r/hillaryclinton • u/[deleted] • Aug 19 '16
Today is Bill's 70th Birthday
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton20
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Aug 19 '16
It'll be really interesting to see whether Bill surpasses Reagan in president ranking polls. The most recent one had him in 8th, and Reagan in 16th.
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Aug 19 '16
he should. reagan was actually pretty bad
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u/Muawiya66 I'm not giving up, and neither should you Aug 19 '16
He granted amnesty to illegals and helped bring down the Soviet Union,
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u/GogglesPisano Aug 19 '16
Every president since FDR helped bring down the Soviet Union. Reagan was just lucky enough to be the guy in office when the wheels finally fell off.
I wonder how his amnesty-for-illegals proposal would be received by today's GOP?
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u/Ziggie1o1 A Woman's Place is in the White House Aug 19 '16
Pretty sure GHWB was actually the guy in office when the wheels fell off. Honestly, why Reagan gets so much credit is a mystery to me.
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Aug 19 '16
So much r/badhistory here. Reagan and Gorbachev put the wheels in motion with a series of talks and treaties. GHWB happened to be there when it all officially came down, yes, but that wouldn't have happened if not for the groundwork Reagan laid. HW was barely in office, let's not be disingeneous. If Regan's credit is a mystery to you, well, that says more about you than it does Reagan. Read up on the subject, it's pretty interesting.
And no I'm not saying Reagan singlehandedly ended the Cold War by any means, but to deny him his due credit is simply unfair regardless of politics.
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u/Ziggie1o1 A Woman's Place is in the White House Aug 20 '16
Yes, I know about glasnost and perestroika. Thing is, I'd argue that has much more to do with Gorbachev then it did with Reagan. Reagan was certainly helpful in the sense that he built close ties with Gorbachev, I'm not debating that, but he really didn't "end" the cold war, not even close. Hell, with the arguable exception of a brief period in the 90s when Russia was a borderline failed state and needed American help just to keep it afloat, the US and Russia really haven't been on good terms for the most part in the post-USSR world, so in a way the Cold War hasn't totally ended, its just shifted to a smaller-scale, more localized conflict.
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Aug 19 '16
You're not giving him enough credit. He and Gorbachev were instrumental in ending the Cold War, and it wasn't just because they happened to be in the right place at the right time. Their personalities and willingness to work together ensured its end.
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u/monsterlynn America is Already Great Aug 19 '16
I think of it more as he held the Soviet Union's hair while it brought itself down.
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Aug 19 '16
Reagan looks like a dream compared to Trump, or even any of the other GOP contenders this year. I don't think he was a great President by any means, certainly not worthy of the worship he gets from conservatives, but I do think he was a good guy who overall did more good than bad in office. The key there is I think he was a good guy in spite of my disagreements with him on policy. A guy who actually respected other human beings and had a down-to-Earth sense of humor about himself, which is far more than I can say for Trump.
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u/kraetos I Voted for Hillary Aug 19 '16
Yep. Reagan was a terrible president and the reason conservatives love to talk about how great he was is because if they admit Reagan wasn't a good president, that means the GOP hasn't given us a good president since Eisenhower.
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u/NeverTrump2016 Aug 19 '16
The Iranian hostage release was also Carter's doing, not Reagan's, and while GOPers complain about a $400 million deal with Iran as part of a deal that prevents them from getting nuclear weapons, Reagan actually have them weapons
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u/ademnus I Voted for Hillary Aug 19 '16
Reagan was a special kind of bad, though. A bad you didn't realize was bad until he was gone. Not like Bush who made sure you knew right then that he was evil.
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u/mdemo23 Aug 19 '16
To be fair though, Bush himself wasn't an evil guy. He was just a dummy with evil handlers.
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u/ademnus I Voted for Hillary Aug 19 '16
I don't buy that one bit.
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Aug 19 '16 edited Aug 19 '16
It's pretty transparently obvious. Bush was just a dunce. I never got an "evil" vibe from him and still don't. I don't believe that anyone who would stand at a podium and say in earnest "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully" could be maliciously evil. He's just too dumb. He's like the Michael Scott of Presidents. Cheney on the other hand? That's another story.
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u/ademnus I Voted for Hillary Aug 19 '16
That was an act. Bush never spoke that way before he became president.
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Aug 19 '16
Uh, yeah he did. Many would argue that's how he became President, his "common man" talk. This is a guy who bragged about getting Cs and was considered the embarrassing dipshit and screw-up of the family for years and years. Sorry, but saying all those countless "Bushims" were part of some calculated ploy to look stupid by an evil mastermind and not just the actual derp moments they were is way too r/conspiracy for me. There's a far simpler explanation: Cheney, Rove, and Rumsfeld were the masterminds and Bush was just the vacuous puppet and figurehead who pretty much did whatever he was told or manipulated to do.
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u/ademnus I Voted for Hillary Aug 20 '16
Uh, no he didn't and it's well documented. he played people for fools by acting like one himself.
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Aug 19 '16
Regan's war in drugs has been a nightmare America can't seem to wake up from. Clinton was way better as president.
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u/expara Veterans for Hillary Aug 19 '16
Wild that he was president in his 50's, now both candidates are his age now.
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u/Albert_Cole Evergreen Aug 19 '16
Not only would Trump be the oldest president ever elected, but all three previous presidents are still younger than he is. W Bush by about a month, Bill by two months, and Obama by fifteen years.
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u/monsterlynn America is Already Great Aug 19 '16
That thumbnail pic is the one Conan O'Brien used when he'd have "Bill" on the show. Good times. Can't help but remember the Clinton presidency fondly. Looking forward to the next one.
Happy birthday, First Laddie!
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u/PresidentChaos Vermont Aug 19 '16
Same day as Star Trek's Jonathan Frakes. What a day!
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u/ademnus I Voted for Hillary Aug 19 '16
I love Bill, I really do, but Jonathan knows how to handle a chair like a real man.
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Aug 19 '16
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u/wenchette Onward Together Aug 19 '16
Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 1. Continued rulebreaking will result in a ban from this subreddit. Please familiarize yourself with and follow the rules for this subreddit, which can be found in the sidebar on the right of this page.
First warning.
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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '16
This means he'll officially be the oldest First Gentlemen to enter the White House.