Reagan, Unchecked

August 11, 1984; Ronald Reagan goes into a regular shtick
of his—the "humorous" sound check.

From Paul Slansky's The Clothes Have No Emperor

..."My fellow Americans," he jests, "I'm pleased to tell you today that we've signed legislation outlawing Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." Though he gets his expected big laugh from the sycophants in the room, others are less amused.

One person who will object is Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale.

8/19 Asked to respond to Mondale's charge that his bombing joke had made the world uneasy, Reagan blames the media. "Isn't it funny?" he says. "If the press had kept their mouth shut, no one would have known I said it." No one points out that if he'd kept his mouth shut, they couldn't have reported it.

Reagan soon will be elected to a second term.

At least one of his sound check jests (from 1982) was true enough—

11/20 "My fellow Americans, I've talked to you on a number of occasions about economic problems and opportunities our nation faces and I'm prepared to tell you, it's a hell of a mess."

And the reaction was typical.

...his small live audience pretty much has to laugh, him being president and all.