Patti Davis - Leave my father out of this

[Poiuyt]

In the Name of the Father…
The 2008 presidential candidates are obsessed with who's more like Ronald Reagan, who's a better hunter and who's more religious. Can't anyone be their own man (or woman)?

By Patti Davis | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 29, 2007

OPINION
Many years before my father was governor of California, when America began naming things after John F. Kennedy, I remember thinking how really weird it must have been for his children to have highways and airports named after their father. Now, all these years later, I can say from experience that it truly is a surreal experience. "A traffic accident on the Ronald Reagan freeway…" "Delays at Reagan National Airport…" Believe me, you never really get used to it.

But that's not nearly as strange as seeing the 2008 presidential candidates try to imitate my father and proclaim themselves more Reaganesque than their competitors. Where is Lloyd Bentsen when you need him? "I knew Ronald Reagan… Senator , you're no Ronald Reagan."

--

So, apparently, we are being told that a competent, trustworthy president is someone who brandishes his religion like a neon sign, loads a gun and goes out hunting for beautiful winged creatures, and tries to imitate a past president (who, by the way, never shot a bird or felt the need to imitate anybody.) Lest you think I'm only zeroing in on Republicans, I haven't forgotten John Kerry’s awkward donning of camouflage for a duck hunt.

--

Can't we just leave the ducks, the rabbits, the deer alone, and focus on a world that is aching with strife, that is weighed down by wars and conflicts, not to mention disease and hunger in vast stretches of Africa? Can't we go back to respecting the privacy of religious faith and stop using God as a campaign tool? And can't we please, please, please admit that imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery; it's just an indication that the imitator is going through a serious identity crisis.

more -

http://www.newsweek.com/id/82384

[stevedeshazer]

1. K & R

Her piece makes a lot of sense.

[kurth]

2. The Saint's daughter is offended by the blasphemous comparisons

[rodeodance]

3. ha-tell that to the repugs

[Faygo Kid]

4. Makes a lot of sense, and will make absolutely no difference.

The Republicans are idiots and dangerous, whether they invoke Reagan or God (as though there is a difference for some of them).

[SoCalDem]

8. They bought him, so they feel free to use him ..even in death

I agree with Patti though :)

I think that stuff should not be named after ANY politician until their papers and admisitration has been FULLY vetted (immediately after they leave office)..and nothing named after them before 25 years after their deaths..

[seemslikeadream]

5. Yea those guys could never cover-up something like

Iran Contra the way my father did



COVER-UP: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4755829652615170641&q=iran+contra+cover+up&total=60&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6363522851504883872&q=COVER-UP%3A+Behind+the+Iran-Contra+Affair%3A+Part+2&total=5&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8622796487067551025&q=COVER-UP%3A+Behind+the+Iran-Contra+Affair%3A+Part+3&total=8&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

[etherealtruth]

6. Though, I despised Reagan ...

... his daughter makes a lot of sense in this article.

[Gman]

13. Though I despised Reagan

his jokes were really funny.

[LeFleur1]

23. Except

Every time he acted he imitated someone. Especially 'the Gipper'.

[demnan]

7. You go girl

Althought you'd probably be voting for a Democrat anyway.

[Annces]

9. Doesn't she go back and forth

criticizing and defending her father. I felt bad for her at her father's funeral, when it seemed her mother was still holding a grudge against her by keeping her at arm's length and drawing the son close.

[Lex]

12. Doesn't most everyone?

"Doesn't she go back and forth criticizing and defending her father?"

[Annces]

16. I don't hear anything from

Carter's daughter or Clinton's daughter. She is very public.

[Lex]

21. Um, she is an author & actress.

= public

[KharmaTrain]

28. The Real Outcast Was Michael

I recall the funeral in Simi Valley...Nancy, Ron and Patti all hugged while Michael walked behind. There a lug trying to cash in on his adopted father and is the black sheep in that family.

Patti's standing up for her father and her family...and while I rarely supported anything her father said or did, I do respect her being the loyal daughter...seeing a side of the man few others did. It must be disturbing to Patti and Ron to see how perverted their father's "legacy" has become as the Repugnicans revise and rewrite it to suit their own purposes.

