Just watched Ron Reagan's speech....WOW!!! He's a Dem!

[lottie244]

He screwed Bush royally without even mentioning his name.

[slutticus]

1. Unfortunately ...

...he's not a member of the party. He says he doesn't want a career in politics...which is a damn shame...

[Warpy]

2. Don't kid yourself

He's not a Dem. He might be a Goldwater Repuglican, but never a Dem. He is officially an independent.

Don't fool yourself into thinking people who are against Bush, even if they're voting for Kerry, are Democrats. Goldwater Repuglicans are probably the angriest group of all against Bush.

If the GOP ever runs anyone who isn't a Bush, a dimbulb taking orders from corporations, a spendthrift, you'll see them return to that party.

[Frances]

4. Ron is not a Goldwater Republican

Ron's beliefs are more those of Dems, but he does love his parents, and so he is an independent

[Kahuna]

22. Ron voted for Nader last time out.

nt

[candy]

3. He's a loser riding on the coattails of his father's funeral.

If his father hadn't died recently he sure as hell wouldn't have been a speaker at the DNC.

He should stuff it as far as I'm concerned.

[RetroLounge]

5. Candy Crowley, is that you?

tab bitter, table for one...

RL

[Toots]

32. Sure sounds like her doesn't it.

:shrug:

[Frances]

6. Did you hear his speech?

I just listened to it on CSPAN for the second time. It was a very reasoned, logical speech explaining the need for stem cell research. I take it that you don't have any family members who would benefit from this research.

[candy]

7. No,I did not hear his speech but read about it in the Boston Globe.

The speech and the subject matter aren't what I have a problem with,it's RR.

Where has he been all these years?

[liberalmuse]

10. I believe it was his father's illness and death...

that made him come out so publicly and strongly for stem cell research. This country is lagging further and further behind in research because of the religious right, who've hi-jacked the Republican Party in order to further their own self-centered agenda. We have someone in the White House who has no use for science at all, for that matter. It's a damn shame, and I commend Ron Reagan for having the guts to speak out on stem cell research. Someone has to.

[Eurobabe]

11. on the animal planet

he emcees many of the dog shows, and is a riot. He's a smart guy.

[Pachamama]

12. Living in Seattle w/ his wife, working w/ the Creative Coalition & some

media correspondent work with Animal Planet and MSNBC. He also is involved with projects for getting children in underprivileged poor areas to be able to be exposed to the arts.

http://www.thecreativecoalition.org/newsite/letter.html

And helping his Mom care for his father and being a son....

[Katarina]

16. Words fail me

some of the things I read just boggle my mind. (shaking head)

[Pachamama]

17. Hi Katarina! That's my daughters name.....are you German? Russian?

:hi: Love that name....

PS: Did you see my response to Post #3 telling my story of meeting Ron Reagan Jr......

Yeah, its amazing how people will come to conclusions, sadly shaped by the propaganda that the Bu$h campaign sends out in their blast faxes to the media to propagate about people....but they have to on Ron Reagan Jr. because they are afraid of what he is doing to their attempts to use his Dad's name falsely.

[Katarina]

20. Hi Pachamama

I'm 3/4 Cherokee Indian with a smattering of German and Irish. Quite the combination eh? :crazy:

My name is Maureen, nothing so elegant as Katarina. Just been using it as my screen name/gaming name for years.

I did see your response and was instantly jealous. I would love to be able to sit down and just talk to some of these people. I don't understand how anyone could ever accuse Ron Reagan of riding his fathers coat-tails. Far from it! It's a shame that people cannot see him for what he stands for/believes in but instead see his name and judge him by that.

[SemperEadem]

25. well, perhaps viewing the speech before trashing its delivery and message

would be helpful. Otherwise, you sound as if Reagan stood you up for a date.

[Pachamama]

8. Ron Reagan Jr. is NOT riding the coat tails of his father on anything

I met Ron Reagan Jr. years ago in Seattle where he lived in my neighborhood....I didn't know who he was, he would frequent the local coffee shop to get a tea or coffee. Since I saw him frequently and we would often be waiting together, we would smile at eachother and say hello...Eventually after many such "meetings" we would strike up a conversation about everything from the weather to interesting topics of discussion, usually around an art exhibit or something related to the Arts. He mentioned that he used to be a ballet dancer and we talked a lot about that and also his love of animals and the environment and I shared with him some of my stories of visits to the Amazon.

