In the milieu of ignorance that infests the political postings of this site nothing exceeds the imbecilic, most patently disingenuous rants, that dismiss the successes of the Reagan administration. Cloaking themselves in the mendacious draping of psuedo-intellectual banter the RIA plebeians care not about contextual consistency, fair application of statistical data nor even the truth in their efforts to revise history. Prior to Reagan taking office our nation was mired in a downward spiral of perpetual stagflation that robbed individuals of their worth by reducing the value of their incomes- which overwhelmingly burdened the poor- retarded economic mobility, increased the cost of living (inflation was almost 14% in 1981), stymied investment (adjusting for inflation the stock market had decreased in value by 50% from 1964 to 1981), increased unemployment (actually rose to double digits) and brought about stratospheric interest rates (19%). Jimmy Carter was busy telling America how quite possibly our best years were behind us and toiled away devising misery indexes to calculate the level of high unemployment and inflation rates. Hypothetically just taking the rate of inflation into account if say a president were to accomplish the task of reducing it by 10% while keeping incomes just static it would equate to a substantial value increase in ones income. Just taking the interest rates into consideration the largest investments average Americans have would increase dramatically just by curtailing the oppressive interest burden. Just by reducing the unemployment rate by say 75% it would be possible for an economy to add 20 million new jobs over an 8 year period. Doing so in concert would produce the largest peace time economic expansion in American history. Did such a leader exist? Simultaneously in 1980 the Soviet Union had locked all of Eastern Europe in the darkness of tyranny, and had expanded its imperialist desires in Central America, South America, Africa and South East Asia. Our abilities to confront the expansion was waning, our pusillanimous president lacked the political will and the intestinal fortitude to confront evil as it was and was naively wed to the assumption that all could be negotiated for through peace agreements. Yet the spread of communism raged. Islamofascists seized our embassy in Tehran and took 183 Americans hostage yet America did nothing. Reagan would have none of this and everyone knew he meant it. (ever wonder why those hostages were released the day he took office?) Reagan believed this nation to be what it was: the last best hope on earth. On the wave of an electoral landslide he swept into office on a promise to bring respect, dignity and strength back to a nation that was beaten down by its leaders. He promised he would make America a proud and prosperous nation once again, by allowing the American entrepreneurial spirt to be unleashed, by reinvigorating our military and through the use of our benevolent power to confront communist aggression in the free world. The Gipper cut taxes on all income classes which led to a 35% expansion in our economy over his term. Investments increased. The stock market doubled in value. Unemployment fell by almost 45% adding over 22 million new jobs- over 70% of which were high paying an above the median salary level- to the economy and rising more people out of poverty than at anytime during the 20th Century. 5 million new businesses were opened. Interest rates fell from 19% to 3% and inflation fell from 14% to below 3.5% making the value of everyones income that much greater. He expanded our military and through various efforts- mostly covert- brought communism to its knees by decades end. If one is hesitant to believe that they should ask Gorbachev what he believes the greatest influence on the fall of the Soviet Union was: the United States military build up and investment in SDI. Liberals are wont to stick their heads in the sand and ignore all the empirical data proving such immense growth and foreign policy success yet they bow at the alter of Clintons guidance of a thriving economy already in progress (unlike when Reagan took office)- with numbers that only compare to the 80s growth. Such voluntary naivety proves that libs are wed to nothing more than ideology. Americans however are not so easily mislead. Reagan was recently voted America's greatest American in an online Discovery poll. His approval rates are consistenly above 65%- but most importantly in his second election he was reelected in the largest landslide in American history. Sorry libs know matter how much you try to distort his record history will always look very kindly on the Greatest President of the 20th Century- Ronald Reagan.