[patrice]

10. Say it! Patti!!

"Do they think we're stupid?"

YES!

[Whoa_Nelly]

11. K&R n/t

[cali]

14. my old elementary school pal

how the Reagans ended up with two liberals for kids isn't that much of a mystery to me. Aunty Katherine and Uncle John and the John Thomas Dye School wouldn't have had it any other way.

[Captain Hilts]

15. NO ONE's name should be on National Airport. At least she didn't have to carry dimes with her dad.

[drbtg1]

29. True, but especially not Reagan

After all, how can you name an airport after someone who fired all the air traffic controllers?

[Captain Hilts]

31. You'll LOVE this story...

Went to pick up a friend at National - known now as 'Reagan NAP' - and their plane was late. MY buddy, somehow, found a role of duck/t tape, got a rental car brochure and stepped over the luggage fence, etc. and taped the brochure over 'Reagan' on the sign. When we went back four days later, no one had removed it....

[blogslut]

17. Good for her

She always was an outspoken woman. Don't let the last name fool ya'll. Patty was never much for her father's politics or policies.

[Democrats_win]

18. Wrong. IF Republican's can't kill birds, how will they kill innocent people?

It should be in the Republican fascist handbook: Thou must kill little birds and bambi's purely for propaganda purposes before running for president.

Of course Reagan set a poor example. He was only a fake killer before becoming a real killer as president. President Reagan even had nuns killed!

[malaise]

30. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Truth in all its beauty and simplicity.

[poiuytsister]

19. I was never a fan or Reagan, but...

at least when he went to his ranch it had real horses on it, which he obviously wasn't afraid to ride. Secondly, having been raised on Disney movies I like that he didn't feel the need to prove anything by blasting the Hell out of small creatures.

Even Matthews on this morning made fun of everybody pandering to the NRA by going hunting.

[davidwparker]

20. I love how republicons have to skip both *'s when they wax nostalgic. The

last sane republicon was Eisenhower -- for an (R), that is ...

[madrchsod]

22. pattie`s a bit fed up

and i don`t blame her at all because for better or worse, that was her dad. she buried her differences with him as alzheimers ravaged his mind .

[bobbolink]

24. A daughter with a voice of reason!

Sometimes I think *SHE* should have been president!

:)

[msedano]

25. what the fook? who was that guy playing that drunk?

Is that Reagan himself an alcoholic baseball pitcher, someone imitating the actor?



why would Ronnie feel the need to "(who, by the way, never shot a bird or felt the need to imitate anybody.)" when he could order helicopters to gas protestors from the sky, so much more fun to watch them run than drop down dead. I suppose the daughter has a point, it is weird and wrong that any government structure bears his name.

Reminds me of an old joke, however,

Her: "Say, do you know why the federal building was named 'Ronald Reagan?'
Him: "No. Why?"
Her: "Because 'Shit' was already taken."

[SpiralHawk]

26. the K & the R

eom

[beachmom]

27. John Kerry is a hunter, has been so since a child, and continues

to hunt on the rare occasion he has the time (with his Swift Boat buddies) to this day.

The media invented the "awkwardness". The media is pathetic, and it is always interesting how bloggers on the Left, while decrying the "corporate media", embrace so many of their memes.

[karynnj]

35. Maybe her real anger at John Kerry was that he exposed Reagan's Contra

drug and gun running. Kerry was as instrumental as anyone in stopping Reagan's covert Central American wars. After this initial period of deification of her dad, there is likely to be a pendulum swing. When that happens there will be a more measured assessment of Reagan's years in office. Kerry's investigations show the seedier side.

As you said, John Kerry was and is a hunter - one of the few things I strongly dislike about him. In fact, it is highly likely he is a better more real hunter than Reagan ever was. I suspect that Reagan's hunting may be as bogus as when he spoke of having fought in the war - which he only did in the movies.

[politicasista]

41. Yes it is n/t

[rasputin1952]

32. While RR was nothing more than a papier mache jerk...

Patti is the real thing.

Reagan was an idiot, Patti is quite intelligent; Reagan was smoke and mirrors, Patti will tell it like she sees it.

