MAD AS HELL AND...

Although none of us here at Mad As Hell And… can recall ever having any kind of substantive discussion with then President Reagan speechwriter during the Reagan Presidency and 1984 Presidential campaign when we were doing work for the President Reagan’s re-election efforts in ‘84 there were plenty of hard-nosed political people around Ronald Reagan that thought a lot of Peggy Noonan and her ability to put words to paper that would come out as a great speech and believe us that is a very hard thing for any speechwriter and politician to do together.

With the above in mind about Peggy Noonan it would be a smart thing for Mitt Romney and the Complete Morons that make up his political team to read Noonan’s latest column in the Wall Street Journal as many Damn times as it takes to understand what it takes to run for the Presidency of the United States and more importantly what one must have inside of them to be a President of the United States.

From Peggy Noonan’s latest…

Kvetch A Sketch, Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal

“Are we too grouchy? Mr. Romney will, after all, be the Republican nominee. That at least became clear this week. How about a little possibly helpful advice?

Hmmm. Some short-term advice to all the candidates:

Get cable TV out of your head. All the campaigns are obsessed with and driven crazy by what the cable universe is saying. Ignore it. What you are having is a conversation with America. You are not having a conversation with MSNBC. You are not negotiating a relationship with the anchors of Fox News.

Their constant clamor gives you a distorted sense of reality. Their critiques leave you too high or low. You know who let cable in his head? President Obama, in the first years of his presidency. It’s in Jodi Kantor’s book. Do you need more proof of how cable can leave you confused, lost and ineffective?

Stop talking about political process. Every reporter in America wants to reveal the shallowness of your concerns. Why do you help them? Why do you answer their dreary, droning questions about what demographic you appeal to most, what part of the country you’ll do best in, how much money you’re raising, how you’ll win over Hispanics?

They ask you these questions because they want you to be what they are: people for whom politics is all about manipulation. You are running for president. You’re supposed to talk about things that matter and address big questions.

Every Republican candidate has been answering these questions for a year now. Stop it. Learn to say, “I have a well-paid idiot who answers some of those questions for me. Would you like to discuss welfare policy?” After the first 10 times it will work.

For Mr. Romney in particular:

Suit up and get serious. Now that everyone knows you’ll be the nominee, get off the goofball express. Cheesy grits, jeans, singing, being compulsively pleasant, calling your opponents lightweights—enough.”

Amen to that Peggy Noonan, but then when it comes to some of these Complete Morons surrounding Mitt Romney and sometimes even Mitt himself, the ability to understand and comprehend how normal, average and REAL Americans think and live in the world is a very difficult thing to do because there are so very Damn few normal, average and REAL Americans that surround Romney or President Obama for that matter.

In fact, we would argue that like many Presidents and candidates for high office in America the RULE is that as one gets closer to the person in a high position of power or someone running to ascend to a high political office the Stupider and Stupider their advisors get and once one actually gets into the Oval Office and there are only a handful of close advisors left in the room it is often the person in power that is being advised by folks that make the Three Stooges look like Mensa members.

Presidents Reagan and Clinton had for most of the Presidencies very good political people around them, but the other Presidents during our adult lifetimes….Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Barack Obama….we always found had people whispering in their ears or sitting next to their desk that we would not take advice from on how to crank our cars or sweep out the garage forget about taking advice from them on major political, domestic or foreign policy issues.

The American People just need to face FACTS: President Obama and Mitt Romney have COMPLETE MORONS as advisors surrounding them and “Surprise – Surprise” as Gomer Pyle would have said in this spot….

The Damn Reason that Obama and Romney do and say such Very Stupid Things that cause most Americans to sit back and think….

“Exactly what planet were these two folks raised on because it couldn’t be planet Earth?”

…is that both men have such Very Stupid People surrounding them on a constant basis that are giving them Stupid and Asinine advice.

One thing that Peggy Noonan assumes….

