Reagan Eulogies by Bush Jr., Thatcher, and Cheney --->

[Stephanie]

President Bush's Eulogy at Funeral Service for President Reagan
Remarks by the President in Eulogy at National Funeral Service for Former President Ronald Wilson Reagan
The National Cathedral
Washington, D.C.

12:09 P.M. EDT

<excerpt>

There came a point in Ronald Reagan's film career when people started seeing a future beyond the movies. The actor, Robert Cummings, recalled one occasion. "I was sitting around the set with all these people and we were listening to Ronnie, quite absorbed. I said, 'Ron, have you ever considered someday becoming President?' He said, 'President of what?' 'President of the United States,' I said. And he said, 'What's the matter, don't you like my acting either?'" (Laughter.)

The clarity and intensity of Ronald Reagan's convictions led to speaking engagements around the country, and a new following he did not seek or expect. He often began his speeches by saying, "I'm going to talk about controversial things." And then he spoke of communist rulers as slavemasters, of a government in Washington that had far overstepped its proper limits, of a time for choosing that was drawing near. In the space of a few years, he took ideas and principles that were mainly found in journals and books, and turned them into a broad, hopeful movement ready to govern.

As soon as Ronald Reagan became California's governor, observers saw a star in the West -- tanned, well-tailored, in command, and on his way. In the 1960s, his friend, Bill Buckley, wrote, "Reagan is indisputably a part of America, and he may become a part of American history."

Ronald Reagan's moment arrived in 1980. He came out ahead of some very good men, including one from Plains, and one from Houston. What followed was one of the decisive decades of the century, as the convictions that shaped the President began to shape the times.

He came to office with great hopes for America, and more than hopes -- like the President he had revered and once saw in person, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan matched an optimistic temperament with bold, persistent action. President Reagan was optimistic about the great promise of economic reform, and he acted to restore the reward and spirit of enterprise. He was optimistic that a strong America could advance the peace, and he acted to build the strength that mission required. He was optimistic that liberty would thrive wherever it was planted, and he acted to defend liberty wherever it was threatened.

And Ronald Reagan believed in the power of truth in the conduct of world affairs. When he saw evil camped across the horizon, he called that evil by its name. There were no doubters in the prisons and gulags, where dissidents spread the news, tapping to each other in code what the American President had dared to say. There were no doubters in the shipyards and churches and secret labor meetings, where brave men and women began to hear the creaking and rumbling of a collapsing empire. And there were no doubters among those who swung hammers at the hated wall as the first and hardest blow had been struck by President Ronald Reagan.

The ideology he opposed throughout his political life insisted that history was moved by impersonal ties and unalterable fates. Ronald Reagan believed instead in the courage and triumph of free men. And we believe it, all the more, because we saw that courage in him.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/06/20040611-2.html

Text Of Thatcher's Reagan Eulogy
WASHINGTON, June 11, 2004

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/11/national/main622617.shtml

<excerpt>

When his allies came under Soviet or domestic pressure, they could look confidently to Washington for firm leadership.

And when his enemies tested American resolve, they soon discovered that his resolve was firm and unyielding.

Yet his ideas, though clear, were never simplistic. He saw the many sides of truth.

Yes, he warned that the Soviet Union had an insatiable drive for military power and territorial expansion; but he also sensed it was being eaten away by systemic failures impossible to reform.

Yes, he did not shrink from denouncing Moscow's `evil empire'. But he realized that a man of goodwill might nonetheless emerge from within its dark corridors.

So the President resisted Soviet expansion and pressed down on Soviet weakness at every point until the day came when communism began to collapse beneath the combined weight of these pressures and its own failures. And when a man of goodwill did emerge from the ruins, President Reagan stepped forward to shake his hand and to offer sincere cooperation.

Nothing was more typical of Ronald Reagan than that large-hearted magnanimity — and nothing was more American.

Therein lies perhaps the final explanation of his achievements. Ronald Reagan carried the American people with him in his great endeavors because there was perfect sympathy between them. He and they loved America and what it stands for — freedom and opportunity for ordinary people.

As an actor in Hollywood's golden age, he helped to make the American dream live for millions all over the globe. His own life was a fulfilment of that dream. He never succumbed to the embarrassment some people feel about an honest expression of love of country.

