Monday, January 23, 2006

Ha!

Ronald Reagan has always been my second favorite president (my favorite is Lincoln, of course). Neither Lincoln nor Reagan were perfect - far from it! And it's not like I would give them both straight As on everything. But they were both great leaders and great Americans, and America is better off for having had them at the helm, each at the historical period when he was needed most.

Reagan was also well-known for his great speeches and amusing comments - He was such a skilled speaker that history has given him the title "the Great Communicator." Of course, no one knows if his off-the-cuff remarks were truly off-the-cuff, or if the situation was more like that of Winston Churchill, of whom his son, Lord Randolph, said, "My father has spent the best years of his life writing his extemporaneous speeches."

From Human Events Online, here are what they believe to be Reagan's ten best quips:
10. "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."
—Remarks at a business conference, Los Angeles, March 2, 1977

9. "You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans."
—The Observer, March 29, 1981

8. “Thomas Jefferson once said, "We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying."
—Circa 1988

7. "I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting."
—Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989

6. "How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
—Remarks in Arlington, Virginia, September 25, 1987

5. "The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
—Remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business, August 15, 1986

4. “I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.”
—Said often during his presidency, 1981-1989

3. "All great change in America begins at the dinner table."
—Farewell Address to the Nation, The White House, January 11, 1989

2. "I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born."
—The New York Times, September 22, 1980

1. "There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit."
— First Inaugural Address, January 21, 1981
Personally, I always enjoyed:

"Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."
"Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement."
"Some people spend their entire lives wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."

Ronald Wilson Reagan, R.I.P.

1 comment:

  1. Brilliant...sinmply brilliant. He was the great communicator because he communicated great ideas very simply. It always makes me laugh to here the pro-death-ocrats muse that if they could communicate their ideas better they would start winning elections. They never understood that they are communicating their ideas quite well and that is precisly why they have been losing.

    ReplyDelete