Reagan's doodles

From the newly released collection of Margaret Thatcher's papers by the Cambridge University archive, "Doodles left by President Reagan on the table beside Margaret Thatcher at the G7 summit at Ottawa in 1981."

Doodles left by President Reagan on the table beside Margaret Thatcher at the G7 summit at Ottawa in 1981

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Blaine

Is… is that a caricature of Ronald Reagan drawn by Ronald Reagan?

That disturbes me for some reason.
- rattypilgrim
  
  He loomed large in his own legend.
- rattypilgrim
  
  His self caricature shows a lack of depth or willingness to prove too far into how he really saw himself. In fact, he, like George Bush was not the reflective type. If the doodle is any indication, he still saw himself as he looked in his early days in Hollywood, already a caricature of himself sort of an Arrow shirt man. I suspect in his mind his young Hollywood years out shined his time as POTUS which came with old age.
Schizno

He seems to have a real… affinity for the male physique. Rock hard abs and pecs…. Hmmm. Could it be? Nahhhh
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  That’s Ron Jr. and let’s not even go there.
- Mister44
  
  Could it be what? That he likes super heroes?
  
  If it was done in the margins, it would have looked like my math homework.
- Diogenes
  
  Headless male torso isn’t superhero stuff. It’s more like fetishism stuff.
  
  It’s odd to think that he was drawing this stuff while he was a was supposed to be focused on leading the world.
  
  For some reason it reminds me of the oft-repeated line: “I’m Brian Fellows!”
  - CH
    
    “It’s odd to think that he was drawing this stuff while he was a was supposed to be focused on leading the world. ”
    Could be like me… I focus better during meetings if I’m doodling, or what I like to actually do is make origami modules out of post-it papers. If I’m not then my mind tends to wander and I suddenly notice that I haven’t heard one word of what was being said. Doodling helps me take the “edge” off and concentrate better (yeah, I have most probably ADD).
    
    And dunno… headless male torso… why would that be fetishism stuff? People who want to practice drawing people often concentrate on some specific part, like the torso or eye above. Google for instance “draw human torso” or pick up a book on how to draw a human body.
    
    The more realistic drawings are nothing special, in my “I can’t draw one bit” opinion, but the caricatures look pretty good.
    - http://twitter.com/InnerPartisan Sebastian Spinczyk
      
      ”Doodling helps me take the “edge” off and concentrate better (yeah, I have most probably ADD).”
      
      That has nothing to do with ADD, that’s true for all people who doodle. Like chewing gum and daydreaming, it actually *helps* concentrating.
digi_owl

Doing it in class and get yelled at, doing it at a G7 summit however…
twiddl

Did both Reagan and Thatcher suffer Dementia / Alzheimer’s?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GVKHNINUD55NXFN4TRNHMBRDB4 Alexandros

I read an article in a mag about people doodleing and what it means about their personality. Reagan was an example in this article, appearantly he was doodleing all the time, mostly when he was on the phone. He was drawing mostly faces and people, appearantly that means that he was a peoples person, that was getting along with all people he met.
GawainLavers

How cute and endearing! Let’s fixate on that release from the Thatcher archive, and ignore this one:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17366040

Which seems to be pretty much what the American media are doing.
- travtastic
  
  But Reagan & Thatcher were BFF, how adorable!
http://thriftfu.wordpress.com License Farm

I want to see the alternate universe where Reagan was a celebrated artist whose funding was cut by a doddering old philistine who couldn’t act his way out of a wet paper bag.
http://www.facebook.com/RILEYRILEYRILEY Riley Rileyy

Sort of reminds me of serial killer art.
- Mister44
  
  How so?
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

I think that’s supposed to be one of the tramps from the grassy knoll in the lower left corner…
http://www.fatjerry.com Dimmer

Was the budget so bad that they couldn’t afford crayons? I’m sure Ronnie could have rocked some wax.

RR & MT were a disgusting confluence of evil: maybe Ronnie gets a little more of a pass as he was more just stupid and not pure forged evil, but the day they meet in their hell will be a great one for humanity.
- http://www.facebook.com/magnus.redin Magnus Redin
  
  My opinion is that their leadership helped Sweden to start backing down from way to much state socialism. We tend to follow world trends and world leaders. The problem right now is that there are no good and strong role models to follow and I am frightend that some start to follow China since China is strong. Our small country needs to find its own way into the future as do manny others.
  - Mister44
    
    re: ” I am frightend that some start to follow China since China is strong.”
    
