Posted on 06/08/2004 8:17:16 AM PDT by demlosers
RONALD Reagan might be dead but the White House is keen to resurrect his political spirit if it will help George W. Bush in the knife-edge presidential election campaign.
As Americans started a week-long farewell to the former president yesterday, a senior Bush aide suggested Reagan's fight against "evil" and ambitions to spread democracy around the world had parallels with the current President's foreign policy.
"He was absolutely clear that when liberty and freedom are on the march, America was safer; and when liberty and freedom are in retreat, America is weaker," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said at the G-8 summit of world leaders on Sea Island, Georgia.
That was exactly how Mr Bush put it in a speech last week defending the Iraq war. The White House message is: hanging tough helped Reagan end the Cold War and bring democracy to communist states, just as it will help the war on terrorism and spread democracy through the Middle East.
So, while Reagan has not attended a world summit in many years, his death did not stop the Bush team making his presence felt at the G-8 meeting, which was due to start overnight.
The media is so awash with Reagan stories that politicians such as Mr Bush and his presidential rival, John Kerry, must either surf the wave or sit on the beach.
Senator Kerry has chosen the latter, cancelling several concert fundraisers expected to raise millions of dollars, and restricting his campaigning to a few events while carefully praising the former president.
But Mr Bush, who has appeared to model himself more on Reagan than George Bush Sr, is keen to draw parallels between the "steadfastness" and "values" of Reagan's foreign policy and his own.
After all, Reagan went after the now defunct "evil empire" of the Soviet Union, and Mr Bush has targeted the "evil" axis of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. He also cut taxes (and blew out the budget) and was rewarded with strong economic growth.
The New York Times suggested the similarities meant the former president might have "one more campaign in him -- this one at the side of Mr Bush".
"I've been dreading this every election year for three cycles," Jim Jordan, Senator Kerry's ex-campaign manager, told the Times. "Bush has totally attached himself to Ronald Reagan. He's going to turn Reagan into his own verifier."
Others felt Mr Bush would make a mistake if he were seen as looking backwards too much.
Dr Rice yesterday reached back 21 years to point out that Reagan, "a true giant in international politics", had hosted the summit in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1983.
It was the G-7 back then, before the fall of the Soviet Union (an event Dr Rice gave Reagan much of the credit for).
Today, Russia has a seat at the table, along with the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.
"As president Reagan said in 1985, the challenge of statesmanship is to have a vision to dream of a better, safer world, and the courage, persistence and patience to turn that dream into reality," Dr Rice said.
Mr Bush wants Americans to believe Iraq will become a democracy that will help set free the Middle East, if only they "stay the course".
Any help Reagan can give on Iraq would be welcome.
I felt kinda bad about it, but ever since 2000 was over, I thought to myself, "Gee, I know Reagan probably won't live much longer. If he has to go, it would sure be nice for him to give us one last boost by dying right before the 2004 elections."
God bless him. It's like he planned it this way. I think the Gipper can win one more for us this time.
Bush will never mention it. That's a Kerry tactic. It will be the Elephant in the Living Room.
The thing is if GWB loses he will go home to Texas and not Cry About It but if Kerry loses we will have a Liberal court case after court case.
I only wanted Reagan to hold on until after Clinton was out of office. I could not stand the thought of that scumbag delivering the eulogy. The though of it still makes me want to puke.
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