More Reagan Obits.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader would like say a few more words about President Reagan and his legacy, and then do a link dump of sorts.

First off, your Maximum Leader thinks the generally favourable news coverage is a positive sign. Although you certainly can tell the bias in Fox and CNN. Fox coverage, if you Maximum Leader may steal a line from someone on National Review Online, is more like an Irish wake. Coverage on CNN is more like a news story that must be handled carefully. The CNN people must feel it is encumbent on them to say one bad thing about Reagan for every good thing anyone says. Be that as it may...

Your Maximum Leader read over the AirMarshal's post. Your Maximum Leader will agree that there has been a tendency among some Republicans to want to name too much stuff after Reagan. But, your Maximum Leader understands why this tendency exists. We Americans don't have much of a historical memory. And naming a school, or a building, after someone may result in some person down the line asking themselves "Who was this person, Ronald Reagan? And why is my school named after him?" And if they try to find out more about the person, they may be inspired. Reagan's life and work can be a powerful inspiration to so many people in the future. In your Maximum Leader's opinion, the most fitting monument to Reagan is the USS Ronald Reagan.

Also in the AirMarshal's post is some important references to Iran-Contra. While your Maximum Leader agrees that this scandal was of tremendous importance, Reagan was not directly involved. Your Maximum Leader believes it was the grouping of McFarlane and Pointdexter (aided by Oliver North) who really thought up the plan and saw it was carried out. The AirMarshal says this shows that Reagan had lost control of his White House. To some extent this may be true, there were key personnel changes in the White House around the time the whole scheme was started. That cannot be overlooked as a contributing factor. Reagan relied on a core group of people to execute his ideas. That mode of management failed him in this instance. Had Reagan been a more detail-oriented President (like Jimmy Carter perhaps), Iran-Contra would likely never had occured. But then again, neither would he have won the Cold War.

Reagan was not a particularly detail-oriented president. Which is a characteristic shared by many great presidents. As Isaiah Berlin wrote, men come in two types foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes are smart and cleaver and know much about a great many things. Hedgehogs on the other hand, know one big thing. Reagan was a hedgehog. But the one big thing he knew (that the US was good and must use its power to spread good throughout the world) was not simplistically arrived upon. Reagan was a smart man. Read the recent books by Kiron Skinner and Martin & Annalise Anderson and you can descern for yourself that Reagan was a well-read and very thoughtful man who understood the complexities of many issues. But he didn't get bogged down in those complexities.

Like winning the Cold War for example. Many have said that he didn't have a plan for winning the Cold War. Your Maximum Leader believes this is patently wrong. The plan was simple. Increase defence spending. Be aggressive in confronting the Soviets diplomatically and through surrogates. Don't let up on the Soviets, keep them under contant pressure, and their system will collapse. That was the plan. The fact that it was simple and widely regarded as stupidly naive doesn't change the fact that the plan worked. Yes winning the Cold War increased the deficits. But, deficits can be managed. (As they were briefly in the late 1990s. And can be again if either political party stifens up the sinews and goes to it.) And the deficit was a small price to pay for the defeat of the communist system.

As for your Maximum Leader's own thoughts on Reagan's legacy. He was one of our greatest leaders. He restored our basic belief in ourselves. He changed the political dialogue in Washington forever. (You don't hear anyone - except the Minister of Agriculture and we can ignore him - talking about bringing back 60% marginal tax rates for example.) He mastered the power of speaking to the American people and thereby motivating them to get behind him in whatever he set off to accomplish. He won the Cold War. And throughout it all he kept true to his core beliefs.

So far the best obituary your Maximum Leader has read is Lou Cannon's at the Washington Post. (Also check out Cannon's excellent books on Reagan.)

Of course, National Review has a series of good articles. The best are here, here, and here. As more of the regular contributors to National Review add their own writings, your Maximum Leader will commend them to you as he sees fit.

Richard Perle's comments in the Daily Telegraph are quite good in explaining how Reagan dealth with the Soviets.

The Times of India sheds some light on US/India Relations during the Reagan Administration.

From the Blogosphere...

Charles at Little Green Footballs writes something with which your Maximum Leader completely agrees.

Pejman Yousefzadeh writes an excellent memorial. Two in fact.

Skippy's comments on Reagan's passing are, as are so many of his political comments, quite insightful.

Bill Whittle is short and heartfelt.

A Small Victory is very good.

Tacitus is particularly good as well.

The Commissar also has a good roundup of blogs on Reagan.

Your Maximum Leader just listened to the funeral arrangements. He will try to get to the US Capitol to pay his respects.

Carry on.