A Clinton Moment at Reagan's Funeral

[Plaid Adder]

So I watched Reagan's funeral on ABC. I was home sick, what can I tell you.

First of all, for a guy who kept joking about how Irish he was, I found it odd that he got such an Anglophilic funeral. Has Reagan always been an Episcopalian? The whole feel was very British, from the Puritan sermon to Margaret Thatcher's unbelievable address (could you be a little MORE politicizing, Maggie? I think you only mentioned Communism about 500,000 times) to a very elaborate choral setting of the tune to "Jerusalem," which is sort of the unofficial English national anthem. The words were completely different--unfortunately with that excellent choir diction and the toilet-bowl acoustics of the cathedral I couldn't figure out exactly what they were, but they certainly were not Blake's--but there's no mistaking that tune, especially not after *Chariots of Fire.*

Were they trying for a coronation kind of vibe? I dunno. Anyway, it was interesting to see the speeches. I had forgotten about what a terrible speaker Bush Senior was. I do think he probably wrote the speech himself, and he did show what appeared to be genuine emotion at one point, and he can pronounce big words, and all these things are to be commended. But most of the time he sounded either ill at ease or totally affectless. How did he ever get elected? Oh, right. Coattails.

Mulroney was actually probably the best speaker of the evening. Bush Junior actually turned in a surprisingly non-abysmal performance. It is true that his intentions were pretty transparent--the speech was all about constructing Reagan's presidency as the prophetic harbinger of his own--but he did a decent job of getting through it. It was certainly better than any of his recent performances that involved, you know, spontaneity.

During the hymn that was not "Jerusalem," they spent a lot of time panning the audience. Most everyone was just sort of sitting there expressionlessly waiting for it to be over. Every time they came to Bill and Hillary, though, you could see both of them nodding their heads in time with the music. I found it kind of endearing; they weren't looking at each other, but they were both in sync, and although Hillary in particular was trying to look as serious as possible you could tell that on some level they were responding to the music and kind of getting into it. It was a neat little "we're still human beings" moment.

It was also nice to see Jimmy Carter and Rosslyn again, although Carter looks very frail. Wonder what kind of funeral he'll get when he passes on. But the amazing thing was seeing the Clintons, the Carters, the Cheneys, and both generations of Bushes all sitting within 20 feet of each other. I would love to have seen them all settling down before the service started. Did they say hello to each other? Did they exchange pleasantries, or were they muttering insults out of the corners of their mouths at each other as the camera crews were setting up? Were they all pretending to get along while twisting the knife whenever possible? "George, hey, good to see you. How's Karl Rove these days? Depressed and drinking heavily, you say? Oh, I'm SO sorry to hear that."

Seeing them all together reminded me of how bitter things have gotten. Some of the ABC team seemed struck by it too, and several of them mentioned that during the Reagan era the tone in Washington just never got as nasty as it is now. Nobody brought up the question of whose fault that was, of course.

Ah well,

The Plaid Adder

[madrchsod]

1. reagen belonged to the first christian church

here in dixon-it`s a poor man`s episcopalian church. the real episcopalian church was down the block-all the rich people went there, come to think of it, they still do....

[fdr_hst_fan]

2. The "in-your-face" of the day

was Barbara Bush dressed in white! At a funeral! This funeral, especially!

[Raster]

3. her beautiful mind must have picked the beautiful frock...

</sarcasm>