He introduced himself to me as Ron....never "Reagan"....This went on for well over a year plus and one day after talking with him, a friend saw me come over at the coffee shop having just talked to him and said "Wow, I didn't know you know Ron Reagan?"...Huh, I said....well, I met him twice while my Dad worked for him, but why do you ask? Well, what do you mean - you were just talking with him....

You see, Candy, I judge this man based on what I learned in getting to know him....he never once mentioned his father....he talked proudly of his family in generic terms and about his loves of family, the arts, animals and the environment. This is who Ron Reagan Jr. is...he isn't defined by his father. He loved his father immensely, as I am sure you do yours and he is his own person. I also give him credit knowing full well that it is his job to defend his father's legacy and not let it be hijacked by neo-cons who are the real ones trying to "ride his father's coat-tails"

[liberalmuse]

13. If anyone is riding his father's coattails...

it's Michael Reagan. You can't isten to his radio show without hearing him drop his father's name over and over.

[Pachamama]

15. True - but I thought your email was going to say Dubya riding Poppy's

coattails....

All the way out of a one-term White House! :kick:

[lottie244]

26. And the entire Republican Party ....

They are hanging on to those coattails for dear life.

[catzies]

38. That's a great story and confirms my idea of him. He's his own person.

I'm glad you had that experience; thanks for sharing it.

[Eurobabe]

9. wow, that's harsh

n/t

[slutticus]

14. WTF.???

Are you kidding me?

You need to read his Esquire article....and then tell me if "He's a loser riding on the coattails of his fathers funeral"

Please...read it.....

http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2004/040729_mfe_reagan_1.html

[candy]

28. I just read it,nice article,but would Esquire have published it before--

Reagan's death? I think not.

[slutticus]

30. I don't get it.

Why wouldn't they have published it? I can see them not publishing it if his name were not Reagan, but what does his father's death have to do with it?

[supernova]

19. Hahahahahah. The halmark of a good father

is raising kids who are comfortable disagreeing with you if that's what they turn out to do.

It seems for all his idiotic policies, RR got that one right.

[Eloriel]

27. Au contraire, Ms. Candy

Nancy Reagan came out publicly for stem cell research before Ronnie died, and Ron Jr. has been a political commentator on MSNBC as well, also prior to his father's death. Some pundits are saying that stem cell research is one of those rare wedge issues for Republicans. Nancy has also giventhe GOP a bit of a cold shoulder, and turned them down flat for their convention, which isn't to say she's a Dem (she's not), just that this administration can't rely on her to support their trying to profit off of the Reagan legacy.

IOW: there's considerable support for the idea that Ron Reagan could easily have been chosen to speak at the convention without including Reagan's death in the mix.

[Piperay]

31. Whoa

:wow: what's this all about, I don't get such animosity. :shrug:

[yardwork]

34. Jeez, tell us how you really feel

What did Ron Reagan ever do to you?

[SuffragetteSal]

18. With his words here...he says it all and has my respect

In a few months, we will face a choice. Yes, between two candidates and two parties, but more than that. We have a chance to take a giant stride forward for the good of all humanity. We can choose between the future and the past, between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and mere ideology. This is our moment, and we must not falter.

[coeur_de_lion]

21. The Case Against George W. Bush (by Ron Reagan)

http://www.esquire.com/cgi-bin/printtool/print.cgi?pages=5&filename=%2Ffeatures%2Farticles%2F2004%2F040729_mfe_reagan.html&x=55&y=12

