R-O-N-A-L-D  R-E-A-G-A-N!  
The New York Times takes note of an exciting new collaboration high above Semi Valley: the Reagan Presidential Library and the corporate heirs of Mickey Mouse, joining to celebrate their mutual need for fresh meat.
The paper makes much of the odd-couple shoe-horning of Disney into an august “Presidential Library,” but the Reagan people in particular are practiced hands at odd lash-ups. Â They’ve devoted much of their energy over the last several years to building a vast airplane hanger, making Nancy Reagan’s old dresses into a tax deduction, while losing more documents than any of their peers. Â All the libraries face declining attendence and have tried to morph into vaguely pop history palaces.
The lets call it limited engagement of Reagan and Disney takes up much of the article, but in fact there were links. Disneyland’s opening was c0-hosted by Reagan. Â Reagan’s sinister CIA Director, Bill Casey, was Counsel for CapCities, which swallowed ABC during Reagan’s reign and was a principal component as Michael Eisner rebuilt Disney.
 And Reagan cut a lot of ribbons for them.
 
The Times speculates about Disney’s motives:
 “Exhibitions of memorabilia have long been one of Disney’s tools for furthering its corporate interests. A few years ago, the company teamed with the Pompidou Center for a display of animation art as part of a campaign to persuade the French to embrace Disneyland Paris.”
As long as we’re going there, how’s EuroDisney working out?  Twenty years on the park remains mired in debt. On the plus side,   French Communists egged then Disney head Michael Eisner to protest EuroDisney’s launch, perhaps the only decent thing the Party did since the Anti=Nazi Resistance. 
Homes Of Distinction  
You can’t blame the realtor for trying, but why does the Washington Post think we care if the house of someone who was a White House aide almost 50 years ago is for sale? True LBJ obsessives may recall Harry McPherson,  Lyndon Johnson’s speechwriter who famously did not write the  “I Shall Not Seek” speech, but Jesus.
Wiley old Clark Clifford at least had the moxie to actually host Truman and Johnson before going out with a bang, avoiding indictment over fronting for the CIA and worse money launderers BCCI because prosecuters felt sorry for the old man.
Over Done
              
Fresh from mocking his real estate adventures, thoughtful observers have a new stick with which to beat mock socialogist David Brooks, while striking a glancing blow at Eternal President Ronald Reagan.
Brooks storied mendacity offends all right thinking folk, but now he’s throwing music into his pop culture poporiti, with comic results.
He’s joined the cult of Bruce Springsteen, with the added ickyness of traveling to observe The Boss’s caring antics in several of Europe’s tanking economies.
Nothing revulses like the clueless drawing vast conclusions from pretend empathy.
Bonus points to Alex Pareene and  “Mobutu Sese Seko” for recalling Springsteen inspired dimness of the Reagan era, when another Republican failed to strap Bruce to their caring conservatism.
Marked Down  
All the smart kids agree: Romney is the Republican John Kerry, the GOP’s cross to bare until their inevitable defeat in November. Â Versions have circulated since at least 2008.
What this line forgets is how close Kerry came in 2004, despite his charmlessness. Â Kerry got more total votes for president than any previous Democrat, eight million more than the equally charisma-challenged Al Gore. Bush won by hauling in every exurban mega-church goer Karl Rove could find, a dash of anti gay marriage referendums, plus some voter suppression secret sauce. Â Obama won in 2008 with his own epic turnout machine.
Republicans Determined To Strike In Us  
Who knows this far out, but where is it written that unlovable mopes can’t get ’em to the polls?
 White House Wannabe 
Proven comic resource Glenn Beck has returned to the headlines, through the unusual path of set decoration.
Becky has launched a new series of stirring web-cast addresses, taped in a make-beleave Oval Office.
He has a history of borrowed gravitas attempts in the past, including his MLK Makeover at the Lincoln Memorial, and a previous Oval-ation when he was still on cable.
Glenn’s fantasy White House is sort of a mash-up, with blue screens to add “punch” to his bold observations. When words fail to portray the hell-scape President Obama is leading us to, the pictures can take over. 
Beck’s pretend POTUS platform is a return to yesteryear in many ways, with the Bush era Churchill bust returned to its place of glory,  
 and the God-awful Bush Presidential Seal rug back in action.  Glenn apparently missed the Obama rug swap, with the attending “controversy.”
 And Reagan cut a lot of ribbons for them.
