Ted Kennedy says Reagan won the cold war

[leftyandproud]

WTF TED!!!!!!!!!!!
sellout!

"Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass: "On foreign policy he will be honored as the president who won the Cold War, and his 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall' will be linked forever with President Kennedy's 'Ich bin ein Berliner.' President Reagan and Nancy were always very gracious to the Kennedy family and they are both very much in our thoughts and prayers in this difficult time."




http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121884,00.html

[curse10]

1. jesus christ, ted is not a sell out

we have an election to win this year! we can't have our elected officials spewing vitriolic hatred about reagan.

[Kanary]

5. Huge difference between

"vitriolic hatred" and pumping up something that never was.

Y'know, we decry the numbers of people who don't vote, yet wink at blurring the truth because "we have an election to win". People KNOW when politicians are truthful, and when they aren't.

It's possible to be respectful, and yet not give someone credit when it isn't due. Really, it is.

Kanary

[leftyandproud]

20. unfortunately

many dems are trying to "rap themselves in the flag" and give much more credit to reagan than he is due...looking at some of the quotes from daschle and others makes me ill

[Kanary]

23. Guess we still haven't learned from doing that the last 10 or so years, eh

Wonder what it'll take?

Isn't it bad enough yet?

Let the "flag wrapping" continue, then..... but I don't have to like it.

Kanary, being ill right along with ya........ :)

[charlie]

10. Yes, spewing vitriolic hatred is exactly what we're asking for...

Not. It would be nice if Ted didn't laud the man for accomplishments that aren't his to claim, however.

[dennis4868]

26. UMMMMM......

Ted, I think your Bro had much more to do with us winning the cold war than RayGUN!

[SheilaT]

2. With all due respect to

Senator Kennedy, Reagan did not win the cold war. In the end, they couldn't keep out western culture and broadcast, couldn't maintain the lie that their system was better than ours. And meanwhile, Reagan started that totally ludicrous Star Wars program, which I believe continues to this day, a complete and total waste of money and resources.

[Massacure]

6. Yup

The missile defense system is one of the daugher programs of Star Wars isn't it? All it does is suck up billions, and piss the world off.

[never cry wolf]

13. LET'S ALL GET SOME SANITY HERE!!

No offense Shelia, Kennedy DID NOT say reagan won the cold war. He stated a fact when he said raygun would be honored for winning the cold war.

He is correct, ronnie raygun WILL be honored for that, that doesn't mean he believes he actually WON the cold war.

(damn, the way I parse I shoulde been an attorney instead of an archtect.)

[SheilaT]

29. Well, the heading to this thread

says Kennedy says Reagan won the cold war. And then in the text says he'll be honored for ending the cold war. I don't see much difference between those two statements.

And I stand by my statement that Reagan DID NOT end the cold war.

[blurp]

33. They knew how bad it was. This is what Mikhail Gorbachev had to say:

Mikhail Gorbachev:

It was a shame, and I continue to say that it was a shame, that during the final years under Brezhnev, we were planning to create a commission headed by the secretary of the Central Committee, Kapitonov to solve the problem of women's pantyhose. Imagine a country that flies into space, launches Sputniks, creates such a defense system, and it can't resolve the problem of women's pantyhose. There's no toothpaste, no soap powder, not the basic necessities of life. It was incredible and humiliating to work in such a government. And so our people were already worked up, and that is why the dissident movement occurred.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/pdf/int_mikhailgorbachev.pdf

[kiahzero]

3. Reading comprehension is a good thing to have

"On foreign policy he will be honored as the president who won the Cold War"

That's a fact. It doesn't matter that he didn't win the Cold War; he'll be honored as the President who did.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

8. I caught that.

:think:

Good ole' Ted said that RR got the credit, not that he actually did anything about it, which he didn't.

[Wickerman]

11. yep, he will get the credit

Even Neal Cohen on NPR today explained, with the help of a poli sci guy that RRwas presidig at the time, and may have caused it to end earlier by a degree, but we had expended over 100k American lives and coutnless billions of $$$$ long before Ronnie came along.

I think Ted got it just right.

