President basks in Reagan's reflected glory

[struggle4progress]

<snip>
The Bush White House has been eager for some of the national admiration for the tax-cutting optimist and moralising cold war warrior to rub off on the current tax-cutting, moralising "war president".
<snip>

Other Republicans, however, have balked at the comparison. James Pinkerton, a former Reagan aide, wrote in Newsday that Mr Reagan had a more nuanced foreign policy and avoided large, protracted deployments of US troops overseas: "The Reagan doctrine worked brilliantly. .. the Bush doctrine is something else entirely."

Beyond the squabbles of conservative and mainstream Republicans over the legacy of Mr Reagan, there is a broader comparison the country has inevitably made in which Mr Bush cannot help but fall short. Nostalgia is double-edged, as the fond memories of a better past throw into sharp relief misgivings about the world today. Mr Reagan enraged Europeans, aggravated racial tensions within the US and sent the budget deficits soaring, but as America remembered Mr Reagan this week his shortcomings were given scant attention. In death, he was the great liberator who won the cold war, the president who reinvigorated the US economy and made Americans believe in themselves.

Mr Bush's poll ratings sank further this week, as concerns about Iraq appeared to drag down perceptions of his presidency as a whole: 58 per cent of people think the country is on the wrong track, by comparison with 55 per in March, according to the latest Los Angeles Times Poll.
<more>

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1086940168872

[bluestateguy]

1. Like this

Some Bush supporters had privately hoped that the Reagan remembrances could be stretched out for more than a week. They suggested that Mr Reagan's body be returned to California by train, stopping in towns on the way. But Nancy Reagan was said to be determined to fly her husband's body home.

Hmmmm....

[eaprez]

2. I think Bush will....

....seem pathetic in comparison...to the loyal Reaganites.

[lapfog_1]

3. You bet this cuts both ways

I'm certain that most wingnuts believe TODAY that Georgie boy isn't
fit to hold Reagan's dick to help him pee at the urinal. So by
invoking "The Great Communicator", a lot of people will see the
contrast between Bush, who can't remember his lines, and can't
pronounce words with more than 2 syllables, and Reagan, who could
tell a joke and get some laughs, and was very good at acting
presidential. A *lot* of GWB's supporters are looking again at what
they have hitched their wagons to and I doubt that many are very
happy about it.

[struggle4progress]

6. Good op-ed by Wayne Madsen today(?) on Reagan and neocons

Can't find a non-subscription link yet.

But Madsen basically says the cons don't like the neocons, and Boy George having shacked up with the losers that discredited Reagan in his second term ain't filling the cons with joy.

[whistle]

4. Let Bush bask, reality begins again Sunday morning...

...I heard this evening on Coast to Coast AM that it takes 14% more energy to build and deliver an automobile than we will use during the entire life of driving that car. I average about 20,000 miles a year which is 1,000 gallons of gasoline approximately and I keep my cars about 5 years. Then I trade them, but that car I'm sure will last another 5 years although I doubt if the owners who follow would put as many miles on that car as I did. So I figure that the car I own now will go maybe 150,000 to 175,000 miles during its lifetime which represents 7,500 to 8,750 gallons of fuel plus 4 quarts of oil every 7,500 miles or 80 to 100 quarts of oil over its life. That would mean that my consumption of oil to operate my cars require 167 to 195 barrels of fuel and lubricant plus what I use in the transmission, power steering, differential and other moving parts of the car. So my question to Du'ers would be, does it actually take 190 to 219 barrels of oil to create an automobile? If it does, then price changes in oil as dramatic as we've seen will have a major impact on virtually every thing. Reagan's funeral be damned. Fuck Bush's basking. We are really screwed here folks.

[lapfog_1]

5. OK, don't freak too much

it does take a lot of energy to make a car. The more aluminum, the
more energy. Mining iron ore, smelting, making steel, the machining,
the plastics, and so on. I don't know about the relative consumption,
but I don't doubt your figures.

However, cars ARE one of the most recycled products now, I wonder how
much energy it takes to recycle all the car parts?

[myopic4141]

7. A looming difference between Reagan and Bush.

As conservative as Reagan was, he never claimed to be chosen for the position of President by God.

[teryang]

8. These fuel prices will crush the economy

New unemployment applications are already going up. The economic side of the house is a freaking diaster.

His foreign policy stinks, his wars stink, and his economics stink. The media show is all he has.