Longtime readers know my fascination [1] with debunking [2] of the absurd myth that Ronald Reagan ascended because of his "sunny optimism." I'm reading a forthcoming book about Patty Hearst, and I'd somehow missed this example. The Hearst family, responding to the demands of their daughter's kidnappers, began a program to distribute food to the poor. Reagan's response? "It's too bad we can't have an epidemic of botulism."
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Links:
[1] http://www.tnr.com/story.html?id=0e395dde-316e-43bf-9772-8fa8c4688232
[2] http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/perlsteins-greatest-hits-5-miscasting-reagan-optimistic