Ronald Reagan

Statesmanship Requires Gambles To Avoid War: Obama In Company With Six Presidents!

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Barack Obama is not the first President to gamble to avoid the danger of war.

He is being criticized for the six month agreement with Iran, a nation which has been hostile to the United States for 34 years.

But Harry Truman worked to overcome hate and hostility from nations we fought in World War II–Germany and Japan.

Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted a “thaw” in the Cold War by inviting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to the United States in 1959.

John F. Kennedy promoted an alternative to war in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union in 1963,

Richard Nixon went to China to overcome a generation of mistrust and lack of communication in 1972.

Jimmy Carter arranged for Egypt and Israel to negotiate diplomatic recognition to overcome decades of mistrust and war in 1979.

Ronald Reagan negotiated missile agreements with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s, helping to end the Cold War.

Statesmanship requires gambles to avoid war and overcome mistrust.

Barack Obama is on the same road as were Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and Reagan.

This is good company to be in!

Narcissistic American Presidents

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The Pew Research Center has conducted a unique study of American Presidents, and the results are fascinating.

Presidents have been analyzed in a multitude of ways, but now there is a new one—how narcissistic they are, how much they love themselves and want attention drawn to them by the American people.

At the top of the list are Lyndon B. Johnson, followed by Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton as the top seven.

All seven are regarded as among the best Presidents we have had, and all are highly controversial because of their assertive manner of governing.

But also, a high level of personal insecurity is evident in all seven, including health issues and personal experiences that made them have the personalities they exhibited in the Presidency.

Only a total of 15 Presidents are seen as having more narcissism than the average person has, including modern Presidents such as Woodrow Wilson, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, as numbers 10, 11 and 15.

Presidents such as Harry Truman, George Washington, Jimmy Carter, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H. W. Bush, Thomas Jefferson, Gerald Ford, and Abraham Lincoln all rate below average on narcissism from numbers varying from 18 to 32 on the list.

The question is how valuable is such a list, but at least it is food for thought!

Disllusionment With Washington Opens Up Possibility Of State Governors Again Having Advantage For Presidential Race!

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Much of the time in American history, there has been disillusionment with the Washington DC establishment, and a desire to have an “outsider” being our President.

Only three Presidents of the past century were elected directly from the Senate—Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama—while a total of six Governors or former Governors were elected to the Presidency—Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush. Additionally, former Governors who were Vice President first, and succeeded during the term—Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge–were also elected to a full term.

So the present anger at Washington and everything it represents opens up new opportunities for sitting or former Governors in both parties, such as follows:

Democrats—Andrew Cuomo of New York, Martin O’Malley of Maryland, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts

Republicans-Chris Christie of New Jersey, Jeb Bush of Florida, Jon Huntsman of Utah, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Perry of Texas, Susana Martinez of New Mexico

Having said this, one still has to wonder if the Democratic Governors can overcome Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden or Mark Warner or Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar or Cory Booker.

And one has to wonder if the Republican Governors can overcome Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum and others.

Barack Obama Meets The “Second Term Syndrome”

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Barack Obama has hit a low point in public opinion in his first year of his second term, with the disastrous beginning of ObamaCare, the failure of the website to operate properly. He has also had great trouble getting anything else accomplished in domestic affairs, due to GOP opposition, and is also facing a multitude of troubles overseas.

His Presidency is under assault more than anyone could have imagined after his second election victory just a year ago.

It turns out that what could be called “Second Term Syndrome” has affected Obama, just as it did many of his predecessors who had a second term, including:

George W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Ronald Reagan
Richard Nixon
Harry Truman
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson

It makes one wonder if a one term Presidency would be better, but then the President would be, effectively, a “lame duck” the minute he is elected, instead of being such at the beginning of a second term, when everyone knows, since the passage of the 22nd Amendment in 1951, that the President is limited to two elections to the White House.

So there is no happy medium between a one term limit and a two term limit Presidency in reality!

Thomas Nast’s Republican Elephant And The Elephant In The Room Now!

Ronald 11 Comments

On this day in 1874, the famous political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, first portrayed Republicans as elephants, calling them the preferred party and the “smart” party.

The party he portrayed 139 years ago no longer exists, as it has become the party of stupidity, meanness, nastiness, racism, nativism, and misogyny! It is the party that hates immigrants, minorities, women, gays and lesbians, and the federal government. It is the party of preventing progress, preventing job creation, out to destroy effective government..

It offers such horrible candidates as Ted Cruz, Rand Paul,. Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, as potential Presidential candidates.

And it is the party that decides to trash New Jersey Governor Chris Christie because he is too “moderate”, and can win the Latino vote in his state, and keep a somewhat open mind on some other issues that all of them have closed minds about.

So we see all of them avoiding the celebration of the victory of Christie, as they only care about themselves, not the welfare of the American people, or any fellow Republicans!

The good thing is that all of these Tea Party types are self destructing, while Christie, with his many faults, flourishes.

One watches the GOP of 2013 in wonderment, and has to say–When, oh when, will they get the message that the American people are not willing to accept the nation of the Civil War Era, the nation of the Great Depression, the nation even of Ronald Reagan? The nation has moved beyond all that, and no narrow minded view prevalent in the South, Great Plains, and Mountain States will stop the advancement of America into the future!

IF Hillary Clinton Chooses Not To Run For President, Elizabeth Warren Goes To The Head Of The Class!

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2016 is clearly a year for a woman candidate to be taken seriously for the White House, and everyone figures that is Hillary Clinton.

But despite indications that she plans to run, as hinted at in campaigning for Virginia gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe , it is clear that the attacks on her would be brutal if she ran, particularly on the overinflated manner of Benghazi, Libya, the tragic loss of the ambassador and three others on September 11, 2012. The fact that Ronald Reagan presided over the loss of 252 Marines in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983, is simply overlooked, while the loss of four people is made out to be the crime of the century, while certainly it is a tragic manner.

