Chavez doesn't understand inflation

[Kuciwalker]

So does Bush, Z.

[Zkribbler]

Maybe it's a job requirement.

[Elok]

Does this Bolivar fixation remind anyone else of the GOP and Reagan?

[Whoha]

I've already told you, he's CIA.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Arrian
He's not studying hard enough. 20% inflation? Bah. That's nothing! He needs to get that up to more like 7000% to match the master!

-Arrian

Fixed.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Elok
Does this Bolivar fixation remind anyone else of the GOP and Reagan?

The GOP has no choice but to turn a middling president like Reagan into their personal idol. All their other Presidents have been crap like Nixon & Hoover or closet Democrats like Eisenhower. They of course ignore that their supposedly small government, low taxes president was actually a huge government, massive deficit president. They don't have great leaders like FDR, presidents who caught the national imagination like JFK, or even simply an especially competent president like Clinton. The Republicans only have Lincoln but he was actually a big government radical who is hated in the south and who would be a Democrat if alive today thus they try to build up the mythical cult of Reagan pretending he was something he demonstrably wasn't.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Jeez, you are as bad as Aggie:

presidents who caught the national imagination like JFK

Reagan didn't capture the national imagination? What the Hell are you on about? As for middling Presidents, well, JFK is right there.

[Dinner]

Reagan caught the imagination of some right wing nutters on the radio who have been spoon feed that his their own personal Lenin or Mao. The personality cult doesn't extend very far though. Basically the GOP doesn't have any one else who could pass as a figure head so they try to recreate Reagan into a god.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Or rather he caught the imagination of the country and his speeches are widely held up as great oratory. I realize your bias drives you batty, but obvious truths shouldn't be this hard to grab for you.

[Patroklos]

@ Oerdin

Teddy was a Republican as well.

[Dinner]

Teddy was a big government guy from the days before the two parties switched roles. In other words a closet democrat.

Reagan had good speech writers but he NEVER EVER lived up to his small government pledge. He bloated the government just like the others even as he continually preached small government. He just didn't deliver anything other then tax cuts for the rich and massive deficits. A virtual GWB but to his credit he was to scared of WW3 to start a major war a la Bush. Instead he contented himself with dirty wars in places El Salvador along with lying to Congress, lying to America, and trading with America's enemies a la Iran-Contra. All the serious academics agree Reagan was at best a middling president but he's all the Republicans have to work with that's why they try to deify him.

[Patroklos]

Teddy was a big government guy from the days before the two parties switched roles. In other words a closet democrat.

Hmmmm, so I guess we can discount a good number of your mythical Democratic God figures (Wilson, FDR, JFK) as they were from the party of racism. Good job Oerdin

Reagan had good speech writers but he NEVER EVER lived up to his small government pledge. He bloated the government just like the others even as he continually preached small government.

I don't quite remember, but wasn't there something very expensive going on at that time.... Nah, what was I thinking

[Whoha]

By the way, Volcker seems to be fairly pissed at Bernanke.

[Arrian]

Besides, wanna argue that JFK was actually a good president? I'd submit that's not actually an easy argument to make.

"Captured the national imagination" =! good president, in terms of policy. Ergo, Reagan can be said to have captured the nation's imagination, even if you deplore his policies.

FFS, Oerdin.

-Arrian

p.s. Is it really 7000% inflation in Zimbabwe now? Damn, I'd lost track...

p.p.s. You could also make a decent argument that FDR went a bit power-mad at times and was, in fact, kind of Chavez-like. Like when he tried to pack the Supreme Court. There's a reason there are Presidential term limits, and that reason is FDR.

[Imran Siddiqui]

All the serious academics agree Reagan was at best a middling president

O rly?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_United_States_Presidents

A 2000 survey by The Wall Street Journal consisted of an "ideologically balanced group of 132 prominent professors of history, law, and political science". This poll sought to include an equal number of liberals and conservatives in the survey, as the editors argued that previous polls were dominated by either one group or the other, but never balanced. According to the editors, this poll included responses from more women, minorities, and young professors than the 1996 Schlesinger poll. The editors noted that the results of their poll were "remarkably similar" to the 1996 Schlesinger poll, with the main difference in the 2000 poll being the lower rankings for the 1960s presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy, and higher ranking of President Ronald Reagan at #8. Franklin Roosevelt still ranked in the top three.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/pl/?id=110007244

Even Ronald Reagan, out of office less than two decades, ranks a respectable 14th among Democrats.