What was it Reagan did that make people think he was good?

Question

I thought he was a bumbling, witless moron who never had an original thought.

truths - yea, by adding trillions to the debt

Answer 1

He had the gift of gab of the blarney (he had Irish in him). Reagan was charismatic. He was a very nice person and with his charisma could convince people of anything. He was an opportunist too. If he said the sky was pink with purple polka dots than there would be people swearing on Bibles stacked 100 hight that the sky was pink with purple polka dots. Why? Because he said so and that is all they needed. An example of him being an opportunist comes with the tear down that wall speech in Berlin. He knew through intellegence sources that the Soviet empire was falling apart. His attempts to out spend them militarily helped contribute to their down fall. With this knowledge he went to Berlin and in one of his most famous photo ops he stood before the Berlin Wall and demanded "Mr. Gorbachev take down this wall". Of course Gorbie, being a good little servant to the great Reagan snapped to and said yessir and down came the mean old wall. Really if Gorbachev and the Soviet Union wanted that wall up it would remain up and what Reagan said would have meant nothing. I wonder what would have happened if Reagan had done that when Kruschev was premier. Kruschev would have laughed at him told him they would bury us, beat his shoe on the podium and the wall would have been made stronger.

Answer 2

He was definitely not a bumbling, witless moron who never had an original thought. The assassination attempt took a lot out of him as did the onslaught of Alzheimer's but he was still the major factor in causing the Soviet Union to fall apart.

(Saying Reagan applied the ideas of Adam Smith to save the economy is like saying he applied the ideas of George Washington to create democracy - it's a childish oversimplification. Basically, all economists owe something the Smith but supply-side economics which Reagan touted were specific to Robert Mundell and Arthur Laffer and helped the former win the 1999 Nobel Prize.)

Answer 3

Yes it is funny that now he is dead and gone people now think he was truly great president, but when he was in office many Americans voiced the opinion that he was as you say a bumbling idiot and really a bit of a joke when you considered his background, however he did have his good points, he realized that when meeting Gorbachev that he was a human being and not the leader of the evil empire as he once put it, and that they both had a lot in common, they say that Nancy had a big influence on his dealings with the Soviet leader and urged him to give this guy a chance, Reagan felt for Gorbachev as he realized the dangerous position he was in bringing the cold war to an end, so no he was not perfect, but I can think of many Presidents who have been far worse, the last two definitely spring to mind, the bare faced liar and the trigger happy baboon!!!

Answer 4

Reagan had years of leading man experience to fall back on, with a great deal of star appeal. He also had a kind of "ah Shucks" way of answering questions that never really said anything, but gave the impression he was on it so don't wrry. He also had a grandfatherly image that said to the world that "Poppy" could and would fix it, no matter what the problem was.

Answer 5

Where did you get this idea of him being what you say? From the haters of everything and the detractors of all? He was a good man. He was diplomatic, he was considerate. Reagan did not bumble. Give me one instance of such. He helped bury the Soviet Union in debt. I remember Kruschev saying he would bury the U.S. He did not.
Reagan put together an economic team that got us back on the road to recovery from the Carter disaster.
No president, no not one, is entirely responsible for what happens. A president is just that. A presider. He uses advisers and experts. Maybe not all you agree with, but certainly more qualified then most loud mouths on here who could not run a go kart on their own. He then gets a consensus and acts of that. None of them act on their own.
A good understanding of how a government works is important in debating. Otherwise one comes off as a shrill, know nothing, noise maker. Not you. But some of the others on this forum certainly fill that description.

Answer 6

For eight years Ronnie played the role of the president in B movie. He catered to the rich with massive tax cuts for the rich. Sold weapons to Iran for hostages. Deficit spending for eight years deeper in debt in eight years then the last 150 years thanks Ronnie.

Failed to acknowledge the AIDS crisis for years because he could not would not knowledge the disease and could have been dealt with at that time.

Ronnies motto "don't worry be happy."

Answer 7

He was not a bad actor. He was an outstanding public speaker. Too many people like style over substance.

Answer 8

Blind hatred is no better than blindly following...

If he hadn't changed from a lifelong Democrat to a Republican in 1964, many of the detractors and supporters that have answered so far would have their opinions reversed.

Many people liked him simply because he could do the same thing Clinton was capable of... Selling ice-cream to Eskimos.

Answer 9

Oh yeah didn't he not secure our borders and give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, grow the government in size faster than any President before him , ignored the aids crisis, sold weapons to Iran after they'd taken our citizens hostage, created a huge deficit and just happened to be in office when the Soviet Union went belly up after fifty years of the cold war and gave the wealthy tax cuts. I mean if he wasn't the best President ever I don't know who would be.

Answer 10

He defeated the Soviet Union, our greatest enemy since Nazi Germany andimperial Japan.
Other thanthat you're right,he was a moron but for beating the Russians the man gets my respect.