[WilliamIII]

you think Reagan could have answered all of Hewitt’s questions?

[nickcarraway]

Yes. I know you people love to bash Reagan, but you don't know the depth of Reagan's research and knowledge. Even after he died, they found economic theories he was working on. He wasn't some airhead ditz Trump. He wasn't on Reality TV with the Kardashians. Reagan was the real deal.

And this wasn't some obscure question. These are two of the main groups.

[nickcarraway]

Do you really want someone like this getting that 3:00 AM call and nuking New Mexico, because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about?

[luvbach1]

you think Reagan could have answered all of Hewitt’s questions?

Hewitt couldn't have answered all of his questions until he looked the answers up in preparation for his "gotcha" questions.

[gusty]

Since none of them were on the scene yet in 1980, I would think not. But I would bet the house that Reagan could identify Arafat or Abu Nidal or even Ilich Ramirez Sanchez back then. Reagan was old school, not the new school ignoramuses we are stuck with these days.

[mountainbunny]

Absolutely.

When he ran for office, he was well-studied and had spent a lot of time formulating policy.

President Reagan worked incredibly hard and for a long time to become who he was, politically. He knew what he believed and why he believed it.

[LS]

As I am currently writing a bio of RR I can definitely say that his greatest mistake was in failing to know the dynamics of the Mideast in Lebanon. He blew it, but to his credit within a year, he began to figure it out---the first pres to see radical Islam for what it was.

But I doubt the nickcarraway would give Trump four years that Reagan was given to figure it out.