“Mr. Romney will, after all, be the Republican nominee.”

…is not the TRUTH Peggy because even the Complete Morons surrounding Mitt Romney understand that there are a decent amount of hard-nosed and REAL Republicans (think from the Reagan Presidency and Campaigns) that have a backup plan if Romney’s stumbling and bumbling campaign continues to roll on and if Romney does not show up in Tampa with 1,144 Republican Party delegates PLUS a few dozen more for safety it will be Mitt Romney and the Complete Morons that surround him that will be on for a BIG Surprise! (Yes, we have checked and many of the current “committed” Republican delegates will more than happy to vote for someone else in Tampa if that “other person” would have a better chance of beating President Obama and with so many Complete Morons surrounding Mitt Romney the chances of those delegates voting for someone else gets stronger everyday.)

As for the endorsement that Mitt Romney got from former Florida governor and brother of “W” Jeb Bush last week it is only marginally helpful since the Bush family name was pretty much obliterated in the last decade by the Idiocy of George “There COULD BE Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq so let’s spend $1 Trillion Plus Dollars and get 4,000 people killed and 50,000 wounded in Iraq to take out a two-bit dictator” W. Bush, but we here at Mad As Hell And… have always liked Jeb Bush and if Jeb had decided to run for President this time around of the candidates that were in the field Jeb is the one we would have supported.

One of the most important things that Jeb Bush has talked about in recent years (as has Karl Rove who was one of the few people that had a clue about politics that was around “W” during his eight years in the White House) is that the Republican Party cannot continue to alienate everyone that isn’t Lily-White, goes to church, has a gun rack in their pick-up and is a member of a country club because the vast majority of Americans no longer fit into the above “GOP core Demographic” and that means that the Republican Presidential candidates and other people in the GOP running for elective office need to sound a lot more like….

Ronald Reagan!

Yes, we just wrote Ronald Reagan and what most Republican party officeholders and members of the Republican Party today have forgotten was that Ronald Reagan was as a person and as a President someone that believed in the American Dream and he believed in that dream for…

EVERYONE.

Ronald Reagan had something that Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and other Republican “leaders” don’t have and that “something” was a very REAL understanding of how the average American thought about the world, their family, their children and the world because unlike most people in politics today Ronald Reagan actually spent a lot of time during his life both interacting with REAL Americans and thinking about the Principles of the American Republic….“All Men are Created Equal – Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – Give Me Liberty of Give Me Death  - Four Score and Seven Years Ago – I Regret I Only Have One Life To Give for my Country – I Have A Dream” and realizing how so very much that Americans believes in those Principles of our nation.

There was something else about Ronald Reagan that many members of the Republican Party have forgotten….Ronald Reagan believed that EVERYONE that was willing to get up everyday of their lives and work hard had a right to chase the American Dream for themselves and their families and some of the things that come out of the mouths of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and other GOP “leaders” goes directly against many of the things that Ronald Reagan stood for during his Presidency and during his lifetime.

Several of us here at Mad As Hell And… get together a few times each year at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to have lunch, talk about our families and businesses and to discuss what else….politics.

One thing we always do when we visit the Reagan Library is to take a moment to visit where Ronald Reagan is buried and there we find the following words by Ronald Reagan inscribed on a wall:

The above words above Ronald’s Reagan eternal resting place were from President Reagan’s dedicatory address at the Reagan Library on November 4, 1991.

Mitt Romney, other Republican Presidential Candidates and all other Republican Party members whether in office or not would be smart to read and watch Ronald Reagan’s comments upon the dedication of his library because they define the Principles of the American Republic and the Core Principles of the Republican Party as well as anything we have seen short of President Reagan’s announcement of his run for the Presidency in 1979.

Thanks to C-Span (and Brian Lamb) for taping and making available the Dedication of the Reagan Library in 1991 which included 5 living U.S. Presidents which we post below along with the text of Ronald Reagan’s speech that day. Enjoy.

