Was Reagan a great President?

[MasterJedi]

And now we know why people so young shouldn't be on these sites!

[Хahar 🤔]

And now we know why people so young shouldn't be on these sites!

The fact that I don't remember Reagan? Secondhand memory can be more useful than firsthand memory.

[MasterJedi]

And now we know why people so young shouldn't be on these sites!

The fact that I don't remember Reagan? Secondhand memory can be more useful than firsthand memory.

No, that you think he's a terrorist. Because if you use your definition of "2" on there FDR is a terrorist because he scared the Germans.

[Хahar 🤔]

And now we know why people so young shouldn't be on these sites!

The fact that I don't remember Reagan? Secondhand memory can be more useful than firsthand memory.

No, that you think he's a terrorist. Because if you use your definition of "2" on there FDR is a terrorist because he scared the Germans.

You're expecting me to defend a hyperbolic quote made by Jesus two years ago? That's farcical.

[Joe Republic]

You're expecting me to defend a hyperbolic quote made by Jesus two years ago? That's farcical.

By quoting Jesus without any additions or alterations of your own, we were led to believe that you agreed with the post exactly as it was.  Therefore, by adopting his "hyperbolic" view as your own, you should be expected to defend it.

You've already attempted to do so by suggesting ways that Ronald Reagan was a terrorist, but now you're suddenly backing away from it?

[Хahar 🤔]

You're expecting me to defend a hyperbolic quote made by Jesus two years ago? That's farcical.

By quoting Jesus without any additions or alterations of your own, we were led to believe that you agreed with the post exactly as it was.  Therefore, by adopting his "hyperbolic" view as your own, you should be expected to defend it.

You've already attempted to do so by suggesting ways that Ronald Reagan was a terrorist, but now you're suddenly backing away from it?

It was hyperbolic. I was defending it in a tngue-in-cheek manner.

That does not change the fact that Ronald Reagan was an HP.

[Iosif is a COTHO]

Yeah, he was a nice guy apart from being a compulsive liar, half-senile for most of his time in office and an intellectual dullard.

But still, he could tell a killer borrowed one-liner.

[JSojourner]

For what the opinion of a very liberal Democrat is worth...

I believe Ronald Reagan was a great President.  For one reason --

Reagan recognized that a threat to the United States had to be dealt with in two ways.  True, he was in a very real sense, building on the past work of Roosevelt, Truman, Ike, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford and Carter.  But Reagan had the uncanny ability to understand the time in which he lived and the common sense to seize that moment for good.

Reagan knew that the Soviet beast could not be defeated with diplomacy alone.  So he got tough.  He talked tough.  He rattled sabers and he even employed a little science fiction in his gambit.  But Reagan also understood that tough had to be backed up with diplomacy.  So while he never backed down, he also talked to -- and listened to -- our enemies. I don't give a damn what Reagan's fans and biographers say of the man.  What have our enemies said of him?  Mikhail Gorbachev went into negotiation with Reagan determined to hate, distrust and thwart the man.  (And by his own admission, Reagan felt much the same way before meeting Gorbachev.)  But Gorby and Reagan came to like each other.  This was due, in no small part I am sure, to Reagan's charm.  It's the same charm that caused Tip O'Neil to say there were few people in politics he liked more than Reagan on a personal level.  (Even though they disagreed famously on a political level.)

I didn't really appreciate Ronald Reagan until we got stuck with The Decider.  Ronald Reagan knew there were weapons of mass destruction pointed at our cities.  Rather than invade and occupy the Soviet Union...rather than strike first (as more than a few hardcore John Birchers advocated)...Reagan rebuilt our military, spoke out against evil and then sat down to negotiate.

George Schulz wrote that during their last summit (was it in Reykjavik?), Reagan nearly wept when he realized he and Gorbachev had a chance to do more than reduce nuclear stockpiles.  Reagan wanted to eliminate them from the face of the earth.  He came close to doing so...closer than any President since.  And were Reagan alive and lucid today, I am certain he would be livid that The Decider has done nothing to seriously address the problem of loose nukes in the world...despite the pleas of Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn.

For all the awful things I believe Reagan allowed, ordered or presided over -- I will always love him for his velvet-fisted approach to our enemies.  Surely, I credit others also with helping end the Communist threat.  Gorbachev played no small part in it himself.  As did Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II and many others.

I certainly do believe Reagan was sincerely wrong on economic policy, particularly as it pertained to the poor and those in need of help from government.  I definitely feel he made foolish, ill-advised and even immoral decisions with regard to Central America and the support of Fascist dictators around the globe.  And I recognize that he sometimes got (and took) credit for things he had nothing to do with...such as the release of U.S. hostages from Iran.

But as I look at my other Presidential heroes -- Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Teddy Roosevelt, etc...I realize every one of them did things I would have hated or disagreed with strongly.  But if they did something great, something truly lasting for the betterment of humankind, I consider them "great".

Hence, I regard Ronald Reagan as a great President.  And like FDR, I can't help but consider him a dear old friend.  I long to meet both of them some day.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Ronald Reagan was a nice man, but he was a terrible President.

[NDN]

Hell no, he contributed to nearly all our current problems.

[Eraserhead]

No, he was a very evil and horrible person.

He was also a terrorist and liar.

Tend to agree.

[© tweed]

I actually voted 'yes' in this poll more than two years ago. 

[Robespierre's Jaw]

I actually voted 'yes' in this poll more than two years ago. 

How could you Tweed? Here I was thinking you were a supporter of communism and whatnow.

[Storebought]

He was the right man for the time. The United States by 1981 had become a deeply sorry shell of itself, economically, diplomatically, and even in morale.

Not that Reagan was a god (dear god, those budget deficits), he did implement enough fundamental change through his course of deregulation and engagement, instead of the defeatist Nixon-Carter "detente," with the Soviet Union to keep the US going at home and abroad for at least another two or three decades, when another president like him will be necessary.

[lxguy]

I think he was one of the greatest presidents in America history.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Long answer - yes with an if - Short answer No, with a but.