Ben Quayle Has Delicious Memories Of Ronald Reagan
As ABC News' Devin Dwyer points out, Sunday's centennial celebration of the birth of Ronald Reagan featured festivities that ranged "from the formal to the quirky." Probably my favorite celebrant, however, is Rep. Ben Quayle's contribution -- a Politico op-ed in which the Arizona Republican strongly advances the argument that he has some fuzzy memories of the '80s.
Quayle manages to hit all of his marks, most of which were probably gleaned from watching those VH1 shows, where Michael Ian Black and "Weird Al" Yankovic run down the highlights of various decades. He works in "The Great Communicator," the speech at Brandenburg Gate, and his remarks after the tragic Challenger disaster.
Twenty-five years later, his words have the same power: "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."
I'd go even further and say that those words have the same power 70 years after they were written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., but hey, everything is a remix.
Mostly, I love this for the jelly beans:
When I was a child, President Ronald Reagan was the nice man who gave us jelly beans when we visited the White House.I didn't know then, but I know it now: The jelly beans were much more than a sweet treat that he gave out as gifts. They represented the uniqueness and greatness of America -- each one different and special in its own way, but collectively they blended in harmony.
I give him this: "We are all jelly beans" is a lot better deal than "we are all Georgians."
Anyway, Ronald Reagan: among American presidents, he truly was the "hottest chick in Scottsdale."
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First Posted: 02/07/11 10:45 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:30 PM ET