Ronald Reagan: Exit Stage Right

I was not a fan of Ronald Reagan's politics, but there was something about the man I liked. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn't born wealthy but worked his way to the top using the skills that he had, that of an affable B-picture movie actor.

Yesterday I posted a link to Hunter Thompson's obituary of Richard Nixon. It was a scathing indictment of the man, unclouded by the sentiment of the many eulogies being sounded at the time. I'm sure Thompson could write something similar to that on Reagan, but I am also sure it would be tempered with a strange fondness for the man.

In searching for something by Thompson on Reagan, I can upon this in an ESPN article:

War has always been a hard act to follow, and this rotten little masacre in Iraq is no exception. It is like that permanent s---storm that Ronald Reagan talked about in his letters to Frank Sinatra. They both believed very deeply in the book of Revelation. Reagan even went so far so to say to his buddy, "We are screwed, Frankie. We are the ones who will have to face the end of the World."

They had a good time for sure, those rouges. They were life-long sports fans, but Wars kept getting in their way.

I used to laugh when good old Dutch said ominous things like that -- but no longer. It is becoming clearer and clearer that he was right, dead right, if only because he was drawing up the blueprints himself, right in front of our eyes, and we loved him for it.

I had a soft-spot in my heart for Ronald Reagan, if only because he was a sportswriter in his youth.

Ronald Reagan disappeared from the public eye ten years ago with a letter explaining his descent into the hell of Alzheimer's. For these ten years, he has been leaving. It was sad but appropriate that Reagan would have the longest ride into that cinematic sunset. The End. Let the history books run the credits.