Which man was the more skilled politician?

[tpfkaw]

Quick, think of a famous zinger with which Bill Clinton humiliated his debate opponent.

For that matter, think of any famous Bill Clinton quote other than "I didn't inhale," "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," or "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

No cheating.

....

Ronald Reagan is objectively the superior politician of the two. Moving past notable and quotable moments, Reagan won two of the largest landslides in American history while moving his party away from the center, while Clinton won two slightly-above-average victories while moving his party toward the center. He also for a time governed in so tone-deaf a manner that his party lost huge majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in 42 years, and never regained them both until 6 years after his presidency ended. It's hard to imagine a hypothetical Democratic Reagan making such a mistake.

Reagan got his transformative tax cuts and military buildup through Tip O'Neill's House, while conceding little other than not cutting spending as deeply as he wanted, while Clinton got no significant left-wing legislation past Newt Gingrich's much smaller majority that I can think of, and everything that did go through was legislation on which his administration agreed with the GOP, and/or compromised with or made concessions to them.

Also, not to state the obvious, but Reagan was faithful to his wife and never sexually harassed anyone.

This is not to say Clinton is a poor politician. Nobody becomes President who is a poor politician, and Clinton is well above-average even by Presidential standards. It's just that Reagan was one of the most skillful and natural politicians who has ever lived, and so virtually anyone would come up short compared to him. To say otherwise is to either be pretty hackish or to betray your second-half-of-the-1990s birthdate.

[tpfkaw]

Quick, think of a famous zinger with which Bill Clinton humiliated his debate opponent.

He humiliated Jerry Brown in the '92 debates just off the top of my head.

By saying what?

Reagan has

"I am paying for this microphone!" (Bush)

"There you go again." (Carter)

"Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" (Carter)

"I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." (Mondale)

[tpfkaw]

Iran Contra, easily the gravest presidential scandal in American history

No, the gravest presidential scandal in American history is the intentional and premeditated delivery of half of Europe to Stalin and all of China to "so-called Communist" and "agrarian reformer" Mao. A scandal that Truman was, thankfully, unable to weather, and for which he rightfully received the lowest approval rating ever recorded for a president.

I do have to hand it to the Left for completely erasing the FDR/Truman administration's intentional delivery of a billion people into the hands of genocidal maniacs from official history (although it all remains in the public record), while directing our attention to the real scandal: as many as several dozen especially enthusiastic members of the Josef Stalin Fan Club, almost all provably (2) NKVD treasonists, suffered temporary minor career setbacks as a result of the overwhelming public outrage.* Tens of millions of corpses - nothing to see here.

*The real scandal is, cleverly, always referenced without mentioning the context. In the early 1950s, America was, for mysterious reasons difficult to divine, overcome with hysteria! Probably because they were so sexist and racist back then.

The CIA funding some rather minor operations against the Nicaraguan branch of the Josef Stalin Fan Club doesn't really compare in terms of being morally outrageous. (What do you think the CIA does, anyway? Get real).