Who remembers "If there's to be a bloodbath, let it be now?"

[genius]

This was Reagan's reaction to a question about Kent State, where the National Guard shot four unarmed students.

[NMDemDist2]

1. man i never heard that one, you got a link?

'course I was in shock about Kent State and may have missed it.

[genius]

3. I remember it . We were hoping it would sink him in 1970. I'm from CA

He said it when he spoke to the Bakersfield School Board in 1970. It was in response to a question about Kent State.

[liberalhistorian]

2. No, actually he said that a couple

of years BEFORE Kent State in response to a question as to what he was going to do to "control" students. Believe me, I'm a KSU graduate, a former member of the May 4 Task Force, and I know many of the wounded students and the victims' families, so I know what I'm talking about!

I just inserted that quote as my new sig line a couple of hours ago, btw, because it shows who the man really was, a monster from hell who had no conception at all of the true meaning of the constitution and the Bill of Rights.

[genius]

5. You're wrong. I remember it. I'm from California.

The question was, "What would you do if Kent State happened here?" I was helping the Dem Party as a kid volunteer in 1970. We were absolutely shocked when Reagan said it to the Bakersfield School Board and we hoped that it would hurt his re-election chances. He may have made other similar comments previously but the one I quoted was the comment he made in 1970. We tried our best to use it against him when we spoke to others. But Jess Unruh (the Dmocratic Candidate for Governor) did not have money for other than 30 second ads that showed very little.

[liberalhistorian]

7. By damn, you're right!

He said something similar, I believe, a couple of years before that so maybe that's what I was thinking of. Can you just imagine if a DEM had said that?

[buycitgo]

4. it's in here somewhere

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/presidents/ronald-reagan/

have fun going through the article; pretty amusing

Everybody knew he was a dumbass. Ronald Reagan was famous for not understanding how government works and not particularly caring about it. His job was to read speeches off the Teleprompter, shake hands with foreign dignitaries, pose for pictures, and maybe go out and visit a flag factory or a steel mill every once in a while. Otherwise he was busy sleeping in, eating jellybeans, and watching television.

Even so, Reagan got deferential treatment from the press, so the news coverage almost always cast him in the best possible light. He was extremely comfortable in front of the cameras, as you would expect -- after all, he had been a movie star prior to becoming a politician. And he could be disarmingly affable. He often shared jokes and anecdotes and brilliantly-scripted one-liners that sounded spontaneous. But none of that explains why the journalists decided to take it easy on him.

[genius]

6. The one there was a simlar comment but not the same one.

Apparently that was his general reaction to questions about student protests. The Bakersfield quote ended with "let it be now."

[buycitgo]

8. oh.......sorry.......I just googled the quote, and the rotten site came up

ADHD

never read the whole thing.....too long

[buycitgo]

9. how/s this?

the quote you see most ends with "let's get it over with"

close enough?

http://www.legendarysurfers.com/sr/2004_04_01_archive.html

The ashes of the bank were still smoldering the next day as Governor Ronald Reagan arrived in town to vilify the bank burners as "cowardly little bums" and call in the National Guard. The Bank of America took out nationwide full-page advertisements offering a $25,000 reward for the arrest of the arsonists, vowing to rebuild the bank. Reagan¹s call for a campus crackdown seemed to be heeded shortly afterwards, when Chancellor Vernon Cheadle banned Chicago Seven defendant Jerry Rubin from speaking on campus, saying it would "seriously threaten the welfare of the University."

Unappeased, Reagan made a speech to a Growers Convention on April 7, in which he made the following infamous statement about campus disorders: "If it¹s to be a bloodbath, let it be now."