(Watch….Read…and Learn Mitt Romney and that goes double for the Complete Moron staffers that surround Romney which as Frank Sinatra once said in referring to Major Bowes and apply directly to the Romney staffers: “He was so blind he couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a bag of rice!”)

Ronald Reagan’s speech for the Dedication of the Reagan Library, November 4, 1991

“President Reagan: Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. President and to all the other distinguished speakers who hold that exalted title.

You might recall just recently, although a great communicator, but I have to admit it is hard for me to communicate the emotions that crowd in at such a moment and the humility that comes with tributes like those you have heard this morning. The pride I feel as I look out over this audience and see so many old friends for whom this library is a testimonial of love, loyalty and idealism.

To Lod Cook and the member of the Reagan Library Foundation and to the thousands of donors the world over whose generosity is reflected in the building we dedicate this morning, there are no words to convey adequately the gratitude, the gratitude that both Nancy and I feel for all you have done and let me also thank President Bush and the former Presidents who have joined us today, the exclusive fraternity of Presidents has grown and also we don’t get together very often, when we do, well as you can see, it generates quite a bit of interest. Ehh.

At one time or another I have run against most of these gentlemen and they have run against me. And yet here we are which just goes to show that above personal ideologies and party politics, we stand united as Americans.

I am proud and honored that so many of the great Presidential families are represented here today. The descendents of Franklin Delanor Roosevelt for whom I cast my first four votes and who has served as personal inspiration to me as well as millions of Americans. Carolyn and John Kennedy, Junior, ooh, through their strength and courage have so proudly carried forward the flame of their father’s legacy. Lady Bird Johnson whose warmth and strength served as tremendous source of inspiration to her husband and whose personal efforts have inspired a whole new generation of Americans to keep America beautiful. Gees. She’s joined by her daughter Lucy Johnson Turpin and Lucy’s husband Ian Turpin.

The five Presidents on this platform span twenty-two years of challenge and triumph, from the first man on the moon to the last aggressor out of liberated Kuwait. Two and a half decades forever stamped with the style and substance of a grocer’s son from Yorba Linda, California, who as a boy heard train whistles in the night and dreamed of traveling to distant places and who, as President, would crisscross the globe to build a new and lasting structure of peace. And his lovely wife, Pat, whose splendor and grace have served as an inspiration to every first lady that has followed her.

An all American from Michigan by way of Capitol Hill who has embodied the midwestern decency and honor stirred the ship of state through tough waters and won the affection of Americans everywhere. And his First Lady, Betty, who has been a shining example of personal strength to millions of Americans Aah.

A son of the South whose election did more than anything else to restore that great region to its rightful place in the American mainstream, and who devoted himself tirelessly to cleaning the blood of Abraham from the sands of Middle East. And his partner to the President, Rosalind, who assisted him to this day in his important effort to improve the quality of life in nations around the world.

And a Texan imbued with the can-do optimism of that larger than life place who in liberating a small nation half a world away has also freed the United States of America from the crippling legacy of Vietnam and with us today America’s First Lady Barbara whose personal campaign for literacy has opened the hearts and minds of so many Americans.

And of course my Nancy. I don’t know how to begin to describe what she means to me, except to say, I can’t imagine life without her.

Would you please join me ladies and gentlemen in expressing our gratitude to these great Americans not just for their presence here today but for their historic contributions to a world where to a greater extent than ever before in our century, no one wields a sword and no one drags a chain.

Together we gather for a single purpose, to give to the American people in the world a Presidential library. There is understandably a great temptation to look back, to remember, to share warm and fond memories and to reflect on the events that have brought here. And as we do, I hope we do not unduly focus on one man, one political party or even one country.

