Little Mr Mahatma

In which the middle-aged Peacenik mouths off about War Drones--and all the other things that make him cranky.

Mr Mahatma--who is a Mr in real life--lives in the valleys of Southern California with his wife, a herd of Dears, and an impressive collection of books. Pnorny!
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littlemrmahatma@yahoo.com

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Little Mr Mahatma

Monday, June 07, 2004

Ronald Reagan
Certainly it's sad to see a great American personality pass away but to me that's all he was, another American personality, someone personable and confortable in a grandfatherly sort of way. While the Republicans attempt to portray Reagan as the Greatest President Ever, my memories of him as President beg otherwise. I remember him as a great talking head, someone who could deliver a great speech but seemingly offered little more that good sound bites when questioned off-the-cuff. That is, if he wasn't reading a prepared speech he didn't come across as a deep thinker. More bothersome was his loopiness or out-of-loopiness. With Iran-Contra and other negative crises it seemed he was being protected by underlings. The finger pointing fell short of him whether he was knowingly out of the loop (in which case he had no business being President) or knowingly in the loop (in which case he avoided personal responsibility).

In this way I feel he is direct precursor to George W. - someone who appears to act according to the wishes of others without much too offer intellectually by himself. Someone who appears above responsibility and is devoted to the point of blindness to a pet opponent (whether Russia then or Iraq now).

Reagan demonstrated that the U.S. President can be nothing more than a talking head and if that's a sign of greatness then, yes, Reagan was great. However reducing the Presidency to a symbolic position with others making the decisions (remember George "I am in charge!" Schultz), reduicing the position to where the President can take occassional nods at meetings, instead of an active involvement certainly disqualifies Reagan as a great President.

But as a person his charm and charisma were unquestioned, his humor cutting and self-effacing, and it is this person we shall miss. Ronald Reagan the person.

8:46 AM

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