The Reagan Centennial observations were on TV this afternoon, and a more remarkable mix of tawdry and dignified is hard to imagine this side of the Senator Wellstone memorial service/pep rally some years ago, or the President's speech in Tuscon.
Mr. Reagan, now 89, seems human at last. She's a little old lady who rightly misses her husband. The former secretary of state, James Baker, called for moderation, compromise and realism in governing, as his old boss practiced.
Balding old Lee Greenwood preened all over the stage singing "Proud to Be An American." There was a Rose Parade float that looked like a junior high shop class had collaborated with the drama club. There were lots of guns and Navy jets. Some guy in a baseball cap spoke towards the end. Newt Gingrich was likely seething over getting a midrange seat in the audience.
CNN broadcast a tour of a $15m renovation of the Reagan library, which features fetishistic new exhibits like the suit the president was wearing when he was shot. The bullet hole is helpfully pointed out.
Mrs Palin gave a speech the other night to a controlled audience of 200 who were told to sit still and take no photos except the official ones she authorized. She then rcycled Reagan's 1964 Goldwater speech to cast herself as a prophetess and a victim, but above all things, Reagan in a dress.
That's the trouble with Reagan fetishism: everybody running for office says they are the true Gipper, but they all take his pleasing generalities and turn them into the most remarkable collections of jingoism, hate, and pandering to the rich.
But then Reagan had his blind- and deaf spots- too. He launched his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, MS, with a genial wink and nod to its horrific racist past; he ignored AIDS for seven years. He fed red meat to his evangelical base and installed cabinet members devoted to plundering the nation's national resources. He stood up for his attorney general, Mr. Meese, against years of ethics investigations, while leaving his labor secretary, Mr Donovan, hanging out to dry for even longer for charges he was eventually acquitted of.
Every president leaves a mixed record. There is much President Reagan accomplished that was good and lasting. But the millions spent on today's secular canonization would, I think, have made the old boy blush.
Edmund Morris, who wrote an insane official biography of Reagan in which he inserted himself and fictional family members, has a sour reminiscence in The New York Times today on the former president's visit to his birthplace.
Mr. Reagan, now 89, seems human at last. She's a little old lady who rightly misses her husband. The former secretary of state, James Baker, called for moderation, compromise and realism in governing, as his old boss practiced.
Balding old Lee Greenwood preened all over the stage singing "Proud to Be An American." There was a Rose Parade float that looked like a junior high shop class had collaborated with the drama club. There were lots of guns and Navy jets. Some guy in a baseball cap spoke towards the end. Newt Gingrich was likely seething over getting a midrange seat in the audience.
CNN broadcast a tour of a $15m renovation of the Reagan library, which features fetishistic new exhibits like the suit the president was wearing when he was shot. The bullet hole is helpfully pointed out.
Mrs Palin gave a speech the other night to a controlled audience of 200 who were told to sit still and take no photos except the official ones she authorized. She then rcycled Reagan's 1964 Goldwater speech to cast herself as a prophetess and a victim, but above all things, Reagan in a dress.
That's the trouble with Reagan fetishism: everybody running for office says they are the true Gipper, but they all take his pleasing generalities and turn them into the most remarkable collections of jingoism, hate, and pandering to the rich.
But then Reagan had his blind- and deaf spots- too. He launched his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, MS, with a genial wink and nod to its horrific racist past; he ignored AIDS for seven years. He fed red meat to his evangelical base and installed cabinet members devoted to plundering the nation's national resources. He stood up for his attorney general, Mr. Meese, against years of ethics investigations, while leaving his labor secretary, Mr Donovan, hanging out to dry for even longer for charges he was eventually acquitted of.
Every president leaves a mixed record. There is much President Reagan accomplished that was good and lasting. But the millions spent on today's secular canonization would, I think, have made the old boy blush.
Edmund Morris, who wrote an insane official biography of Reagan in which he inserted himself and fictional family members, has a sour reminiscence in The New York Times today on the former president's visit to his birthplace.
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