[JI7]

4. yeah, ted's a real sell out isn't he

:eyes:

[playahata1]

7. AFGHANISTAN, its own Vietnam,

is what broke up the Soviet Union, not anything Reagan said or did, Ted.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

12. ..and it was Carter who started the support of the Mooj in A-Stan.

So, Reagan was just conintuing a Carter policy there.

[wildmanj]

9. remembered

WHEN PIGS FLY---he left the children with their future mortgaged and no one to pay the bills

[Robin Hood]

14. Does anyone remember Gorbachev?

He may have had something to do with the end of the cold war. It wouldn't of happened without him.

[genius]

17. Right. It was Gorbachev who ended the cold war and saved everyone's

life.

[wndycty]

15. Ted Kennedy is a FREEPER!!!!

<sarcasm> Heaven forbid someone so liberal will say something not critical of Reagan.

[genius]

16. Kennedy voted for USA-PATRIOT. This is another one of his lapses.

[many a good man]

18. He was just the last pitcher standing on the mound

when the other team forfeited. It's shown in the box score with a "W" next to his name.

[TacticalPeek]

19. Tweety was careful just now to say that many presidents won the cold war.

Starting with Truman, with the Marshall Plan in Europe and the Truman doctrine which contained communism until it failed. Reagan's part was to insist that there be a winner and a loser. Then, like the rooster, takes credit for the sunrise.

[Vickers]

21. Gee, it's almost like Teddy is a politician or something...

...verrrrrrrry interesting.

*stroking beard*

[JohnKleeb]

22. he didnt sell us out

He didnt say he won the cold war, he said he will be honored as. Ted is far from a sell out, and has done more for liberal politics than I could ever.

[flaminbats]

24. Reagan is laughing in his grave...

How does one win a Cold War...or even lose it? :wtf:

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

25. Well actually, he kinda did.

I hate to start a flame war, but he did basically finish the job. My main beef with the Reagan hero-worshippers was that they had asserted that he won the war single-handedly. He didn't do it alone, but he did stand up to the Soviets, and basically helped to drive the final nail into the already rotting coffin.

[maggrwaggr]

31. he "stood up" to the Soviets? Were the Soviets ever attempting to

invade us? I honestly can't remember the Soviet Union threatening anybody while Reagan was president.

The fact that you think he "stood up" to the Soviets when the Soviets weren't threatening us during that time tells me that you have fallen for their propaganda

Am I missing something here?

And by the way, lib4life, what kind of "life" are you 4? Does it involve that Christian cross? Just wondering.

[moondust]

27. Reagan did nothing of the sort.

1. The collapse of the massive centralized bureaucracy was inevitable. No way the Kremlin could make all the decisions on everything.
2. The military ate up all the resources (but it did make them a Superpower).
3. Western culture infiltrated and whetted the appetites of consumers for goods they didn't have.
4. Gorby killed it.
5. Reagan took the credit.

[jpgray]

28. Edit your headline? I ask this because I assume you know how to read

'...he will be HONORED as the president who won the Cold War...' is true enough, and Ted Kennedy is no worse for saying it, in my view.

[RoyGBiv]

34. I'm glad someone bothered to notice this...

Ted is a master of oration and rhetoric. He chooses his words purposefully.

I'm just speculating here, but I wonder if there's not something rather intentional in the phrasing. I remember well Reagan's use of passive voice and how his critics, Kennedy among them, made note of it. "Mistakes were made..." Yes, they were, and by phrasing the comment that way, Reagan neither placed nor accepted blame.

And Kennedy did a similar thing. He was simply stating a truism without offering any suggestions about who would be doing the honoring or whether it was right to do so. It's a very diplomatic way to make a point, imo.

[WI_DEM]

30. bunk

The Soviet Union defeated itself by spending billions on weaponds and next to nothing on its people. The Soviet Union's collapse was inevitable.

[Kanary]

32. So, we took lessons from the Russians?

"The Soviet Union defeated itself by spending billions on weaponds and next to nothing on its people. The Soviet
Union's collapse was inevitable. "

The US is well on it's way.........

Kanary