It could be said that Hillary has problems with her long career, as any one with her experience would have, but it could be that she will, ultimately, decide that at the age of 69 in 2016, she would rather have a life as a lecturer and author, and a new grandmother by that time.

So IF she chose not to run, it would seem clear the Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has inspired many by her strong stands on consumer affairs and so many other matters, would then decide to run, and would excite the base.

And if not her, further behind are New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, both exceptional women, who might join the race.

It is clear that there will be a female candidate on the Democratic side of the Presidential race, even if Hillary Clinton ultimately bows out of the race for the White House!

The Destruction Of The Middle Class And The Working Poor By The Republican Party

Ronald 8 Comments

Republicans and conservatives do not want to admit it, but since the age of Ronald Reagan, they have effectively decimated the middle class, and heaped scorn on the poor.

This is reprehensible, particularly when they profess belief in God and call themselves “good Christians” as they work to slash food stamps for single mothers, children, the disabled and the working poor; oppose any rise in the minimum wage; support exporting of jobs to third world nations by greedy corporations; undermine respect for women and their basic human rights; and promote nativism and hate for ethnic minorities, as they try to survive in a nation rapidly becoming less white and Protestant by the day!

As it is, they are still able to convince struggling whites in the South and the hinterland to vote their fears, and blame all their troubles on the poor and the minorities, and progressive initiatives to help the working poor and the middle class.

But in the long run, this is a losing strategy, as now the GOP, allowing the KNOW NOTHING Tea Party Movement to have growing influence, are totally alienating the young, women, minorities, labor, gays, and educated people who care about their fellow man and woman.

So the Republican Party is rapidly becoming a dinosaur, and Ted Cruz and his buddies in the libertarian movement and the Tea Party crowd are destroying any hope of a future for the party of Lincoln, TR, and Eisenhower. They are rapidly becoming part of the dustbin of history!

The Worst Possible Scenario: A Republican House And Democratic Senate!

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History has taught us that the worst possible scenario in Congress is a Republican House of Representatives and Democratic Senate.

Since 2011, we have had this scenario, and it has been a total disaster as the GOP has made it impossible to deal with the aftermath of the Great Recession.

The last time we had such a scenario is a century and a half earlier in 1859-1861, when James Buchanan was President, and the GOP was a new party, and anarchy and chaos reigned in the nation’s capital.

When we have had a Democratic House and Republican Senate as under William Howard Taft (1911-1913), Herbert Hoover (1931-1933), and Ronald Reagan (1981-1987), all Republican Presidents, some progress and cooperation has been possible.

Notice that when Buchanan was in office, and Obama now, it was Democratic Presidents facing an impossible situation with a party dedicated to no cooperation at all on anything!

While the Republican Party of the 1850s was more to be admired for principles, the fact is that Republican control of the lower House has led to stalemate and gridlock.

One could argue that even if the GOP won the Senate, it would not change things much, as the requirement for a 60 vote majority to invoke cloture and overcome a filibuster makes the Senate always a problem in any situation, but the power of the purse in the House makes that chamber MORE important to control.

So for Obama’s last two years, control of the House, which brought about more productivity in 2009-2010 than any modern Congress, and was under Democratic control, is more urgent than control of the US Senate.

And when the opposition party has controlled both houses of Congress, as has occurred a lot in recent history, much more gets done than in a split Congress.

These are the facts of Congressional history, like it or not!

Imagine A President Like This!

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Imagine a President who governed in a time when the stock market doubled!

Imagine a President who used all of the tools of his office to overcome terrorism!

Imagine a President who adopted the Health Care plan of the Heritage Foundation, including endorsements by then Republican leaders Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole!

Imagine a President whose health care plan was to the right of the plans of President Richard Nixon!

One could say this must be a Republican President in the vein of Ronald Reagan, right?

But it is NOT Ronald Reagan we are talking about!

We are talking about Barack Obama!

Republican Suicide As Result of Government Shutdown And Debt Ceiling: Long Term Damage!

Ronald 3 Comments

The Republican Party has seen 144 members of the House of Representatives and 18 in the US Senate voting for default on the national debt!

The Republican Party has seen itself held accountable for an increase in government spending caused by the shutdown of the government, to the tune of $24 billion, instead of having 800,000 civil servants working for 16 days, but now getting back pay rightfully for their forced period out of work!

The Republican Party has shown it does not give a damn for the economic and emotional turmoil it caused millions of Americans by their reckless, selfish, delusional behavior!

The Republican Party has shown it has no limits in its determination to destroy this President, but it has failed miserably!

The Republican Party allowed itself to be hijacked by Ted Cruz and the Tea Party Movement, and it has lost all respectability and credibility to achieve control of the White House, the Senate, and at some point, the House of Representatives, as they have shown themselves to be no longer representative of a broad coalition needed to be taken seriously as a national party based on coalition and compromise!

Public opinion polls show the GOP in crisis mode, with the lowest ratings in recorded history for a major political party since polls began in the mid 1930s!

The only hope for a revival of the Republican Party is to:

Repudiate Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, James Inhofe, Marco Rubio and other Tea Party Senators.

Repudiate the Tea Party Movement in the House of Representatives.

Repudiate the talk show hosts on radio and Fox News Channel.

Repudiate the Heritage Foundation and other right wing think tanks, and come back to the moderate center which led to the elections of Eisenhower, Nixon, the Bushes, and yes, even Ronald Reagan, who would be mortified as to how right wing extremist the GOP has allowed itself to become.

But will the Republican Party take any or all of these actions? Do not hold your breath on this!