He was able to say `God Bless America' with equal fervor in public and in private. And so he was able to call confidently upon his fellow-countrymen to make sacrifices for America — and to make sacrifices for those who looked to America for hope and rescue.

With the lever of American patriotism, he lifted up the world. And so today the world — in Prague, in Budapest, in Warsaw, in Sofia, in Bucharest, in Kiev and in Moscow itself — the world mourns the passing of the Great Liberator and echoes his prayer "God Bless America".

Cheney: Reagan was an idealist
Wednesday, June 9, 2004 Posted: 9:15 PM EDT (0115 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After former President Ronald Reagan's funeral cortege arrived at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday evening, Vice President Dick Cheney, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the president pro tempore of the Senate spoke briefly.

The following are remarks by the vice president:

<excerpt>

Seen now at a distance, his strengths as a man and as a leader are only more impressive. It's the nature of the city of Washington that men and women arrive, leave their mark and go their way. Some figures who seemed quite large and important in their day are sometimes forgotten or remembered with ambivalence.

Yet nearly a generation after the often impatient debates of the Reagan years what lingers from that time is almost all good. And this is because of the calm and kind man who stood at the center of events.

We think back with appreciation for the decency of our 40th president and respect for all that he achieved. After so much turmoil in the '60s and '70s, our nation had begun to lose confidence. And some were heard to say that the presidency might even be too big for one man. That phrase did not survive the 1980s.

For decades, American had waged a Cold War and few believed it could possibly end in our own lifetimes. The president was one of those few. And it was the vision and the will of Ronald Reagan that gave hope to the oppressed, shamed the oppressors and ended an evil empire.

More than any other influence, the Cold War was ended by the perseverance and courage of one man who answered falsehood with truth and overcame evil with good.

Ronald Reagan was more than a historic figure. He was a providential man who came along just when our nation and the world most needed him.

And believing as he did that there is a plan at work in each life, he accepted not only the great duties that came to him, but also the great trials that came near the end.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/09/cheney.text/

[JuniperLea]

1. Great job, Stephanie!

I've been linking your recent eulogy threads all over DU today!

Hit them back with their own words, then call them crybabies, then tell them how unattractive their hypocrisy is. Not to mention how ugly their mock rage is.

Keep it up!

[LiberalinNC]

2. Ah yes, but they were talking about the Almighty "Reagan" and

yesterday they were only talking about a woman who dedicated her life to justices for all. :sarcasm:

[JHB]

3. Right! Thanks for posting that!

The wingnuts always talk about Reagan's inauguration as if it saved American civilization. As if Carter had been in Moscow signing our capitulation when St. Ron swung in like Robin Hood (Errol Flynn version), snatched the pen from him, humiliatingly poked Jimmy and Leonid in the butts with his sword, and rode off into the sunset as the natives cheered.

That's not political? Well, maybe not -- maybe psychotic is a better word, but that's the movie that plays in their heads.

[davidinalameda]

4. the RW criticism is disrespectful to Mrs. King and her memory

She was an activist in her own right no matter who her husband was

if she had retired to the country and spent her life knitting or something, then maybe I could see a problem with the political speeches

but guess what--SHE DIDN'T!

she spent her life fighting for civil rights for everyone-she was a leader in the call for gay rights

these people need to get a clue about who Coretta Scott King was

[Old and In the Way]

5. Never has a President done so little and gotten so much praise.

Micheal Deaver should be credited with forwarding the Republican agenda, Ron was the window dressing.

I can only imagine how they'll try to spin Dimson's legacy....assuming he's not impeached, indicted, and sentenced.

[madrchsod]

7. my dad -who knew reagan in dixon- said that

after reagan was shot he could tell reagan going downhill. by the 5th year reagan was sleeping thru out most the day and retired early at night. nancy watched him like a mother hen to keep him from being hurt by the same guys who are running this government now. yes- never has someone gotten so much credit when he was incapable of doing anything... reagan did not remember anything because he was never told.

[Stephanie]

10. wow

I never thought of that - of course Bush Sr. would have wanted Reagan out of the way.

[AX10]

6. More hypocracy from the GOP.

GOP "LOGIC": So the only funeral that can be "politicized" are those of Republicans. Democrats should just shut up and play nice.

[Stephanie]

9. They hate us for our freedoms.

[zbdent]

8. K&R, baby

K&R!!!