The big question is...WHO, on God's green earth, would WANT to be like Reagan? He was stupid, lazy, and afflicted w/Alzheimer's while having his finger close to the nuclear button? He started the juggernaut that eventually gave us the moron that is in th WH now.

What possible benefit can one get from comparing themselves to a somewhat affable, but completley inept Chief Executive...

[Auntie Bush]

37. I always thought Reagan was dumb too... but after reading some of

the letters he wrote his wife...I have more respect for him. He couldn't be as dumb as he seemed and still be so successful in his life. Maybe lot's of it was just acting to make him appeal to ordinary people...like bush* tries to do. Also, maybe it was the beginning of Alzheimer's attacking his brain. My Mother had Alzheimer's and she started having memory problems and confused thinking loooong before anyone ever suspected Alzheimer's. I'll bet he had it his whole second term. Now for the first time...I wonder if he really didn't remember all that Iran Contra stuff.

[rasputin1952]

38. Thing about the letters, and I'm sure he read the one's that

were screened, (no one could possibly read all of the letters themselves and get anything else done) and "good". But the reality is that high officials have people that write responses, often to very personal situations.

Most of the letters I get back are essentially form letters that have some details about what I have written before, but after receiving so many of them from Reps, Sens and presidents...one gets a "feel" for such things.

I have to say that on two separate occasions, I received hand signed letters from Clinton, the other 16 were all done w/an auto-script device. I know that at least on two occasions, Clinton took the time to draft, sign and send responses.

FWIW...I don't think RR was "evil", I just think he was a dolt, long before Alzheimer's became apparent. I empathize w/anyone who has had to face that disease, I am not a cold-hearted knuckle-dragger. What I find frightening, is that his disease was ravaging his brain, and when coupled w/the incredible power he could wield, there is a lot to be said for stepping down for the good of the nation.

[Auntie Bush]

40. Very true, but the only thing is with Alzheimer's, is when you have it you don't know you have it!

So why would he have the sense to step down? It would have to be VERY obvious and other's would have to remove him from office. Scary isn't it? This could very well happen in the future and I don't know if we have laws to protect us.

[rasputin1952]

42. There are ways to have a president step down, and I know once

one is afflicted, they won't necessarily know they are afflicted, unless caught early, and the pt told they have the disease, (not sure if this was the case w/RR). In the interest of the nation, at least if it were me, I would step down.

In any case, and for whatever reason, he didn't, and actually we are not the worse off for it to an great extent...but we should learn, as a nation, that things do indeed happen that we should be prepared for.

In the case of Reagan, I can see where Nancy, and others, would not have wanted to "disturb" the future "legacy" of RR...but what could have happened might well have been disastrous. I would not take that chance.

Disease or not, I still believe that RR was a poor president at best, and completely inept at worst. He was lazy, he cared nothing of the nation as a whole, and for all of the grandiose visions people have of him, he let his cabinet and underlings run wild to the point of treason in some instances. How can a person who broke so many laws, like Oliver North did, come off as some kind of hero..or Admiral Poindexter get a clandestine appointment in National Security after he committed acts against the very Constitution he was sworn to protect and defend?

[Touchdown]

33. Yeah. Actors never "need to imitate anybody"

When they appear to have regained their senses, they still say dumb-ass shit like this to being them back down to size.:rofl:

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

34. Believe me Patti, I'd love to leave your old man out of this

Wish I'd never heard of him as anything more than a washed-up actor.

[HughBeaumont]

36. Reagan sure did suck, but . . .

. . . well, there is no "but". If it wasn't for George Failure Fuhrer Bewsh, he'd be high on the list for "Worst President Ever".

It's going to be hard to top King Cyclops Almighty, though. While searching through the annals of history trying to find someone that sucks worse; when it comes to George W, the answer is "None sucketh more".

:7

[Zorra]

39. Reagan was the traitor that sold the United States to international financiers.

Under Reagan, our national debt increased astronomically. We went from being the world's largest creditor nation to being the world's largest debtor nation during Reagan's "Reign of Error".

Reagan sold us into indentured servitude.

Reagan is only a hero to fascists and their pawns.