming the Afghan mujahideen--distance, money, law and internal CIA politics, to name afew. Their coups included getting Israeli-modified Chinese weapons smuggled into Afghanistan, with the Pakistanis turning a blind eye, and the cultivation of a genius-level weapons designer and strategist named Michael Vickers, a key architect of the guerrilla campaign that left the Soviet army stymied. The ultimate weapon in Afghanistan was the portable Stinger anti-aircraft missile, which eliminated the Soviet's Mi-24 helicopter gunships and began the train of events leading to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and its satellites. A triumph of ruthless ability over scruples, this story has dominated recent history in the form of blowback: many of the men armed by the CIA became the Taliban's murderous enforcers and Osama bin Laden's protectors. Yet superb writing from Crile, a 60 Minutes producer, will keep even the most vigorous critics of this Contra-like affair reading to the end.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0871138549/ref=sib_rdr_dp/102-8297061-1857741?%5Fencoding=UTF8&no=283155&me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&st=books

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[curse10]

11. LoL- don't feed the trolls!

:-)

[Curious Dave]

10. Welcome to DU

and here is a big kiss for you :*

[Renew Deal]

12. I guess you were saving that account for Election night.

Oh well

[Blue_State_Elitist]

13. Clink Clink Clink

The sound a chisel faintly drones in the background.

[Cleita]

15. The Soviet Union wasn't as big an enemy after Stalin's death

as you have been taught. We wasted so much of taxpayer's money trying to beat them at the arms race, that it was ridiculous. Reagan had no more money for his SID's than the SU. They were posturing at each other. Reagan won because he was an actor and nothing else. No great American here in my book. Oops I wasn't going to say anything bad until after the funeral, but I guess the :evilfrown: made me do it.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

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[LTR]

18. See ya!

Registered: November 6, 2003

Took you seven months to come up with THAT??? :wtf:

[Renew Deal]

19. I think he was saving it for election night.

Oh well

[SOteric]

21. You shouldn't make fun of the slow.

;-)

[LittleApple81]

23. What I wonder is why my message inspired his/her vitriolic response.

What I said was REALLY MEASURED and with arguments that proved that what we have in Afghanistan now was caused during Reagan's regime. Do you know why that would provoke him/her that way?

[LTR]

25. Nobody knows what provokes these types of people

Probably meant to just throw up a drive-by troll post in any old place.

That's what they do.

[Renew Deal]

7. That's a nice statement.

:toast:

[Zomby Woof]

8. ever the diplomat

I love Bill Clinton, but he doesn't have the luxury some of us do of being anonymous citizens who have nothing to lose by telling the truth.

Clinton was expected to say something nice, and he delivered.

I am sure his own statement about the Berlin Wall made him secretly gag. It was the people of Germany who made that happen, not Reagan or his policies. Reagan was fighting off irrelevancy when he made his Berlin Wall speech. He deserves credit for the wall coming down as much as (rooster/credit/sunrise).

[curse10]

14. I love how the best thing both Clinton and Kerry said was that he was an

optimist. They are being very careful in their wording. Even we can't deny that he was an optimist and probably did love his country (although misguidedly so) (is misguidedly even a word?)

[Vickers]

16. Yes, much nicer than RR's words about Bill at the '92 RNC convention

Pretty much set the tone for RW comments about Bill for all time.

[LTR]

22. What did he say?

Must have been while I was still living in a cave.

[Vickers]

24. Oh, just a couple of snarky comments like...

"don't inhale the rhetorical smoke from the other side" and "he says he's the new Thomas Jefferson...I knew TJ, I was friends w/ TJ, you sir are no TJ" etc.

Musta chapped his lily-white hide to have to hand the keys over to him a few months later!

[LTR]

27. That's actually pretty funny

One thing about Reagan - he wasn't as sleazy a politician like the Bushes.

I thought the comment about Mondale's 'youth and inexperience' was hilarious. Even Mondale laughed.

[Vickers]

28. Mondale laughed because he HAD to

He would've looked like a toad otherwise (OK, more toad-like).

RR's comments are belittling...can you imagine JFK making comments like that?*












*In public.

:P

[buycitgo]

20. did he say anything like he said about Nixon....being judged on

the totality of his record?

that wouldn't be good PR for his book tour, would it?

[lostnfound]

29. kick