Reagan vs. Nixon

[ButterflyBlood]

We can all pretty much agree * is the worst Republican President in recent times, but who was the second worst? This is tough.

[jobycom]

1. I'm not sure W was worse than Reagan. Not in my mind, anyway.

Too tired to defend that, but Reagan was as bad as people can be.

[DAGDA56]

2. I simply ask myself who was most capable, and there's no contest...

...Nixon's the one. I sometimes feel Reagan was worse than Bush is now...but then I think of the Bush Body Count.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Poppy

Not only for the four years in his own name, but his eight years before as de facto ruler, after Reagan met his Bushy Knoll.

[Octafish]

4. Why do you have to complicamate things?

Well, here's one thing on which we can agree: They're ALL traitors.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. Octafish, this is for you:

Listen to the sample of the song "Two Boats in the Night" by Paranoid Larry, about JFK, Bush and "Operation Zapata".

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/paranoidlarry

Lots of other great tunes there, too. Tracks 10 and 11 make good music for MIHOPers.

[Octafish]

11. Thanks, Brother! Hey, d'ja know Tyler's on the way to New Orleans?

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out right away.

BTW: Saw this and I thought you wrote it:

The Politics of National Commissions

by William Hughes
(Saturday 17 April 2004)
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"The 9/11 Commission will hear little or no testimony about how our Arab-bashing foreign policy will invite yet more reprisals from Islamic militants and that it needs to be changed. Nor will it entertain listening to any alternate theories on how that horrific attack might have taken place. Nor will it acknowledge that every day America is viewed by more and more people on the planet as an imperial power - a bully, a global cop...”

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With respect to the 9/11 tragedy, it is clear that the Bush-Cheney Gang has failed the American people. It is also beyond dispute that President George W. Bush, Jr., was caught over doing his vacation trips to Crawford, Texas, and other retreats, where he has spent, incredibly, 40 percent of his time, since taking office (“Daily Kos,” 04/10/04). I suggest there is a connection between the two. As for his warmongering VP, Dick Cheney, I urge that every time he presides over the U.S. Senate, he be forced to wear a sign around his neck that reads: “Personal Property of Halliburton.”

Like other dubious commissions in the past, the 9/11 Commission’s objective will be damage control, and not the finding of the truth. After Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese's attacked Pearl Harbor, then President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, wasn’t about to blame himself. So, a scapegoat had to be found. Admiral Husband Kimmel, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, out in Hawaii, was targeted by more than one national investigating commission for that sacrificial role. He was sacked from his post only ten days after the massive assault. Since then, historians have firmly established that FDR did know about the Japanese attack plans, weeks before the assault actually took place (See, Robert B. Stinnett’s riveting “Days of Deceit”).

And, then there is that Mother of All National Commissions -The Warren Commission! After JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963, the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, appointed a blue ribbon panel to get to the bottom of that crime of the century. Well, we all know, it did no such thing. Insiders manipulated the Warren Commission into establishing that Lee Harvey Oswald was just a lone gunman, and that the man who killed him, the Dallas nightclub operator, Jack Ruby, was also just another lone nut case. They were wrong on both counts!

CONTINUED...

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/6319/

[dsc]

5. Nixon's domestic agenda actually wasn't that bad

He favored universal health care. He initiated the EIC. He appointed Blackman. Of course he was evil and corrupt but so was Reagan and Reagan had a crappy agenda.

[RafterMan]

7. Don't forget the EPA

Looking back over Nixon's domestic agenda, he looks like the last truly liberal president (!).

[bemildred]

6. Raygun did far more political damage.

Well, he was just a puppet, but it was on his watch.

[NoPasaran]

8. Nixon by a country mile!

Claimed he had a "secret plan" to end the war. Yeah, fighting it for another four years.

Along the way invaded Cambodia, dropped a gazillion tons of bombs on the place, lied, lied, lied about it.

Antiwar demonstrators FIRED ON AND KILLED WITH LIVE AMMUNITION. Nixon calls them "bums".

Impoundment of funds: Nixon refused to spend appropriated funds on programs not to his liking.

Democratically elected government of Chile overthrown, ushering in twenty years of bloody military dictatorship.

The whole slew of political sabotage, illegal financing and other crimes we call Watergate.

The Southern Strategy: turning the Republican party into the party of racism and white flight.

...Just a few off the top of my head.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

9. Reagan...easily. Nixon's "tragic flaw" was being a misanthrope.

Here's a little interesting excerpt from Salon (http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/12/20/kramer/index1.html) on the subject, in the context of a review of Gail Sheehy's Hillary Clinton book, "Hillary's Choice:"

"People are hard to know. Hillary might be Richard Nixon, hungry and self-defeating, but then again she might (surprisingly) have about her a bit of Ronald Reagan. Yes, she seems a fuller person than Reagan did. What I have in mind is Reagan's ability to elicit projection. Those who liked him ascribed feeling to Reagan -- sympathy, concern -- that was invisible to those who disliked him."

I've got to agree with that...I think Reagan's admirers have lavished praise on him for having qualities that they created in their own minds.

You all saw the reaction to the James Brolin Reagan movie...ranging from moral outrage to who gives a f**k. Nixon made some mistakes, his biggest one being a refusal to look in the mirror, but if I had to choose between him or Ronnie and Nancy and the astrologers the "Mommy" crap and all of his baggage and bulls**t, I'll go with Dick.