DougJ’ post about the laughable idiot James Pethokoukis (he’s the clown who spent October 2008 flogging the Goldberg theorem claiming the market was tanking not because of the economic crisis but because of an impending Obama electoral victory) and his “Reagan at Rekyavik” nonsense reminded me of the fawning media coverage Reagan got in 1985 when he met Gorbachev in November in Geneva and the press fellated him for months for not wearing a coat. Here’s a 2006 writeup to jog your memory from “The America That Reagan Built”:
Here is the nauseating write-up in the Washington Post by David Hoffman from 19 November:
Just as the wailing horns of the Soviet motorcade were heard in the distance, President Reagan stepped into the bracing cold winds off Lake Geneva without an overcoat and waited on the steps of the Swiss chateau for his first words with a leader of the Soviet Union.
When Mikhail Gorbachev climbed out of the black Zil limousine with a Soviet flag flying from the right fender and took off his charcoal-gray hat, the first conversation he had with Reagan was about the overcoat. Gorbachev gestured to his own coat and asked the president, in Russian, “Where is your coat?”
“It’s inside,” Reagan said, motioning toward the glass doors and warmth of the 120-year-old Swiss chateau, as they posed for photographers in a chill wind. The president steered his guest by the elbow inside, and so began an extraordinary personal encounter between the American president, who devoted a career to denigrating communism, and the Russian who may rule his Communist nation into the next century.
Here is the Courier-Mail:
Mr Reagan, host for the first day’s meeting, arrived at the mansion first, about 15 minutes early, wearing an overcoat and white scarf and carrying papers under his arm. From an inside window, he flashed a thumbs-up signal as he waited for Mr Gorbachev’s arrival. Mr Reagan stepped outside into the brisk Swiss air without his coat to greet Mr Gorbachev as he got out of his long Zil limousine, one minute behind schedule. Mr Gorbachev wore a heavy grey overcoat and held his hat in his left hand, and smiled as they greeted. They shook hands and posed on a veranda of the tan sandstone building.
Here’s a bit from the NY Times, showing the press pool yukking it up:
At a briefing by Larry Speakes, President Reagan’s spokesman, the questions were even more personal.
”Gorbachev made reference to the fact that the President was not wearing a topcoat,” came the question. ”Was the President wearing Kennedy-style long underwear?”
”No, he wasn’t,” Mr. Speakes replied. ”I think the President was in his customary underwear.”
The theme of attire was pursued at the evening briefing, albeit on a less intimate basis. Possibly to preclude more such questions, Mr. Speakes volunteered that during their stroll to a pool house by the lake, Mr. Reagan wore a coat and a scarf, and Mr. Gorbachev wore a coat and a hat.
Here’s another NY Times write-up:
Mr. Reagan, who was the host for the meetings today, as Mr. Gorbachev will be for Wednesday’s, greeted the Russian warmly in front of the Fleur d’Eau, a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, at one minute after 10 o’clock this morning. Despite gray skies and a cutting wind, Mr. Reagan was coatless and hatless – a fact commented on by Mr. Gorbachev, who wore both coat and hat. The two men were smiling, cordial, seemingly relaxed.
Those are a few I dug up in a minute or two, but you see how it goes. I was only fifteen at the time, but the nonsense about the coat got such play that it was immediately part of the Reagan legend- so much so that even today, four decades later, I remember it. I guess my point is that when you are a Republican, the press is always little more than a mutual masturbation society.
Suffern ACE
30 years is probably three generations of pressmen. I guess the question is: “Is the press’ fixation with things that aren’t important a learned behavior? Or is it genetic? If it is genetic, what evolutionary advantage does it provide to explain why certain animals would be able to forego the obvious advantages of seriousness without consequences? What is nature selecting for here?”
Lojasmo
“Where is your coat?”
“I forgot it.”
wenchacha
Heh. Cheney made up for it at the Auschwitz ceremony he attended. Hmmm. How to reconcile that Ronnie was manly without his coat and that Cheney, despite all that bundling, was still a dick.
Chris
Somewhat OT, but I always enjoy reading historical tidbits like this and seeing what people expected of the future in a previous age.
The thought of a Y2K happening while there was still a Soviet Union and a Cold War is unthinkable to a 1987 kid like me, but the thought of those things going away like “poof!” in a few short years must have been equally unthinkable to the casual observer back then.
(Another one I remember reading is that some people expected Gorbachev to reform and “humanize” communism in the same way that FDR had done to capitalism sixty years earlier, making it more credible, viable, responsive to the people and capable of addressing the modern world. That didn’t pan out, shall we say).
FlipYrWhig
I remember this vividly too — what a great coup it was for the old man to look hardy and unfazed. So fucking stupid. The comparable recent parallel was Dubya Bush throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium in 2001.
harokin
But did Reagan ever kill a fly with one hand?
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
Guess that goes to show how little things change when it comes to fawning idolatry over GOP Daddies. This generation’s flightsuit is the last generation’s lack of an overcoat.
