I may have further thoughts on the passing of the Great Communicator later today, particularly in the context of the somber anniversary in northwest France, but for now go check out these roundups of other blog commentary from Tim Blair and Laughing Wolf.
All posts by Rand Simberg
A Twofer
Senator Kerry is suspending his election campaign in respect for President Reagan’s passing.
I’m going to channel Mickey Kaus here, and note that this is a good deal for him. It lets him look classy, while minimizing his exposure to the American public for a few days, which should boost his poll ratings.
And in seriousness, his statement today was classy (surprisingly, to me). I didn’t expect him to say anything unclassy, but I thought he might avoid comment, or have minimal comment, so as not to upset his Bush (and Reagan) hating base.
History Trivia
By my count, we now have four living ex-Presidents–Ford, Carter, Bush I, and Clinton. Before President Reagan’s demise today, we had five, and I believe that’s the most that we’ve ever had. It seems unlikely that we’d have ever had more than that in our nation’s history, given the lengths of terms and the ages at which presidents normally become president, but does anyone know for sure?
Of course, if one wanted to be macabre, one could start a pool on who will be the next to go, and if it will occur before the current president joins their ranks (which of course depends a lot on what happens in November…).
Requiescat In Pacem
Ronald Reagan has died, a day before the sixtieth anniversary of the Normandy landing. It looks like Andrew Lloyd’s sources were right a few days ago. Given this weekend’s somber remembrances, it might be appropriate to replay his D-Day speech from twenty years ago (though that would put a lot of pressure on President Bush to deliver a real humdinger tomorrow if it’s not to be overshadowed).
I never voted for him (I voted Libertarian), but he was one of the great presidents of the twentieth century, and I’m glad he won both times (and was at the time, considering the alternatives). The Soviet Union may have collapsed eventually, but there’s zero doubt in my mind that he accelerated the process, and broke us out of the failed policy of containment. He was a man of great vision, and in that, we haven’t had a president since, including the present one, that was his match.
Of course, in my mind he’s been dead for years, and it’s sad that we give so much reverence to the body and too little to the mind. I don’t know if he was suffering toward the end, but this has to be a sorrow tinctured with relief for his long-suffering family.
Hail To Thee [Name Of College]
It’s probably a little late for this year, but Iowahawk has a general-purpose commencement address for anyone who’s gotten suckered into having to give one. It’s (as usual) a hoot.
That John, He’s Such A Card
Boy, now nobody can accuse Senator Kerry of not having a sense of humor.
My sides still hurt from the all the hijinks and hilarity.
Oh, and in case you didn’t get it, that was a joke.
Or was it (like Senator Kerry’s supposed bon mot) sarcasm? Either way, I guess it beats calling it another flip-flop (“I was going to announce my VP before I wasn’t going to…”)
That John, He’s Such A Card
Boy, now nobody can accuse Senator Kerry of not having a sense of humor.
My sides still hurt from the all the hijinks and hilarity.
Oh, and in case you didn’t get it, that was a joke.
Or was it (like Senator Kerry’s supposed bon mot) sarcasm? Either way, I guess it beats calling it another flip-flop (“I was going to announce my VP before I wasn’t going to…”)
That John, He’s Such A Card
Boy, now nobody can accuse Senator Kerry of not having a sense of humor.
My sides still hurt from the all the hijinks and hilarity.
Oh, and in case you didn’t get it, that was a joke.
Or was it (like Senator Kerry’s supposed bon mot) sarcasm? Either way, I guess it beats calling it another flip-flop (“I was going to announce my VP before I wasn’t going to…”)
No Market For Space Tourism?
Disney doesn’t seem to think so.
What Does Victory Look Like?
In comments to the previous post, Duncan Young writes:
The big difference is that in WWII the shape of victory was pretty damn clear – specific land was occupied, papers were publically signed, POW’s turned over etc etc.
I’ve never heard a non-handwaving description of what ‘winning’ looks like in the War on Terror. Which is a bit of a problem with applying the whole ‘war’ paradigm to this case.
That’s one of the problems with calling it a “War on Terror.”
If we call it by its right name, a war on radical Islamic fundamentalism, then the victory conditions become more clear, if not entirely politically correct.
It means a Middle East (and other places) in which governments don’t actively fund (or look the other way at) terrorist activities, in which imams in the mosques don’t preach hate and death to the Jews and other infidels every Friday evening, with either active government support or acquiescence, in which madrassas, if they exist at all, teach a modern and reformed version of Islam. It may also include a prosperous and free Arab world, though unfortunately it need not if those other conditions can occur without it.
That’s what victory looks like. How to achieve it is unclear, and worthy of debate, but many opponents of the war and the administration don’t even seem to see that as a legitimate goal, let alone one to debate the means of getting there. The politically incorrect part is that it means committing “culturicide,” which is something that remains an anathema to the multi-culti cultists, to whom all is relative. And while it doesn’t require genocide, it may indeed require killing many more people than we might desire, because there are some minds that won’t be changed.
Certainly policies followed in the eighties and nineties (to which it sounds like Senator Kerry wants us to return) won’t get us there. Whether or not the current policy will remains to be seen, but it’s got a lot better prospects than prosecutions and diplomacy alone. There will be many more regime changes, by various means, before this war is over.