<<snip>>
It may have been the guy in the hood teetering on the stool, electrodes clamped to his genitals. Or smirking Lynndie England and her leash. Maybe it was the smarmy memos tapped out by soft-fingered lawyers itching to justify such barbarism. The grudging, lunatic retreat of the neocons from their long-standing assertion that Saddam was in cahoots with Osama didn't hurt. Even the Enron audiotapes and their celebration of craven sociopathy likely played a part. As a result of all these displays and countless smaller ones, you could feel, a couple of months back, as summer spread across the country, the ground shifting beneath your feet. Not unlike that scene in The Day After Tomorrow, then in theaters, in which the giant ice shelf splits asunder, this was more a paradigm shift than anything strictly tectonic. No cataclysmic ice age, admittedly, yet something was in the air, and people were inhaling deeply. I began to get calls from friends whose parents had always voted Republican, "but not this time." There was the staid Zbigniew Brzezinski on the staid NewsHour with Jim Lehrer sneering at the "Orwellian language" flowing out of the Pentagon. Word spread through the usual channels that old hands from the days of Bush the Elder were quietly (but not too quietly) appalled by his son's misadventure in Iraq. Suddenly, everywhere you went, a surprising number of folks seemed to have had just about enough of what the Bush administration was dishing out. A fresh age appeared on the horizon, accompanied by the sound of scales falling from people's eyes. It felt something like a demonstration of that highest of American prerogatives and the most deeply cherished American freedom: dissent.

Oddly, even my father's funeral contributed. Throughout that long, stately, overtelevised week in early June, items would appear in the newspaper discussing the Republicans' eagerness to capitalize (subtly, tastefully) on the outpouring of affection for my father and turn it to Bush's advantage for the fall election. The familiar "Heir to Reagan" puffballs were reinflated and loosed over the proceedings like (subtle, tasteful) Mylar balloons. Predictably, this backfired. People were treated to a side-by-side comparison—Ronald W. Reagan versus George W. Bush—and it's no surprise who suffered for it. Misty-eyed with nostalgia, people set aside old political gripes for a few days and remembered what friend and foe always conceded to Ronald Reagan: He was damned impressive in the role of leader of the free world. A sign in the crowd, spotted during the slow roll to the Capitol rotunda, seemed to sum up the mood—a portrait of my father and the words NOW THERE WAS A PRESIDENT.

The comparison underscored something important. And the guy on the stool, Lynndie, and her grinning cohorts, they brought the word: The Bush administration can't be trusted. The parade of Bush officials before various commissions and committees—Paul Wolfowitz, who couldn't quite remember how many young Americans had been sacrificed on the altar of his ideology; John Ashcroft, lip quivering as, for a delicious, fleeting moment, it looked as if Senator Joe Biden might just come over the table at him—these were a continuing reminder. The Enron creeps, too—a reminder of how certain environments and particular habits of mind can erode common decency. People noticed. A tipping point had been reached. The issue of credibility was back on the table. The L-word was in circulation. Not the tired old bromide liberal. That's so 1988. No, this time something much more potent: liar.

Politicians will stretch the truth. They'll exaggerate their accomplishments, paper over their gaffes. Spin has long been the lingua franca of the political realm. But George W. Bush and his administration have taken "normal" mendacity to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience. On top of the usual massaging of public perception, they traffic in big lies, indulge in any number of symptomatic small lies, and, ultimately, have come to embody dishonesty itself. They are a lie. And people, finally, have started catching on.
<<snip>>

[Kahuna]

24. Whew! Ron laid it all out.

nt

[Pachamama]

29. The Great Communicator - It must be in the Genes....Well said Ronnie...

Great article...is that a current Esquire out now?

[coeur_de_lion]

36. It's the September issue of Esquire (?) maybe the online version

comes out before the print version, I don't know.

[bklyncowgirl]

35. That was an awesome article!

Ron Reagan, you are great.

Whether he'd agree with you or not--and I have a feeling that on at least some points he would--your old man must be proud of you.

[happynewyear]

23. he's a real thorn in *'s ass

and it doesn't seem Ron Reagan is going away anytime soon.

He's a real professional no doubt.

:loveya: Ron Reagan!! :thumbsup:

U.S. OUT OF IRAQ!

NO MORE BLOOD FOR OIL!

:dem: :kick:

[Disturbed]

33. Ron Reagan is not a Jr.

I really like him. He is a great writer, speaker and political pundit. He is intelligent and has a sharp wit. I don't hold it against him that he was Pres. Reagan's son. ;)

[Pachamama]

37. Yeah, I know its Ronald Prescott Reagan

...but we like to call him Jr....