Reagan and the Republican Presidential Candidate debate: What was the Chicago Tribune thinking?
Borosage tries to argue Reagan wasn’t much of a President. This is like conservative critics of President Bill Clinton who might try to argue Mr. Bill was not smart, charming and extremely popular with the electorate. In short, those dogs won’t hunt and neither will Borosage’s.
******************************************************
There are those who worry that the sale of the Chicago Tribune to a non-media person like real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell might diminish the quality of that paper. However, those who worry of such might worry a bit more about the current Tribune management team.
Today’s Tribune Op Ed Commentary Page has items by three authors: Steve Chapman [Tribune Editorial Board member] on Gun Control, Jonah Goldberg [National Review Online editor] on Tenet and Robert Borosage [President, Institute for America’s Future] on Reagan, Bush and Tonight’s Republican Presidential Candidate debate.
Chapman defies easy labeling. He can be criticized by those on the right or left, but seldom can be “taken out,” for not supporting his arguments with logic and authority. Goldberg is consistently conservative and on the right. Liberals can argue with his premises and conclusions, but he can seldom be dismissed as writing nonsense.
Then we come to Borosage, who seems to be the odd man out on the op ed page of today’s Tribune-- and not because of his ideology. It is his complete lack of reasoning ability, thoughtful argument or understanding of history that grabs the reader. It is as if the man just makes up stuff to fit with his assertions and conclusions.
Robert Borosage starts off smartly enough, crystallizing the challenge facing ten of the eleven Republican candidates for President [the eleventh, John Cox, was excluded, See here and here] in tonight’s debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California [MSNBC, 7:00 – 8:30 pm (CST)]:
As Republican contenders for the presidential nomination gather for their first debate Thursday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, they are caught between a rock and a hard place...How can the contenders distance themselves from Bush's failures without alienating their own base? Expect them to invoke the conservative icon Ronald Reagan early and often. They'll call for a return to the faith, pledge to follow in the footsteps of the Gipper and "morning in America." [Emphasis Supplied].
But, then Borosage tries to argue Reagan wasn’t much of a President. This is like conservative critics of President Bill Clinton who might try to argue Mr. Bill was not smart, charming and extremely popular with the electorate. In short, those dogs won’t hunt and neither will Borosage’s.
According to Borosage,
Each of Bush's signature failures -- the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Enron and the corporate scandals, failed tax and trade policies, the attempt to privatize Social Security, the posturing around Terri Schiavo and stem cells -- can be traced back not simply to the conservative ideology and ideologues that sired them -- but to the basic concepts that Reagan championed. [Emphasis Supplied].
Really now, the Bush reaction to a September 11 terrorist action of Al Qaeda flying planes into the World Trade Center that resulted in the death of more than three thousand innocents on American soil and that converted Bush to nation building can best be understood by looking back to Reagan’s basic concepts?
Let’s see now. Would those concepts include a strong military defense and build-up that helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it sought to keep up with the United States. Or, would it be the actions and inspiration of Reagan that helped bring about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. Robert Borosage does not quite address those issues.
But, Borosage does tell us that:
…[Reagan] was also saved by his adversaries -- the USSR's Mikhail Gorbachev, who aggressively pursued arms negotiations, and the Democrats in Congress, who blocked many of Reagan's domestic excesses -- like the talk of gutting Social Security. [Emphasis supplied].
Yes, that would be a winning thesis. Ronald Reagan was saved by whom? Why Gorbachev and Democrats, that’s who.
Borosage’s final bit of advice for Republicans:
Republicans are going to need someone with Reagan’s ability to peddle the unpalatable. [Emphasis Supplied].
Yes, that would be it. Reagan showed President Lincoln to be wrong. You can “fool all the people all the time,” according to Borosage. This must be Borosage’s creed since he seemed to fool the decision maker for the Tribune editorial page this time, which, no doubt, in Borosage’s world is enough to disprove Lincoln.
The point is that there are a number of thoughtful, intelligent and even eloquent writers and speakers on the left who can criticize Bush and even Reagan sharply and wisely, especially on the day of a Republican Presidential candidate debate at the Reagan Library. But, how in the world did the Chicago Tribune pick Robert Borosage [adviser to Rev. Jackson, former Senator Moseley-Braun, Senator Barbara Boxer and the late, former Senator Paul Wellstone] to take on this task? How, indeed.
