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Friday, January 28, 2011

25 Years Ago Today

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch.

President Ronald Reagan's eloquent address to our nation:

22 comments:

  1. Reagan is sadly missed. We lost not only a president, but a man with soul as well. There were men as president and there are the mice. Reagan was not one of them.

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  2. Steve,
    The contrast between Reagan's elegant speech in this video and the speech that Obama gave in Tucson is astounding. BHO, for all his slickness and his degree from Harvard Law School does not compare well. For that matter, the speeches of most of our Presidents don't compare well.

    No matter what one thinks of Ronald Reagan, one should be honest and admit that the man could give a speech that touched the hearts of his listeners. He did master the art of public speaking.

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  3. We should listen to these every once and awhile to remind ourselves when we last had a real President.

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  4. Blogginator,
    One reason I posted this video is that many of my students probably haven't seen it. They were born well after the event.

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  5. Our Space cadet President has no soul as far as I am concerned. I cannot believe how the time has flown. It seems like yesterday this happened, and we took Reagan for granted.

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  6. From Z's post today:

    Katie Couric, Christiane Amanpour and Andrea Mitchell (and I think a few others but I can't think of them right now) all mentioned how REAGONESQUE Obama appeared during his SOTU speech. And, of course, they meant that as a compliment...

    Read the rest at the foregoing link.

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  7. Wow, I remember it exactly, including the client I was seeing for taxes at the time. I stepped out of my office and took a phone call at the front desk. It was my wife telling me that the Challenger had just exploded.

    Hard to believe that much time has passed.

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  8. Reagan found it unnecessary to hand out "Together We Thrive" t-shirts prior to his speech.

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  9. I am confused I thought the left hated Reagan and thought his was adled.

    Now they love Reagan and want their President to be more like Reagan???

    Reagan was an actor who became a great President.

    Obama is a President who became an actor and not a very convincing one.

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  10. I was at the video time when the Challenger exploded and saw it play out on a big screen TV. I couldn't believe my eyes!

    We Americans had been taking it for granted that our space program would have no further mishaps or catastrophes.

    That night, I watched every minute of Reagan's speech. Back in those days, I wasn't much interested in politics and didn't hang on a President's every word. However, what happened to the Challenger and those on board transcended politics -- as did Reagan's address to the nation.

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  11. Blogginator,
    I am confused I thought the left hated Reagan and thought his was adled.

    Now they love Reagan and want their President to be more like Reagan???


    All a part of the Obama administration's propaganda war.

    BHO is showing how he's crossing the aisle. Pfffft.

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  12. Stogie,
    I well remember the day too as I just stated in a comment above.

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  13. Bob,
    Reagan found it unnecessary to hand out "Together We Thrive" t-shirts prior to his speech.

    Zing!

    And a good point too.

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  14. Bunkerville,
    Space cadet President

    No wonder he drew the analogy with Sputnik. **wink**

    America did take Reagan for granted. When he was President, we couldn't imagine having a President with no dignity. Well, we've got one now.

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  15. Reaganite Republican has quite a post about Time Magazine's comparison of Obama and Reagan.

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  16. I remember too AOW. Makes me feel old, makes me miss him, makes me worried about our country now and the future.

    Debbie
    Right Truth
    http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

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  17. He was called "The Great Communicator" for a reason.

    Sadly, there is no one in the Republican party today who can measure up to him.

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  18. I'm with Mark. Today's politicians can barely string a sentence together.

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  19. I remember sitting in class watching the launch 25 years ago. No one could believe it or knew what to say; we were too young to fully grasp what had happened.

    I recall my teacher breaking out into tears. I remember sitting in the living room floor later, watching this speech.

    Honestly, Obama couldn't hold a candle to Reagan, and comparing him is just absurd.


    I notice Ducky hasn't been along to make any nasty Raygun comments... Yet.

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  20. Thank you for this reminder, AOW. I was in 7th grade when this happened, and I remember it.

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  21. I did a post on this as what I hope will be your first of a number of contributions to the Reagan Centennial:

    http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/2011/01/reagan-centennial-remembering.html

    Sorry, but I couldn't bring myself to use the video you have posted as Dan Rather is doing the introduction. I went to the Reagan Library You Tube channel for the original:

    http://www.youtube.com/reaganfoundation

    There is also a great feature at the Library site which has Reagan's diary entries day by day with links to additional materiel:

    http://www.reaganfoundation.org/white-house-diary.aspx

    I want to invite all your readers to share their own Reagan memories and thoughts on this 100th anniversary of his birth:

    http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/2011/01/you-are-invited-to-reagan-centennial.html

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  22. Mike,
    You said: Sorry, but I couldn't bring myself to use the video you have posted as Dan Rather is doing the introduction.

    Just FYI....I used the version with Dan Rather's introduction for the benefit of my students -- to give them some context. All of my students were born well after the Challenger disaster, of course.

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