At least Reagan was being bolstered against an actual enemy–not an invented one or a “Fifth Column.”
BGinCHI
Didn’t Chauncey Gardner forget his coat?
drkrick
Ah, the Reagan legend. Like all those jaunty remarks he was supposed to have made in the GW Hospital Emergency Room when he was really unconscious and nearly bled out.
Saturday Night Live ran a pretty good sketch about six months after the assassination attempt imagining what the press commentary would have been if George Bush had been President and had done the same things Reagan had actually done. “Of course, President Reagan would have been able to reach agreement with the air traffic controllers and avoid this disastrous strike” was a typical example. I’m still trying to figure out whether poor GWHB is the exception that proves IOKIYAR, or if his case demonstrates that there’s some other mysterious non-party based factor driving the media behavior.
drkrick
Forget the casual observers, nobody was more surprised than the people paying close attention. Almost no one (and no one considered “serious”) saw it coming at all.
Citizen_X
Headline: “SENILE MAN FORGETS COAT, HAT.”
Rosalita
@lojasmo #2
No, he said “I don’t recall”
BerkeleyMom
Of course Obama would have had to wear a heavy coat because he’s from a warm climate like Kenya. And, didn’t we have a president who died after giving an Inaugural Address without a coat?
Culture of Truth
Why not a good Republican cloth coat?
Chris
Maybe in this instance.
In general, though? Reagan and the his kind weren’t nearly as interested in communism, as in the regimes in Moscow and Beijing, as they were in “communism” as a shorthand slur for unions, regulatory agencies, the welfare state, civil rights movements, socially liberal movements, the Democrats, and pro-democracy movements in the third world. (Couple generations earlier, you could probably have added “teh J000z” to all that).
Fifth columns and invented enemies were the bread-and-butter of movement conservative agitprop in Reagan’s days and before, too.
Poopyman
Apparently you posted this 14 years too early.
steviez314
In hindsight, forgetting his coat might have been the first sign of impending Alzheimer’s.
gogol's wife
The funny thing about this is that Russians think Americans are idiots when they go out in the cold without coats and hats. It’s a sign of foolishness, not strength. (Unless you’re diving nearly naked into a hole in the ice to swim in January, that’s different.)
Villago Delenda Est
Gorbachev was going up against his own infestation of Galtian Overlords.
Han's Solo
The Reagan press was sad, but it didn’t go entirely unnoticed.
As was often the case Bill Hicks had it nailed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7INABbOnLI
MonkeyBoy
@Suffern ACE:
I’ve often wondered about the media fixation on the personal lives of celebrities (celebrity gossip) – they do it because the audience eats it up.
In a small community such as a town where everybody sorta knows everybody else, gossip serves a real purpose in terms of helping to learn who you or your family might want to ally yourself with (maybe through marriage, business deals, etc.) and who to avoid.
However with celebrity gossip, almost all consumers will never have the chance to interact with the celebrity so knowing their personal details can’t be put to any use other than spreading gossip.
Political gossip is of slight use to those not within the political circle in that it may provide some “character” information which might lead one to guess how a politician will act on things that affect the common person, however much of it tends more toward celebrity worship.
John Cole
80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 20teens.
That’s 4 decades.
Culture of Truth
The reports clearly wanted us to think Gorby was bowled over by Reagan’s manliness. Knowing Gorbahev as we do now, he was probably thinking “what idiot does not have the sense to wear a coat when it is cold out?”
Villago Delenda Est
William Henry Harrison. Who delivered the longest inaugural address on record.
Culture of Truth
William Henry Harrison was our greatest President. He never compromised on anything.
PeakVT
Someone should tell the press that life isn’t a novel; not everything that happens is foreshadowing or has a hidden meaning. Occam’s Razor says Reagan took off his coat and simply didn’t feel like putting it back on for a brief foray out to meet Gorbachev.
dww44
You got it , John. On NPR’s All Things Considered every time they mention Obama in the immediate headline of the day, they just as quickly chime in with “Boehner said this “or “Cantor said this”, and just yesterday, after talking about the White House debt ceiling talks to occur later in the day, they said “McConnell said this”. It is obvious that NPR is petrified with fear for what the right will do to their funding (than they’ve already done). Where was the statement from Harry Reid? or Nancy Pelosi? Obama’s positions, as President, are Never allowed to stand on their own. NPR is no better than CNN with the rush to give the Repubs equal, if not more dominant, air time.
I don’t believe it was like this during the recent Bush years. I get so friggin’ angry these days I just turn off the radio and TV. It’s a wonder we Dems ever win an election. No Dems other than Obama barely get a mention in this “he said/she said” era of pseudo objective reporting.
As a result when the progressive position starts from the middle on the premise that SS (which has zilcho to do with the deficit) and Medicare have to be cut along with the elimination of tax breaks, no wonder the negotiations tilt way right just the way the GOP’ers want it.
