Pre-Emptive Ronald Reagan Obituary

[eyesroll]

Pre-Emptive Reagan Obituary

Well, it looks like St. Ronnie will be heading to the ketchup farm in the sky soon. I'm not sure whether I'll be online when it happens, so I'll get this out of the way now. (Hey, it's what the "real news" sites do.)

Former President Ronald Wilson Reagan, to nobody's great shock except that it's June and not October, died/is going to die at the age of 93 due to complications from Alzheimer's Disease.

I "voted" for Reagan, in 1984, when I was 9 and that's what all the kids were doing. I even made a pretty sparkly poster to that effect (my grandmother vetoed the whole thing, and so began my long journey into Democrat-ness). My first vote that counted, for the record, was for the state animal, the white-tailed deer (it won), and for the state fish, the crappie (it lost, but what a name).

I also wrote Reagan a letter, we all did, and our class got a mechanically signed picture back. I'm sure the letter I wrote was about drugs, because that's what 9-year-olds wrote to the president in 1984. Oddly enough, the next letter I wrote to a president was about drugs -- actually, it was to the president's cat, and it was about legalizing marijuana, and was probably the beginning of my FBI file.

I was too young to have the visceral hatred of Reagan many liberals do, and I was too precocious to have the blind adoration Republicans seem to. I voted for him because that's what the cool kids were doing, not because I really knew or cared either way (see, young voters really are apathetic.) In adulthood, I've pretty much come to loathe everything Reagan stood for (although I'm glad Nancy is out there defying the current administration and speaking out about stem-cell research, even if it took her own tragedy to do so).

And, yes, it is tragic. Alzheimer's disease is an utterly crappy way to die, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone -- not Bush, not Osama, and not Reagan. I'm not going to sit here and gloat and say he got what he deserved -- he deserved to not be elected. Maybe he deserved criminal charges.

Still, there will be many tears in the coming weeks, and flags at half-staff (and, dammit, it is half-staff, unless you're on a boat), and former presidents gatherered in a picture-perfect row, and of course the errant DUer wondering what the hell Clinton is even doing there (it's what ex-presidents do, errant DUer), and the calls for naming not only streets and schools but towns and maybe the country for Ronnie.

At least Dubya won't be able to inspire his followers with a "win one for the Gipper" rallying cry, for barring some turnaround -- and, let's face it, the man's 93 -- it is too far from the election, and Nancy pretty much hates him. I wonder if she'll come out campaigning against him.

And I guess this puts "trotting out the cryogenically preserved body of Osama bin Laden" into the pole position for the October Surpise.

So, I raise my glass (of water -- it's 9 a.m.). To Ronnie. Your presidency was too long, your legacy too omnipresent (Ronald Reagan Airport? After you fired all of the controllers? Please). I hope you and Nancy find peace.

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(note to mods: It's from my site, and I own the copyright.)

[displacedtexan]

1. Reagan didn't play the Gipper. He delivered the line.

It's like the bar bet: Who shot liberty Valance? Most people think John Wayne played Liberty Valance. He didn't. He played the guy who shot Liberty Valance but gave Jimmy Stewart the credit.

[eyesroll]

2. I know -- it's a dig.

I do believe that is precisely the language * would have used, had Reagan died in October.