    First off – hello, Sweden. I really want to visit you some day.
    
    Second – remind people that the reason China is strong is because they loosened their grip on the people and opened it up to capitalism. There is still a lot of socialism, and a one party system (instead of doodles, their delegates fall asleep), but the freedom they have extended to the people is why it has been so successful.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Would it kill you to read some credible news reports occasionally?
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Witt/1041651388 David Witt

If only he had been accepted to Art School, the world might have been spared the destruction caused by his cult of personality.
- Mister44
  
  What destruction? Unlike now, we were only involved in relatively minor wars by proxy. We ended the cold war, which is like the complete opposite of destruction. I know, I know “REAGAN BAD! AAAARRGGGLLLLEE!!!!” but I don’t see how one can criticize him for “destruction”.
  - DewiMorgan
    
    Yah: perhaps because I was a kid at the time, but I remember those years as years of peace and plenty.
    
    The Falkland Islands war; yuppies; significant optimism about the way mankind was on an upward track into the future.
    
    But that might’ve been because I wasn’t in an industrial manufacturing family.
    - Mister44
      
      I can’t tell if that is sarcasm or not. I am not saying the 80s were perfect. Far from it. I know what gov. cheese tastes like. There was a cloud of possible war with the Soviets – but that never happened. I’m arguing there wasn’t much destruction overall. There were some proxy wars, but its nothing like the last 10 years.
      - Guest
        
        Seriously? Reagan is the President who had Saddam and Osama on the payroll. Google that shit.
        
        So… the last 10 years…. yeah.
    - Guest
      
      or because your gaze was safely fixed on your own navel?
  - petsounds
    
    It’s likely the Soviets would’ve burned themselves out regardless of Reagan’s military expenditures (which — coupled with his tax cut Reaganomics — put the nation into a severe debt we haven’t escaped from); it just would’ve taken longer.
    
    As for your conjecture that Reagan only put us in “minor proxy wars”, Reagan funded and armed Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War (which created quite a problem later on), and funded and armed Afghan mujahideen in the Afghanistan War against the USSR (and those fellows later became Al Qaeda and elements of the Taliban). Those weren’t minor, even if America was only involved via equipment and training. The human cost, and the political cost, was devastating. I’m not going to get into the right or wrong of involving ourselves in these conflicts, but they were in no way minor. We’re still dealing with the aftermath of these decisions in 2012. Soldiers and civilians are dying every day for these decisions.
    
    Reagan cut regulatory restrictions of corporations, creating the mega-corporations we have today, he slashed funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, slashed funding for mental health programs, sending thousands of mostly Vietnam vets out of psychiatric institutions and onto the streets, he gave legal amnesty to a few million illegal immigrants (I’m sure some here think this was a good thing), and his environmental record is disastrous — slashed EPA, opened up more land to drilling than any other president, tried to gut the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. I’m sure I could think of more; that’s just off the top of my head. On the plus side Reagan did attempt to add more taxes on corporations and tried to make it easier for small businesses (somewhat nullified by his pro-corporation slant).
    
    [That muscle-bound torso is funny because I remember seeing a Marvel comic in the 80s called something like Reagan's Raiders in which he was some sort of 'roided-out super-soldier on the march against commies.]
  - TJ Wright
    
    Well, he did arm and train the Taliban and Contras. He also sat silent while thousands of Americans fell ill and died to what would be known as AIDS. Pretty destructive IMO.
http://twitter.com/dovekwartel Willem Oosterhof

Strange….

Puzzling to know that Ronald Reagan was so pre-occupied with masculin bodies. Was he a closet homosexual???
- Guest
  
  or perhaps a touch narcissistic?
William Dix

Interesting how much people try to find some sort of significance to a random set of doodling done by Reagan. Also throw in the amusing leaps into sheer silliness in some of the conclusions here which are more indicative of the personal beliefs of the posters than anything else.
TJ Wright

Not only did he cure all the world’s ills (when not ignoring AIDS, arming the Taliban and brutal Contras, busting unions, and starting the destruction of the middle class and below through Corporatism) he was also a super fantastic master artists!
- Guest
  
  He definitely could have gone to art school by mail.