Posted on 01/25/2012 9:52:02 AM PST by T. Jefferson
In the increasingly rough Republican campaign, no candidate has wrapped himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan more often than Newt Gingrich. “I worked with President Reagan to change things in Washington,” “we helped defeat the Soviet empire,” and “I helped lead the effort to defeat Communism in the Congress” are typical claims by the former speaker of the House.
The claims are misleading at best. In the Reagan years I was an assistant secretary of state — Mr. Gingrich voted with the president regularly, but equally often spewed insulting rhetoric at Reagan, his top aides, and his policies to defeat Communism. Gingrich was voluble and certain in predicting that Reagan’s policies would fail, and in all of this he was dead wrong.
President Reagan is clearly failing.” Why? This was due partly to “his administration’s weak policies, which are inadequate and will ultimately fail”; partly to CIA, State, and Defense, which “have no strategies to defeat the empire.” “The burden of this failure frankly must be placed first on President Reagan.” Our efforts against the Communists in the Third World were “pathetically incompetent.”
Gingrich’s called Reagan’s meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Neville Chamberlain in Munich.”
Far from becoming a reliable voice for Reagan policy and the struggle against the Soviets, Gingrich took on Reagan and his administration. It appears to be a habit: He did the same to George W. Bush when Bush was making the toughest and most controversial decision of his presidency — the surge in Iraq. Here again Gingrich provided no support for his party’s embattled president, testifying as a private citizen in 2007 that the strategy was “inadequate,” contained “breathtaking” gaps, lacked “synergism” (whatever that means), and was “very disappointing.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Your total ignorance of even the most basic facts of the Reagan Presidency is childish.
No one in politics is ever the 99.9% Ivory Soap pure you mindless GOP cultists always try to manufacture around your idols.
Try learning the most basic historic facts of the issue rather then ignorantly cling to your childish political fantasies.
skaterboy, an Anonymous FR COWARD since 2004.
Your complete ignorance of even a basic understanding of the history of the 1980s is pathetic.
Reagan was far from perfect.
The Reagan you, and the rest of the Talk Radio Zombie bot faction of the GOP Establishment worship never existed.
Reagan was a man, like other men. He made mistakes. He had his strengths and his weaknesses. He was far from perfect
It was true of the Palindrones.
It was true of the Cainiacs.
And now it's true of the freshly minted, toeing-the-FR-line Newtistas.
I've supported Newt since the first debate. I still support him. But I never delude myself that he has no flaws or negatives. He's the best of those who are running, no more, no less.
“What Newt should do is explain that he underestimated Reagan and was dead wrong about him in some areas....”just the way people underestimate me and are dead wrong.””
That would, indeed, be an artful and honest response by Newt.
“Reagan’s Young Lieutenant”
MissMagnolia - What a great link.
To tell you the truth, some of Romney’s criticisms of Newt and the Reagan years were troubling to me and it seemed like no one was disagreeing with Romney. This article is really GOOD! And from someone who was there and is credible. It also explains why so many “conservatives” are lining up against Newt.
I’m just a lurker, rarely comment, and have no idea how to post. Can you post this under latest articles so everyone can read it? Thanks for making it available!
Hell, in this case, it’s the same guy. They just flit from candidate to candidate, and each step down they still treat their candidate as golden, and it doesn’t matter what conservatives they trash.
This simply isn't true. I recommend reading Peter Schweizer’s “Reagan's War” or his earlier “Victory” for a detailed study of Reagan's insight into the fundamental frailty of the Soviet economy. Reagan was giving speeches as early as 1963 claiming we could win the Cold War if we used our economic, and especially technological, superiority against the Soviet Union. President Reagan's NSC directives that spelled out the strategic goals of U.S. military superiority and economic and political decline of the U.S.S.R. were issued in 1982-83, long before his official trips to Moscow.
Of course Reagan made mistakes. You don’t have to think he’s perfect to denounce an absurd claim that he abdicated the Presidency to his Vice President because of his Alzeihmers.
Since Gingrich claimed that Reagan’s policies were a failure, and yet we know they succeeded wildly, your appeals to Reagan being a flawed President are a distraction, not an argument. The “flawed President” got it right, Newt was wrong.
I guess us “ignorant idol worshipping clowns” of Reagan can’t hold a candle to the “ignorant idol worshipping clowns” of Gingrich.
You used to attack Gingrich, of course you used to shill for other candidates, and used to lie about Rick Perry, so the real question is — do you really believe Gingrich was more conservative than Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, or are you just making things up again to support your current candidate choice?
One thing that seems to be forgotten about Reagan is that he had a degree in economics from before Keynsianism came about. So he had a real understanding of what worked and what didn't.
So, are you saying that the best defense of Gingrich's claim (about President Reagan's strategic policy towards the Soviet Union being wrong) is that he (Gingrich) was ignorant?
You can 'bump' the thread and ping people you know to it and/or try to pass it around like I'm doing. I also sent the direct link to the article to a friend (in FL) & she's posting it on her FB page, etc.
Here's are two other really good links (1st one from FR thread originially):
Tells how he had to fight his military leaders and other conservatives including Thatcher when it came to negotiating nuclear weapons with the Soviets”
That book by Martin Anderson is on my to-read list. I recommend to you the book by Peter Schweizer, “Reagan's War” (or his earlier “Victory”) to understand how Reagan's nuclear arms reduction proposals fit into his overall campaign to win the Cold War. Newt and many other conservatives didn't understand at the time why Reagan was pursuing disarmament talks with the “evil empire.” Schweizer argues that the Soviet leadership had a better understanding of the implications of Reagan's strategy than either his critics or his supporters.
“Heritage Foundation: Alumnus of Heritage Foundation Resource Bank
Francisco Marroquin Foundation: Former chairman
Hudson Institute: Senior Fellow, 1990–96
Independent Task Force on Colombia: Former member
Middle East Forum: Signatory of 2000 report urging military action against Syria
Nicaraguan Resistance Foundation: Former chairman
Project for the New American Century: Signatory of 1997 Statement of Principles and various other statements
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom: Former member”
You forgot to put the above in.
He’s a patriot who put his career on the line for this country.
Precisely. I was being sarcastic. I’m really no fan of Gingrich for a number of reasons but the folks lining up to shoot him down are the same types who were doing similar things to Reagan.
And theis “list” is supposed to “Impress” me/us...why?!
On the facts at hand I have nothing to say as I was not there when Gingrich is alleged to have said what he said. On National Review’s skew to the left in its editorial policy—particularly with its Romney-shilling—I allow the facts to speak for themselves.
The article is written by a former Pres Reagan Assistant Secretary of State. It is not written by NRO or any of their authors.
I'm paraphrasing Reagan's own description in my previous post, but I'm going to have to find an original written source.
Remember, we were still in the Nixon/Carter era of "detente" with the Soviets.
We had lost the edge.
Sorry I can't research this more right now since I'm supposed to be working! See: Wikipedia "Predictions of Soviet Collapse - Ronald Reagan"
I don’t know if anyone thinks Fred Thompson is a ‘moldy-oldie’, but he just endorsed Newt last night! That was interesting, because he’s said to be a big friend of McCain’s! Or was he?
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