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Thoughts about past, current and future Presidents.
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by Tim Duffy
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The 50's gave us Dwight David Eisenhower 1953-1961, the cold
war and the bomb. I was too young to say whether Ike was a
good President or not. The only things that I remember is
life was like the TV Show "Happy Days" and my
parents were Democrats.
In the 60's came the Beatles, Castro and the Berlin Wall,
along with John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1961-1963. My parents
were elated that Kennedy was elected President. My thoughts
on Kennedy's Presidency compare to my thoughts on Ronald
Reagan. They were both very charismatic and had a very large
loyal following of Americans. The big differences: Kennedy
gave his life for his country and Reagan ripped it off. Not
for himself but for big business. More on that when we get
to Reagan.
Then came Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969 not elected but
sworn in after the Kennedy assassination. Johnson was doomed
from the start not having the charisma of Kennedy and
inheriting a very unpopular war that Kennedy had committed
us to.
Richard Milhous Nixon 1969-1974, whom I consider one of the
best Presidents of the Century. I know you're thinking how
can that be as he left office in disgrace after lying to the
American people, that had just reelected to him to a second
term by the largest plurality in the history of this great
democracy. Forget about his ego for a moment, that was his
downfall. Nixon took away the isolationist attitude that
prevailed and opened the U.S. to the world- "a
diplomats diplomat". He also was not afraid to go
against his own party for the best interests of the American
people. For those of you that don't remember, he went
against big business and devalued the dollar to keep us out
of a recession.
When Nixon resigned, Gerald Rudolph Ford 1974-1977, Nixon's
Vice President was sworn in as President. I can't say too
much for Ford's Presidency as he was more of a caretaker and
outside of an assassination attempt there is nothing really
remarkable about his Presidency.
James Earl Carter Jr. 1977-1981 was elected for the same
reason that the right wing and conservative Republicans are
backing George W. Bush today. Nixon had embarrassed the
office of the Presidency of the United States. Carter being
a Southern Democrat, loyal church member and not ever tied
to Washington politics or scandals seemed the perfect
choice. The trouble was that Carter for all his attributes
didn't know how to be President. (To nice a man.)
Wanting to bail the country out of the near depression that
Carter put us on the brink of came a very likable B movie
actor Ronald Wilson Reagan 1981-1989 who graduated from B
movies to an Academy Award winning performance playing the
President of the United States. Unfortunately Reagan was not
much more qualified then Carter to run the country. Rather
than having a President, we had a puppet that let others
make all of the important decisions. That's why he was not
indicted for the Iran Contra fiasco. He really didn't know
what was going on in his own Presidency. Even though he was
a past Union President, Reagan did his level best to destroy
the Unions in this country and let us not forget the
deregulation of the Saving and Loan industry. That gift to
big business cost the American taxpayer over a 500 Billion
dollars and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of the
nation's elderly that lost their life saving's due to
deregulation. (Re-member Keating?)
George Herbert Walker Bush 1989-1993 unlike Reagan was a
Washington insider use to making his own decisions. Also to
his detriment he inherited the Regan legacy of higher
interest rates high unemployment and big corporations
leaving this country in the quest for even higher profits.
This alienated him from the party and the Christian Right
Wing and cost him a second term.
Then along came Bill, William Jefferson Clinton 1993-.
Clinton offered to take responsibility for working for the
all of the American people not just big business. To lower
inflation, create jobs, lower interest rates making it more
affordable for Americans to buy a house and yes even big
business benefited by being able to expand due to the lower
interest rates. The only promise not kept was a national
health care program. The promises that were kept were not
only fulfilled but beyond anyone's expectations. Just look
at the stock market.
The one thing that the Conservative Christian Right forgets
is that Clinton made no promises to the American people
about his personal life or what he does with cigars. We
hired Clinton to do a job and that job has been done very
well.
When casting your vote this November ask yourself" am I
better off now than I was eight years ago". Did
Clinton's morals or lack of them make my life worse? Did it
prevent him from doing the job he was elected to do?
If you're honest you will cast your vote for Al Gore.
If you don't think that the Clinton Gore team did the job
they were hired to do then cast your vote for George W.
Bush. But remember when Nixon disgraced the presidency we
ended up with Jimmy Carter. What did that do for the
country? Could it happen again?
Question?
What do the Arian Brotherhood, Nazi party, KKK, The Extreme
Christian Right and Skinheads have in common?
Answer.
They're all hate groups!
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Editors Notes
A lot more could have been added to this opinion both good
and bad. However surveys indicate web surfers want brevity.
Permission is herby granted to reprint the above provided it
is not for profit and it is reproduced in entirety including
copyrights and credits to Tim Duffy and http://www.timduffy.com
additionally notification is given to the aforementioned web
site of such reprint also a link is to be made to
TimDuffy.com. This permission may be and can be withdrawn at
any time with or without notice. This permission statement
to be included in all reprints.
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