Instead our focus should be on the enduring fundamental principles of life that ennoble mankind. Ever since Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, Presidents have built libraries and amidst the surroundings that have shaped their characters and molded their values, from west branch Iowa to Simi valley of California, these institutions reflect the genius of the American people for self-government. Within their walls are housed millions of records for scholarly interpretation along with thousands of objects that give both solid and symbolic substance to this nation’s highest office and to the forty men who have occupied since Washington took his oath.

Like the office they commemorate, Presidential libraries are living institutions. Certainly it is my hope that the Reagan library will become a dynamic intellectual forum where scholars interpret the past and policy makers debate the future. It is said that after leaving the White House, Harry Truman once came in his living room to discover his wife Bess tossing their old love letters into the fire place. “Think of history,” said a horrified Mr. Truman. “I have,” said Bess.

Now, in a few days more than 6 millions pages of documentation pertaining to my administration will be released to the public. In time more than 50 million pages will be made available for researchers.

But if the Reagan library is anything like its counterparts, most of those who enter these doors will not be academics. No, they will be ordinary people of all ages, background and political persuasions eager to examine their past and explore a history not always learned in school.

For them this institution will be a time capsule of American growth and greatness, covering more than a single presidency, honoring more than a single President. Here visitors will have a chance to tour and study at their leisure the accelerating changes in a fast forward world. They will be able to trace the historic process by which mankind has stepped back from the narrow window ledge of mutually assured destruction.

They will observe an American President and a Soviet leader sitting in a boat house on the shores of Lake Geneva striving to banish the nuclear nightmare from the dreams of all our children. They will see tears of pride from the boys of Puento Hoke. They will hear the trusting engines of Challenger lifting off on a heartbreaking final mission. They will be introduced to a warm and selfless First Lady who reached out to a generation of young Americans threatened by the scourge of drugs and who put a comforting arm around an older generation through the foster grandparents program. They’ll catch the sinister crackle of would-be assassins’ weapons, one that forever changed the life of Jim and Sarah Brady. While reconfirming my belief that whatever time remained to me was to be spent in service to the American people and in accord with the lord’s wishes.

No doubt many visitors will stand in the replica of my oval office, perhaps they will sense a little of the loneliness that comes with decision making on a global scale or the stabbing pain inflicted by a terrorist bomb half a world away or the dread sound of the telephone in the middle of the night with news of hostile actions.

They will also feel some of the immense pride that comes to any President in that office as he comes into daily contact with the American heroes whose faith in themselves, their mission and their mandate is a never ending source of emotional renewal.

But then, I was lucky. If I ever tired, all I had to do was to look over my shoulder. Age has its privileges and on this day of memory and reflection, I hope you would indulge me in recalling some very special people.

I remember a small woman with auburn hair and unquenchable optimism. Her name was Nelly Reagan and she believed with all her heart that there was no such thing as accidents in this life. Everything was part of God’s plan. If something went wrong you didn’t wring your hands, you rolled up your sleeves and I remember a storytelling salesman, one with the Irish gift of laughter and a certain American restlessness. In the spirit of his forbearers who had settled on the endless sea of grass that was the Illinois prairie before the turn of the century, Jack Reagan took his family to many new beginnings.

Perhaps that was the root of my belief shared with Thomas Paine that we Americans of all people were uniquely equipped to begin the world over. Jack had dreams, Nelly had drive. The Reagans of Dixon, Illinois may have had little in material terms but we were emotionally wealthy beyond imagination, for we were Americans, young people in a young land with the best days ahead. And we were part of a very special extended family.

I grew up in a town where everyone cared about one another because everyone knew one another, not as statistics in a government program but as neighbors in need. Is that nostalgic? I don’t think so. I think it is still what sets this nation apart from every other nation on the face of the earth.

Our neighbors were never ashamed to kneel in prayer to their makers nor were they ever embarrassed to feel a lump in their throat when old glory passed by. No one on Dixon, Illinois ever burned a flag and no one in Dixon would have tolerated it.

Something else I learned is that, and that every generation of Americans must discover for themselves, I learned to admire the entrepreneurial spirit of this pioneering land where everyone has a chance to push out the boundaries of life. All this and more will greet visitors to this library and museum.

