"I came to bury Caesar, not to praise him."

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by dissention

You're a cynic? You learn something new everyday!

No, I'm sure there are a few people who genuinely go there to pay respects, but I submit that most people are just there because it's an attraction of sorts. The behavior I saw on CSPAN would suggest it, too.

Did you listen to Sam and Janeane on Majority Report last night? "Your tv is lying to you." Pretty much sums it up. I'm willing to bet a lot of these people that are mourning him are being whipped up into a sympathetic frenzy by all of the emotional coverage they are seeing on television right now. Interestingly, Larry King had Ted Olsen, Bob Woodward and Dan Rather on eulogizing Reagan last night and while Olsen was almost in denial and Woodward didn't say very much, Rather didn't let the Reagan was a great president meme skate one bit. He stopped way short of praising him and I could tell that he was trying to be...respectful. I was shocked.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

Did you listen to Sam and Janeane on Majority Report last night? "Your tv is lying to you." Pretty much sums it up. I'm willing to bet a lot of these people that are mourning him are being whipped up into a sympathetic frenzy by all of the emotional coverage they are seeing on television right now. Interestingly, Larry King had Ted Olsen, Bob Woodward and Dan Rather on eulogizing Reagan last night and while Olsen was almost in denial and Woodward didn't say very much, Rather didn't let the Reagan was a great president meme skate one bit. He stopped way short of praising him and I could tell that he was trying to be...respectful. I was shocked.

No, I missed MR last night and I regret it because I hear it was a great show! Dammit. I missed Randi, too, and I'm sure she let the zingers fly left and right.

I did see Larry King, though,a nd was shocked with Rather. Even when he said good things about Reagan, he had this look on his face like "I'm lying through my teeth, can't ya tell?"

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by dissention

No, I missed MR last night and I regret it because I hear it was a great show! Dammit. I missed Randi, too, and I'm sure she let the zingers fly left and right.

I did see Larry King, though,a nd was shocked with Rather. Even when he said good things about Reagan, he had this look on his face like "I'm lying through my teeth, can't ya tell?"

I know! It blew my mind. Randi broke out the Oliver North story yesterday. It was great. For any Dead fans out there, Bob Weir is going to be on Al's show tomorrow.

[strandinthewind]

I think you guys missed the point of what they were all saying. They, like many of Americans, like RR even though they disagreed, some vehemently, with his policies. I know this might sound strange to you guys, but many people think that. I am one. I did not like alot of things about RR, but I thought he was a nice, personable guy. That is what they were saying. They did not really go into whether the three panelist agreed with his social and economic policies. I mean they did talk about the fall of the Soviet Union, but although it was on its way down anyway, RR clearly had an effect on it. That is what they were saying. They also said he was sincere, which the vast majority of Americans believe and still believe. They cited many instances where RR essentially said "the buck stops here" and I take responsibility, an act sorely missed in the last two regimes I might add. In the end and again, I did not like RR social policies, but I liked him as a person and his death is the end of an era.

Yet, like everything else, the far left cannot be bothered with anything but bashing the bad and refuse to admit that almost all of RR political adversaries shared this view. They instead want people to come on during this memorial and say RR was widely hated criminal cocksucking mother ****er who ruined the country and would screw and then disembowel his own mother to get ahead - And that is sad to me because how do they know what these people think of RR and its just not true according to the vast majority of people who are entitled to their opinion no matter how wrong I or anyone else thinks they are. Moreover, to say people are insincere in their mourning is just tacky period and you all know it.

But, people will be people and who am I to keep them down.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Yet, like everything else, the far left cannot be bothered with anything but bashing the bad and refuse to admit that almost all of RR political adversaries shared this view. They instead want people to come on during this memorial and say RR was widely hated criminal cocksucking mother ****er who ruined the country and would screw and then disembowel his own mother to get ahead - And that is sad to me because how do they know what these people think of RR and its just not true according to the vast majority of people who are entitled to their opinion no matter how wrong I or anyone else thinks they are. Moreover, to say people are insincere in their mourning is just tacky period and you all know it.

I don't share the view and I never did. I thought the good ole boy routine was BS to mask the obvious weaknesses of his presidency. He was an actor, after all. And a bad president, period.

And when aren't I tacky? Almost everyone thinks liberals are trash, so why not.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Yet, like everything else, the far left cannot be bothered with anything but bashing the bad and refuse to admit that almost all of RR political adversaries shared this view. They instead want people to come on during this memorial and say RR was widely hated criminal cocksucking mother ****er who ruined the country and would screw and then disembowel his own mother to get ahead - And that is sad to me because how do they know what these people think of RR and its just not true according to the vast majority of people who are entitled to their opinion no matter how wrong I or anyone else thinks they are. Moreover, to say people are insincere in their mourning is just tacky period and you all know it.

But, people will be people and who am I to keep them down.

I think you misunderstood my post. I fully expected Rather to praise Reagan and he didn't. I was surprised.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

RR was widely hated criminal cocksucking mother ****er who ruined the country and would screw and then disembowel his own mother to get ahead

If the shoe fits...

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by dissention

I don't share the view and I never did. I thought the good ole boy routine was BS to mask the obvious weaknesses of his presidency. He was an actor, after all. And a bad president, period.

And when aren't I tacky? Almost everyone thinks liberals are trash, so why not.

I agree with that. ALL I am saying is he was genuinely liked by many and almost all of his adversaries Do you concede that?

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

I think you misunderstood my post. I fully expected Rather to praise Reagan and he didn't. I was surprised.

I sort of thought he did. I mean he went on, if memory serves me correctly (I saw alot on this last night) , about how people genuinely like RR and how it was hard to hate him like the politicians today hate each other and make personal slams all of the time, etc. WE need a transcript

[dissention]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I agree with that. ALL I am saying is he was genuinely liked by many and almost all of his adversaries Do you concede that?

Yes, but what I'm saying is that Dan Rather looked like he didn't believe half of the crap he said. He looked annoyed and had a lookon his face like "Who cares? I don't."

[DeeGeMe]

Aaron Brown did a very thoughtful editoral on Sunday night on CNN about how they were going to try and present a balanced look at Reagan's presidency which included Iran-Contra, among other things. Keith Olbermann did a piece on his show last night (Countdown on MSNBC) about the scandals attached to Reagan's presidency (including the number of Reagan administration officials indicted) and why was it that only the good seemed to be remembered in the current press coverage. They had a presidential historian on who pointed out that when Nixon died the coverage was primarly positive but that it's pretty tough to rewrite history so in the end, he'd be remembered in a more accurate (and balanced) light.