Yeah, that was some pretty effective nonsense.
Now Robert, we must remember we are talking about Ronald Reagan here. That man could talk BS in a vast majority of his speeches and he got by it as Governor and as President. Not to mention, anything that man says goes, at least according to popular conservative belief. For example President Reagan "won" the Cold War.
Now Rocky,
I will be one of the first to agree that he is overrated in many ways, but none of his speeches were full of BS. He gave political speeches the way that they should be given: full of witty remarks, dramatic pauses and incredibly illustrated words. That is what a good political speech is. Look at Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" Speech. It was full of those three things, and is remembered as a great political speech. However, one could argue it was also full of BS, as you and Eraserhead claimed Reagan's Challenger address was. However, anyone who claimed either speech was BS would be very, very wrong.
As a man who has given many speeches, I realize that good political speeches do not give outlines and detailed plans. Those are what State of the Union and corporate addresses are for. An impassioned oration (King's speech) or a moving eulogy (Reagan's speech) are the perfect political speeches. They are sharp, to the point and leave hope in the listeners after they are given. We turn to our leaders in times of crisis to give hope, not a tax code.
PBrunsel, I agree with you that Reagan espoused specific ideas in his speeches. However, his ideas were to make the rich richer and everybody else poorer, which is specifically what I dislike about his speeches--the fact that it made people believe that "Trickle-Down" Economics was good when it was just a huge scam.