Let what happens happen. I want no more capitulation to the right. No more giving in to their childish tantrums and their threats. I know we will all suffer, but sometimes its best to stand for something. Color me disgusted.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
John Cole @22
But it’s not four decades later right now. Best case, it’s three decades later (2010-1980=30), but, in reality, it hasn’t been thirty years yet (2011-1985=26).
Forget all of the McMath you’ve learned over the last few years, dude.
James E. Powell
@Suffern ACE:
In the lower ranks, sure. But it is striking to me to see how many press/media big shots are still around from the Reagan years. They are the Beltway Village wise men and it is they who establish and maintain the dominant narratives.
Also too, how much of their Reagan worship is nostalgia? Like aging boomers who haven’t bought an album since the Beatles broke up.
chris
John, it’s interesting to me how well you remember this, considering that you were a Republican until the insanity of it all gave you a cognitive dissonance you could no longer reconcile. Did that coverage influence you to become a Republican, or did you become one in spite of it?
Legalize
What do children, people on LSD, and Reagan all have in common?
Poopyman
@JC:
1986 to 2011. That’s only 26 years (inclusive).
Cube Zombie
My 8-yr-old daughter does this all the time during winter. She is clearly on track to be leader of the free world.
Dave Ruddell
By that logic, an article that was written about an event two years ago was written two decades later. 2000’s, 20teens. Right?
Go carry your mulch around. The sweet release of death via heat stroke is nigh!
Stefan
80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 20teens.
Yes, that’s four complete decades if we count from 1980 to 2019. But our time span is 1986 to 2011, so 26 years, which is in no case four decades.
The Moar You Know
The liberal media, exhibit A.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Stefan @35
FIFY
Poopyman
@Me @32:
Frickin’ blockquotes, how do they work?
Stefan
Temporarily Max McGee @37:
Eh, I’d count the decade of “the Eighties” as starting with 1980, not 1981. Otherwise you have 1980 being part of the Seventies, 1990 being part of the Eighties, etc.
Stefan
And yes, I know there was no year 0, so the first decade A.D. would run have to run from A.D. 1 to A.D. 9….
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Stefan @40
I hope you aren’t smoking the really good stuff right now, because this might really blow your mind, shatter your world and bring about the onset of The End Times:
Then your first decade isn’t a decade but a nonade. Whoa. Dude.
Mojotron
Christ- to jump in on the hair-splitting, it wasn’t “four decades ago”, but it did span four decades. It would have been better if you said it happened “in the past quarter century” or “over 52 Friedman units ago”.
Kirbster
In a lot of ways, Obama reminds me of Mikhail Gorbachev — a Nobel Peace Prize winner who inherited a war in Afghanistan from his predecessor and was probably more popular abroad than he was at home. I hope the parallels end there because Gorbachev also presided over a country on the verge of collapse and dissolution (and look how that turned out).
drkrick
We already have the shrinking life expectancy.
ML
They couldn’t forget about the neon green snow suit that Cheney wore for the group photo at Auschwitz though, could they?
Nellcote
“The costumes were FABULOUS!”
So it’s not just Frank Rich, they’ve always been drama critics.
Arrik
drkrick @44
drkrick ftw
Bender
Because they mentioned the coat thing? That’s proof of worship? C’mon, working the refs is one thing, but this is pure derangement. My God, what must you think of the kneepads-and-chapstick press corps Obama has now?
The press hated Reagan with an vengeance unmatched until they met W.
Skyborne
Reagan may not have worn a coat, but he did make up his own personal coat of arms.
stinkfoot
Between the lines:
Gorbachev: Where’s your coat? You got a death wish? It’s freezing balls out here!
Reagan: It’s inside. Mommy says it makes me look like a girly man.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
One last smart-assed remark before work:
Born in 1970? Wouldn’t that make you three-decades old at the time?
Alex
Could someone on this thread explain to me the intelligible distinction between the above incident and the fawning adulation accorded the current president when he catches a fly in his hand during an interview or when he quiets a crying baby in a receiving line (as effusively bookmarked by one front-pager here who shall remain nameless)? This is not a-pox-on-both-houses faux objectivity. I’m just saying, humans are human. This incident wasn’t exceptional.
No one of Importance
“Could someone on this thread explain to me the intelligible distinction between the above incident and the fawning adulation accorded the current president when he catches a fly in his hand during an interview or when he quiets a crying baby in a receiving line”
Cos forgetting your coat is senility, and catching flies and quieting babies is both cute and awesome?
Also, since a huge number of bloggers and media peeps seemed determined to make out that Obama is evil, stupid and oops, too black to president, a little light-hearted positive press is nice to see. Reagan pretty much always got the fawning. Obama, not so much.
But I’ll assume this is another stupid dig at ABL, so I don’t know why I bother to explain.
dogwood
Reagan and Obama both got/get more than their fair share of these moments on cameral or film. I think the answer as to why is obvious – they’re both telegenic and photogenic. Good pictures and video sell. Also too, Pete Souza worked in both White Houses.