*******************************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************
******************************************************
There are those who worry that the sale of the Chicago Tribune to a non-media person like real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell might diminish the quality of that paper. However, those who worry of such might worry a bit more about the current Tribune management team.
Today’s Tribune Op Ed Commentary Page has items by three authors: Steve Chapman [Tribune Editorial Board member] on Gun Control, Jonah Goldberg [National Review Online editor] on Tenet and Robert Borosage [President, Institute for America’s Future] on Reagan, Bush and Tonight’s Republican Presidential Candidate debate.
Chapman defies easy labeling. He can be criticized by those on the right or left, but seldom can be “taken out,” for not supporting his arguments with logic and authority. Goldberg is consistently conservative and on the right. Liberals can argue with his premises and conclusions, but he can seldom be dismissed as writing nonsense.
Then we come to Borosage, who seems to be the odd man out on the op ed page of today’s Tribune-- and not because of his ideology. It is his complete lack of reasoning ability, thoughtful argument or understanding of history that grabs the reader. It is as if the man just makes up stuff to fit with his assertions and conclusions.
Robert Borosage starts off smartly enough, crystallizing the challenge facing ten of the eleven Republican candidates for President [the eleventh, John Cox, was excluded, See here and here] in tonight’s debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California [MSNBC, 7:00 – 8:30 pm (CST)]:
As Republican contenders for the presidential nomination gather for their first debate Thursday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, they are caught between a rock and a hard place...How can the contenders distance themselves from Bush's failures without alienating their own base? Expect them to invoke the conservative icon Ronald Reagan early and often. They'll call for a return to the faith, pledge to follow in the footsteps of the Gipper and "morning in America." [Emphasis Supplied].
But, then Borosage tries to argue Reagan wasn’t much of a President. This is like conservative critics of President Bill Clinton who might try to argue Mr. Bill was not smart, charming and extremely popular with the electorate. In short, those dogs won’t hunt and neither will Borosage’s.
According to Borosage,
Each of Bush's signature failures -- the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Enron and the corporate scandals, failed tax and trade policies, the attempt to privatize Social Security, the posturing around Terri Schiavo and stem cells -- can be traced back not simply to the conservative ideology and ideologues that sired them -- but to the basic concepts that Reagan championed. [Emphasis Supplied].
Really now, the Bush reaction to a September 11 terrorist action of Al Qaeda flying planes into the World Trade Center that resulted in the death of more than three thousand innocents on American soil and that converted Bush to nation building can best be understood by looking back to Reagan’s basic concepts?
Let’s see now. Would those concepts include a strong military defense and build-up that helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it sought to keep up with the United States. Or, would it be the actions and inspiration of Reagan that helped bring about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. Robert Borosage does not quite address those issues.
But, Borosage does tell us that:
…[Reagan] was also saved by his adversaries -- the USSR's Mikhail Gorbachev, who aggressively pursued arms negotiations, and the Democrats in Congress, who blocked many of Reagan's domestic excesses -- like the talk of gutting Social Security. [Emphasis supplied].
Yes, that would be a winning thesis. Ronald Reagan was saved by whom? Why Gorbachev and Democrats, that’s who.
Borosage’s final bit of advice for Republicans:
Republicans are going to need someone with Reagan’s ability to peddle the unpalatable. [Emphasis Supplied].
Yes, that would be it. Reagan showed President Lincoln to be wrong. You can “fool all the people all the time,” according to Borosage. This must be Borosage’s creed since he seemed to fool the decision maker for the Tribune editorial page this time, which, no doubt, in Borosage’s world is enough to disprove Lincoln.
The point is that there are a number of thoughtful, intelligent and even eloquent writers and speakers on the left who can criticize Bush and even Reagan sharply and wisely, especially on the day of a Republican Presidential candidate debate at the Reagan Library. But, how in the world did the Chicago Tribune pick Robert Borosage [adviser to Rev. Jackson, former Senator Moseley-Braun, Senator Barbara Boxer and the late, former Senator Paul Wellstone] to take on this task? How, indeed.
*******************************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
******************
<< Home