Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004

We went to an air show to see the Air Force's Thunderbirds at Maxwell AFB here in Montgomery, and after that we were at a local pizza place that had two TV's going: one had whatever big horse race that was taking place today on it, the other had the news. I looked up and noticed that George Stephanopoulos was on, which struck me as odd, given that it was Saturday night. The sound was off, and I couldn't see the closed-captioning at the bottom from where I was sitting. I got up to see what might be up to have called Stephy in early. At first I couldn't tell, and then they flashed a picture of Reagan with Nancy. The closed captioning was about Nancy as First Lady and there was some ref to the Bush administration. For a moment they seemed simply to be talking about the political roles of First Ladies. However, that hardly seemed Earth-shattering-the idea that it might be about Reagan's death was in my mind, but there was no confirmation. I then sat back down, but kept glancing at the screen and then they starting showing a ton of Reagan footage. I got back up and tried to read the CC again, and then it was clear: Ronald Reagan was dead.

While it is clearly the case that his death is no doubt a relief in many ways to his family-having seen the first-hand effects of Alzheimer's on a loved one, I can personally attest to this fact. Still, it is a sad day to know that he has finally departed.
Further, it has always struck me as extremely sad for the country that we, the citizens of America, have been denied access to a man who was, in my opinion, one of our great presidents, for over a decade because of the horrible disease that afflicted him.

There is much to say about Reagan, and no doubt much ink will be spilled over the next week on this topic, and I suspect I will have more to say later. But it is worth clearly stating that he deserves far and away the lion's share of the credit for winning the Cold War. This is a feat of gargantuan proportions, and alone makes him one of the greatest presidents of all time.

Eerily, I had read this post just this morning at Dean's World by Joe Gandelman, noting that Reagan had taken a turn for the worst. It was somewhat unreal to have been thinking about this in passing just this morning, only to have him pass the same day.

Speaking of Joe, he has a nice round-up of news links about Reagan
s death at Dean's World, which includes a touching note from Dean Esmay. Further, Joe and Kevin at Wizbang have one of the great Reagan photos--and fitting one to post today, I think. Furter, James Joyner has an extensive round-up and a number of very nice pictures.

A truly great American has passed.

Posted by Steven Taylor at June 5, 2024 07:50 PM | TrackBack