If they are anything like me they will arrive with the conviction so reminiscent of what Nelly Reagan talk long ago in Dixon, that America itself is no accident of geography or political science but parts of God’s plan to preserve and extend the sacred fire of human liberty.

I too have been described as an undying optimist, always seeing a glass half full when some see it as half empty and yes, it’s true I always see the sunny side of life. And that’s not just because I have been blessed with achieving so many of my dreams, my optimism comes not just from my strong faith in God, but from my strong and enduring faith in man.

In my eighty years, I prefer to call that the forty-first anniversary of my thirty ninth birthday, I’ve seen what men can do for each other and do to each other, I’ve seen war and peace, feast and famine, depression and prosperity, sickness and health. I’ve seen the depth of suffering and the peaks of triumph and I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and that there is purpose and worth to each and every life.

A dynamic people, by rolling their sleeves up and getting government off their backs, can achieve economic renewal. They can slay the beast of inflation and break the record book when it comes to sustained economic growth. They can create millions of new jobs and show a watching world the success of free enterprise.

I remember a time when the growth of American government seemed inexorable and the encroachment of that government on the lives and liberties of our citizens seemed unstoppable. I also remember a time when America was advised to keep a low profile in the world as if by hunkering down and muzzling her deepest beliefs, she might avoid foreign criticism and placate her enemies and I remember a time when walls divided nations and human rights were trampled in the name of corrupt ideologies. A time when the arms. race was spiraling out of control and distrust stood between us.

Eighty years is a long time to live and yet within the course of only a few short years, I have seen the world turned upside down and conventional wisdom utterly disproved. Visitors to this mountain top will see a great jagged chunk of that Berlin Wall as you were told already, hated symbol of, yes, an evil empire, that spied on and lied to its citizens, denying them their freedom, their bread even their faith. Well today that will all exist only in museums, souvenir collections and the memories of a people no longer oppressed.

It is also a reminder that a strong America is always desirable and necessary in our world. Today a heroic people has cast off the chains of Marx and Lenin that gave rise to so much of this century’s tensions. The iron curtain has rusted away. In churches and schools, in factory and on farms, the people of eastern Europe have found their voice and with it a battering ram to knock down the walls of tyranny. Totalitarianism is melting like snow. As the mythologies of communism melts under the fierce heat of truth, our greatest enemy now may be complacency itself.

Meanwhile, let us joyously invade our former opponents with Yankee ingenuity, entrepreneurs selling their wares, enthusiastic tourists all spreading the gospel of human freedom. Prosperous democracies don’t declare their war on each other, they simply let their citizens live better lives for themselves.

Western Europe soared like a phoenix from the ashes of World War II. So can eastern Europe from the ruin of totalitarianism and the American people can help show the way. What a happy challenge for those looking for something to do after the cold war.

Today is the latest chapter in a story that began a quarter of a century ago when the people of California entrusted me with the stewardship of their dreams. The latest, but far from the last, for ten years after we summoned America to a new beginning, we are beginning still. Everyday brings fresh challenges and opportunities to match.

With each sunrise, we are reminded that millions of our citizens have yet to share in the abundance of American prosperity. Many languishing neighborhoods are bereft of hope. Still others hesitate to venture out in the streets for fear of criminal violence. Can’t we pledge ourselves to a new beginning for them? Around the world, hope stares in the Middle East and our prayers are with the peacemakers as they strive to realize a historic opportunity… (end of tape)

I have no fears of that as we have done our best and so I say come and learn from it. My fondest hope is that Americans will travel the road extending forward from the arch of experience, never forgetting our heroic origins, never failing to seek divine guidance as we march boldly bravely into a future limited only by our capacity to dream.

May everyday be a new beginning and every dawn bring us closer to that shining city up on a hill. Thank you. God bless you all and God bless America.”

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