Huntsman versus Reagan:
Contrast and compare:
Huntsman never mentions Obama’s name … sounds like McCain or Dole or the other Republican losers
Huntsman Calls for Civility Where Reagan Stood to Eviscerate Carter
June 21, 2011
Jon Huntsman, the former ambassador to the ChiComs for Obama – the former governor of Utah – has announced his intention to seek the Republican presidential nomination. He did it this morning using the Statue of Liberty.
HUNTSMAN:
“For the first time in our history we’re about to pass down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive, and less confident than the one we got.”
Let me say something about civility.
For the sake of the younger generation – it concerns me that civility, humanity, and respect are sometimes lost in our interactions as Americans. Our political debates today are corrosive and not reflective of the belief that Abe Lincoln espoused. I don’t think you need to run down someone’s reputation in order to run for the office of president. I respect the President of the United States. He and I have a difference of opinion on how to help a country we both love, but the question each of us wants the voters to answer is “Who will be the better president?” not who’s the better American. Behind me is our most famous symbol of the promise of America. President Reagan launched the 1980 general election campaign from this very spot. – It was a time of trouble, worry – and difficulty.
And he assured us that we could make America great again.
And through his leadership, he did. Today I stand in his shadow, as well as the shadow of this magnificent monument to our liberty.
Ronald Reagan. September 1st, 1980, Liberty State Park behind the Statue of Liberty kicking off his general election campaign.
REAGAN: The Carter record is a litany of despair, of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten. His answer to all this misery? He tries to tell us that we’re only in a recession, not a depression – as if definitions – words – relieve our suffering. Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well, if it’s a definition he wants, I’ll give him one: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his!
I have talked with unemployed workers all across this country. I’ve heard their views on what Jimmy Carter has done to them and their families. Let Mr. Carter go to their homes, look their children in the eyes, and argue with them that it’s only a recession that put dad or mom out of work. Let him go to the unemployment lines and lecture those workers who have been betrayed on what is the proper definition for their widespread economic misery. Human tragedy, human misery, the crushing of the human spirit. They do not need defining; they need action.
Call this human tragedy whatever you want. Whatever it is, it’s Jimmy Carter’s. He caused it, he tolerates it, and he’s going to appearance to the American people for it.
I’m looking forward to meeting Mr. Carter in debate, confronting him with the whole sorry record of his administration – the record he prefers not to mention. If he ever finally agrees to the kind of first debate the American people want, which I’m beginning to doubt, he’ll answer to them and to me.
This country needs a new administration with a renewed dedication to the dream of America, an administration that will give that dream new life and make America great again.
