Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan died yesterday. It puts us liberal democrats in a kind of a bind. You see, that lst time I stopped watching TV news for 12 years was in the Reagan- Bush Sr. years.

As he was another human being on this earth, I have compassion (that's the non political kind)for him and his family. And he and they suffered with his illness and for that I wish them all peace.

Politically I did not agree with him and or his policies. And I do believe that while he was president at the time the Berlin wall came down, I do believe that was a "happy accident". He had good timing as the Soviets were broke and had no money to continue fighting the Cold War. I believe the wall was going to come down eventually by itself, I do believe that he just leaned on it a little and gave it a push.

I do believe he was a great actor, and that is what I believe the position of our president has deteriorated into, as the position is surely that of a puppet.

Just a journalists used to actually do their own research and homework and writing of a story, now they are simply news readers.

So the president is now just an reader of words put before him. And with Shrub Junior, not a very good reader at that. I've found a lot of Born Agains can parrot back to you what they have been told or brainwashed to believe. But few of them can actually speak intelligently about the principles and have an in depth knowledge the subject of religion. They do not have great theological discussion, they parrot back what they have memorized from books. They are unable to summarize, compare and contrast or critique what they have been told.

Same as the president. You can tell when in a press conference a reporter asks a question. Shrub junior can usually provide a fairly coherent answer to the original question, but when asked a follow up question that may actually demonstrate a deeper understanding of the issue, Shrub Jr. either repeats exactly what his first answer was, tells a stupid joke or pun or says, now I have already answered that. To go from a Rhodes scholar to a pig caller is a terrible thing to witness.

So my final thought on good old Ronnie, he was the first president that helped me to see that the job can be done by just a news reader.