Ronald Reagan R.I.P.
The Gipper gave up his ghost three hours ago.
My first thought upon hearing the news was “Well, better that than Red!”
Insensitive, or a fitting epitaph? I report, you decide.
UPDATE BY TIM: Tacitus has a most fitting obituary.
Glad to hear you’re coping.
Hey, do you know why I’m smiling these days?
It’s because the maggots have started devouring Ronnie’s carcass by now.
Aw, Sho, it wasn’t like you suggested building a big wall to keep us out. Unless you did and I missed it.
“Also, my boss (the one who used to work for Buchanan) picked up a copy this morning and immediately flipped to “I Hate Whitey.” He was thrilled, you can imagine.”
Awesome!
So I’m guessing I shouldn’t apply for a job there any time soon.
You don’t waste your time with hateful drivel, eh? As as test, I’m going to type five words below. I believe that they will immediately turn you into a cynical, hate-spewing werewolf. Are you ready? Here we go!
William
Jefferson
Clinton
stained
dress
I don’t waste my time with hateful drivel.
Actually, let me amend that — some I do. Just got the new Hate issue in the mail, and it looks like a million bucks. (I know Tim is still groaning about some color issues, but it’s forgivable.) Also, my boss (the one who used to work for Buchanan) picked up a copy this morning and immediately flipped to “I Hate Whitey.” He was thrilled, you can imagine.
“I didn’t read another sentence.”
Yeah, it was brutal. Still, don’t be a wuss, AP. You’re a big boy.
I think that’s an unfair slight against work everywhere.
In my magnanimity, I am willing to concede that Ted Rall has done things that can be considered “work.”
Ted Rall is like a person…almost.
Ahhh, yes. Ted Rall. The voice of reason. His web presence is there in case you ever need to induce vomiting.
For his part, Ted Rall is at least prepared to concede that Reagan was the president. (For anyone reading this who is unfamiliar with Rall’s work, this is a surprisingly moderate position for him to take.)
Im actually surprised that there hasnt been more nasty, morbid triumphalism coming from the left-leaning press. Maybe they secretly fear a GOP plot to raise Reagan from the dead by reading from the book of the Necronomicon. I can see it now: Rumsfeld and Cheney, draped in black cloaks bearing the Republican seal, are hunkered in a candle-lit bunker, their faces stern as the incant the Hymn of the dead. Perhaps Reagan haters wont feel safe until his corpse is in the ground, at which point the grave-dancing will begin.
It seems that Morrisey has it right, though. You fuck with the living, not with the dead. Once a president dies, it’s all sugar kisses … for a while at least. Even Nixon had it relatively easy when he died.
It’s not so much Carter’s failed presidency that will draw the sharp rebuke from NR — it’s the later stuff: hobnobbing with North Korea and opposition to the Iraq war.
Speaking of Ford and Carter, Jon Stewart had the best line last night:
I guess the people I feel worst for are Carter and Ford. Because they have to be watching all this thinking, we’re not getting that. We’re not getting anything near that … You know what, if I have any advice for Carter and Ford tonight it would be this: die saving a baby. It’s really the only the way you’re going to get anywhere near. Together, the two of you, running into a burning building.
(Actually, I remember Hunter Thompson quoting a golf partner of Ford – who is a religious man – as saying that he knows he will burn in hell, because he pardoned Richard Nixon. Hardly the stuff of eulogies, though.)
When Carter dies, the line will just be that he did his best work after the presidency. The interesting one will be Ford: I didn’t even remember that he was still alive until I saw his comment on Reagan’s passing. (I presume that it wasn’t provided by a medium.)
I’m curious about that myself. One can imagine Slate asked themselves, ‘How would National Review treat Clinton’s death?’ and acted accordingly. Frankly I doubt they’d be so hostile. When Carter dies, now that’s another story…
Yeah, me too. But obliquely dubbing him the Man Who Sold The World I thought was fairly witty.
If Clinton doesn’t outlive us all, it’ll be interesting to compare the scenes.
OXR: Apart from the fact that I do like Reagan — and I didn’t always — I’m just appalled by the dancing-on of his still-open grave.
Hey, this is kind of like IM!
Bill, the line that put you off the rest of the piece is nothing more malignant than a Bowie reference.
Having said which (Slade) I didn’t think the rest was very good: Ronald Reagan is the man who destroyed America’s sense of reality…Whatever the hell that means. The Village Voice: ceaselessly wanking for freedom!
Good idea. I quite liked James Lileks’ Bleat on Reagan (scroll down a bit) yesterday. It even touches on the kind of attitude we’ve been seeing around here. As a college student, Lileks felt much the same way:
We didnt hate Reagan; we viewed him with indulgent contempt, since he was so obviously out of his depth. I mean, please: an actor? As president? (This from a generation that got its politics from All The Presidents Men. This from a generation that would later embrace Martin Sheen as the ne plus ultra of all things presidential.)
Like Welch, he grew out of it.
Oh, whatever. I should read my comments before I hit “post.”
Yay! Let the fountain of Reagan op-eds commence!
Here’s my submission.
Matt Welch keeps things in perspective:And so it was that when the old fella said “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” I laughed at his blustery naivete, as I did whenever he uttered the phrase “Evil Empire.” Needless to say, I was wrong about that, and he was right, and I’m still ashamed about it.
Pardon, I meant it alludes to the nastiness of those who didn’t like him.
Blog, that article begins by wishing a lonely death on the former president; I didn’t read another sentence. The above anecdote does nothing but allude to people who didn’t like him. That proves no point about Reagan, only about the nastiness of the people who didn’t like him. If that’s what you call “good stuff,” you should raise your standards a bit.
“I lived in Hollywood in the ’80s, and back then, the legend was that Reagan’s star needed the most upkeep on the Walk of Fame: It was constantly being defaced by vomit and urine.”
Thanks for the link. Good stuff.
This is probably more accurate. And a more entertaining read.
For somebody who claims to care not a whit about politics, Blog sure seems to have found his political voice in the past day or so — see the anonymous comments to my Reagan post at the Canard and perhaps very soon at AP too.
“Further proof that only the good die young.”
I laughed at that. I am a bad person. I will go eat a ketchup sandwhich. Long live Ronnie Raygun!
Especially against the Russians!
Sorry. I’d say you are under that obligation even more now. Reagan wasn’t the original Gipper, first of all. Second of all, the only reason we needed to win one for the original Gipper was that he was dead. Now that Reagan is also dead, we all need to do a whole lot more winning.
Does this mean that I am no longer under any moral obligation to “win one for the Gipper?”