This page was last updated on February 10, 2011.
Obama, Reagan linked by a thread; Tom McLaughlin; Beaver County Times; February 10, 2011.
A couple of previous letters from Mr. McLaughlin are here and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“All you intellectual giants, including The Times editorial staff, stop beating the Bushes.”
[RWC] There’s nothing like name-calling to establish your credibility.
“We all know about George H.W. Bush’s ‘read my lips, no more taxes’ and his stupid son, George W. Bush, who started two wars and spent all our money.”
[RWC] “Started two wars?” OK, so al-Qaida based in Afghanistan didn’t attack us first on September 11, 2001?
“George W. Bush … spent all our money?” Since 1931, by my count (using Obama administration data) we’ve run a deficit all but 12 years. As far as debt, the U.S. government has been in debt since the Revolutionary War. Did we spend too much during the Bush administration? Of course, but Mr. Bush had a lot of help going back more than 200 years.
“You might have seen the February cover of Time magazine which shows Obama and Reagan standing side by side.
“The writers try to tell the readers how much these two guys are alike.”
[RWC] Many of those who somehow thought Mr. Obama was a “moderate” when they voted for him in 2008 now know that’s not true and lefties are desperate to change that situation before the 2012 campaign begins. Despite their best (worst?) efforts to demean Mr. Reagan in the eyes of the people, the left has been unsuccessful. That’s why they are trying to rehabilitate Mr. Obama’s image by linking Messrs. Obama and Reagan and/or claiming Mr. Obama is “Reaganesque.” People aren’t that stupid, though, and the effort will fail.
“After Reagan left his elected position as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he established a one-hundred degree of separation from all unions. Under his watch, he fired the air traffic controllers, collapsed the steel industry and made it possible for our steel mills to be exported overseas.”
[RWC] PATCO broke the law and went on strike. President Reagan fired the air traffic controllers only after the controllers refused to return to work as per the Taft-Hartley Act.
The idea Mr. Reagan had anything to do with the demise of the steel industry is a popular local lefty myth. Blaming President Reagan for steel’s collapse is like blaming an emergency room doctor for the death of a DOA patient. Mr. McLaughlin wants us to believe the steel industry was strong and vibrant until the day Ronald Reagan took office and he somehow managed to kill it within a few years. The U.S. steel industry had been displaying serious problems since at least the mid-1950s. Mr. McLaughlin never tells us what Reagan policies allegedly caused steel’s collapse. In “Workers already capped and traded,” Mr. McLaughlin blamed J&L’s demise on LTV.
“The contrast of Obama to Reagan cannot be denied, things like three years of unemployment checks, health insurance aid from COBRA, auto industry bailouts, and waivers, waivers, waivers.”
[RWC] COBRA is not “health insurance aid.” COBRA simply allows former employees to continue to buy medical insurance (paid for out of their own pockets) through their former employer for up to 18 months.
“The only common thread shared by these two presidents is the use of $10 words.”
[RWC] That’s pretty much true, though I don’t recall Mr. Reagan using “$10 words” very often. This is one of the reasons the left gave as “proof” Mr. Reagan was stupid.
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