So today, forgive me if I have no fear of the Iran that Ronald Reagan armed. He thought they were less of a threat than a Democrat in the White House.

I understand your perspective, but you are trying to convince the wrong person. You see, for me this is personal, not political. Prior to her untimely death, I had a years long friendship with a wonderful and brilliant woman by the name of Maureen Reagan. In honor of her memory, I will never speak ill of her father.

tidbits

“In 1986, a scandal shook the administration stemming from the use of proceeds from covert arms sales to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua, which had been specifically outlawed by an act of Congress.[166] The Iran-Contra affair became the largest political scandal in the United States during the 1980s.[167] The International Court of Justice, whose jurisdiction to decide the case was disputed,[168] ruled that the U.S. had violated international law in Nicaragua due to its obligations not to intervene in the affairs of other states.[169]

President Reagan professed ignorance of the plot's existence. He appointed two Republicans and one Democrat (John Tower, Brent Scowcroft and Edmund Muskie, known as the “Tower Commission”) to investigate the scandal. The commission could not find direct evidence that Reagan had prior knowledge of the program, but criticized him heavily for his disengagement from managing his staff, making the diversion of funds possible.[170] A separate report by Congress concluded that “If the president did not know what his national security advisers were doing, he should have.”[170] Reagan's popularity declined from 67 percent to 46 percent in less than a week, the greatest and quickest decline ever for a president.[171] The scandal resulted in fourteen indictments within Reagan's staff, and eleven convictions.[172]

Many Central Americans criticize Reagan for his support of the Contras, calling him an anti-communist zealot, blinded to human rights abuses, while others say he “saved Central America.”[173] Daniel Ortega, Sandinistan and current president of Nicaragua, said that he hoped God would forgive Reagan for his “dirty war against Nicaragua.”[173] In 1986 the USA was found guilty by the International Court of Justice (World Court) of war crimes against Nicaragua.”

With respect to Reaganomics, economists agree that Reagan's deficits and debt were the reason Bush the first famously had to renege on his promise of “no new taxes.” Reagan was not what I would consider a conservative, or at least what I believed it to mean at the time: fiscal conservativism, pay as you go, states rights, individual rights, smaller government, strong defense. The latter is the only principle he honored, but that is thoroughly stained by the fact that for the first time ever (but thanks to Bush II not likely the last) the United States was convicted of war crimes by the world court.

Had you put a lot more thought into that opinion, I think you would have understood what McCain was doing and why. How people could simply dismiss a 20+ year track record over campaign rhetoric is beyond me. McCain was obviously pretending to be someone he wasn't…they all do…they all lie. He had to be more to the right in order to get the right show up and vote. My goodness, Obama lied about changing NAFTA and about an Iraq war time table….they all lie.

You can't believe politicians. They are all professional liars. All you have as a reference to their future behavior is their track record. If they have no track record…then all you have are their words…those pretty pretty words. “I'll vote for the guy that talks pretty”

Ok, enough of that…McCain lost…dead end subject

He was a traitor to Republicans and to future generations. He took a tiny national debt and with “voodoo economics” (GHW Bush's term), he initiated the Republican “borrow and spend” policies, destroying the former “fiscal conservative” party and making it fiscally FAR worse than the “tax and spend Democrats”. He, Bush and Bush saddled us with a debt that requires $237 a month for every taxpayer just to pay interest. Look at your federal tax bill and subtract $2488 from it. That is your annual REAGANOMICS tax increase. It will last forEVER, because paying that for eternity does exactly ZERO to reduce the national debt. It's just the interest.

Reagan betrayed us all.

…and the nation has gone down hill ever since! You have to hold people accountable for abject failure.

On top of that, he destroyed Social Security for how many future millions? All because his personal philosophy was that HE paid to much tax and had no empathy what-so-ever for those less fortunate especially those that served in wars that HE NEVER served in?? The self righteous tight wad jerk.

We won’t mention those that died of exposure because the greedy fool closed all the mental health hospitals in California as governor. Selling the hospital in Modesto California to Gallo Wine for ONE DOLLAR. Which they used as slum housing for Mexican migrant grape cutters.

No he PERSONALLY deserves disparaging. You people really need to back in time with Father Time to get the goods on Ronnie Ray-Gun.

John McCain's mission: A GOP makeover
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/27832…

“I think he’s endorsed people with center-right politics because he has an understanding that the party is in trouble with certain demographics and wants to have a tone that would allow us to grow,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is McCain’s closest friend and ally in the Senate.

“At a time when our party is struggling and has a lot of shrill voices and aggressive voices, he’s one that can expand our party,” said John Weaver, a longtime McCain friend and strategist.

There is no effect on the favorability rating or the re-election prospects. In the media world, he is a giant. In the real world, he’s not.

In other words, no matter how much the ditto heads like him, and no matter how much his critics hate him, there really is no difference. Of course that doesn't change the amount of criticism and praise he gets, people still waste time on him praising and criticizing. LOL.

Reagan, love him or hate him, was a game changer. After nearly a half century of liberal dominated government, he single-handedly changed the focus of the national discourse from liberal assumptive thinking to conservative assumptive thinking. That is a Herculean accomplishment whatever one thinks of his specific policy decisions.

As the piece points out, Reagan did not accomplish his great feat of changing the premise of the national discussion through niche marketing or boisterous outrageousness. Rather he used a soft spoken style, complimented by a smile, to build a coalition of conservatives, moderate Republicans and “Reagan Democrats” that dominated American political thinking for most of a generation.