Would Reagan vote for Sarah Palin?

WaPo ^ | Mar. 6, 2010 | Steven F. Hayward

[Al B.]

Sarah Palin invokes him. Mitt Romney glorifies him. The "tea party" movement hopes to recapture him. And the Republican Party still can't get over him.

Six years after his death, and almost a century since his birth, conservatives are more transfixed than ever by Ronald Reagan, so much so that I fully expect a Gipper anxiety disorder to appear in the next edition of the psychiatrists' diagnostic manual.

"What would Reagan Do?" is a leading motto for the right. You can get the slogan -- or its WWRD acronym -- on a bumper sticker, a T-shirt, a coffee mug, a thong. There's even an iReagan app for your phone. And having renamed Washington National Airport for Reagan in the 1990s, last week congressional Republicans started agitating to have the Gipper replace poor Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill.

Such obsessions are not unique to the right: Writing three years after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, historian Richard Hofstadter noted that FDR so thoroughly monopolized the liberal imagination that his passing "left American liberalism demoralized and all but helpless." But today, conservatives are the helpless ones.

Reagan was the most popular and successful Republican president of the past century, so it makes sense that he would be the shining model for conservatives, just as FDR has been the gold standard for liberals. (No small irony, since Reagan voted for FDR four times and modeled his statecraft after the Democrat's.) But as the current occupant of the White House could warn, measuring yourself against historical icons is a recipe for disappointment. These days, President Obama is more likely to draw comparisons to Jimmy Carter than to Lincoln or FDR.

Yet ambitious conservatives are undeterred.

[Al B.]

Steven F. Hayward is the F.K. Weyerhaeuser fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of “The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counter-Revolution, 1980-1989.”

[SnakeDoctor]

Yes. I have no doubt in my mind. He might’ve considered nominating her as his VP if he’d had the opportunity.

SnakeDoc

[SandRat]

You Betcha!

[Hardastarboard]

"What would Reagan Do?"

I've always liked "What would Bill Clinton Do?" as my personal motto. It gives me a LOT more leeway in how I live my life.

[knarf]

No doubt in MY mind.

[Al B.]

Ping

[Tennessee Nana]

Mitt Romney glorifies him
________________________________________

Say what ???

George Romney hated Ronald Reagan...

Reagan called Romney and his cabal “moderates” who were trying to take over the Republican Party...

Williard Mitt Romney said during a debate in 1994 that he never was a supportor of Reagan...

That while Reagan was president, he (Romney) was an Independant...

Something smacks of political expediency...

and since a Romney is connected with it...

[lonestar]

I think it would depend on who the other candidates were.

That's how I feel. I like her...but it depends on a lot of things and it's too early to make those decisions...IMO.

I know who I won't vote for...Ron Paul, John McCain, Mike Huckabee to name a few.

I would consider voting for Liz Cheney. I think she is very sharp.

[freedumb2003]

>>I’ve always liked “What would Bill Clinton Do?” as my personal motto. It gives me a LOT more leeway in how I live my life. <<

if you want no rules at all except those that lead to complete power and control, change it to “what would obama do.” At least clinton felt accountable to polls...

[SnakeDoctor]

>> I’ve always liked “What would Bill Clinton Do?” as my personal motto. It gives me a LOT more leeway in how I live my life.

I’m more of a “What would Jack Bauer do?” kinda guy. You still get the leeway — but you’re on the right side. Haha.

SnakeDoc

[DoughtyOne]

If the left would ignore her, Palin would get the usual attention in-party members give one of their own in between presidential elections and that would be it. Instead rags like WaPo focus everyone on her. And so I say thanks to them.

Palin’s name recognition has gone exponential due to them. And normal folks aren’t buying what they are selling.

So yes, there is a psychological fixation of sorts taking place here, only it’s not the folks on the right who are suffering from it.

You folks on the left, seek help.

[darkangel82]

Liz Cheney would be a sight better than the 08 RINOs, but she has no experience.

[x]

... last week congressional Republicans started agitating to have the Gipper replace poor Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill.

So far as I know that was one Congressman.

Could we stick with the truth and not distort it?

[SnakeDoctor]

SnakeDoc

[bgill]

He’d send her a jar of jelly beans.

[Al B.]

Palin’s name recognition has gone exponential due to them.

I wonder if the MSM even realizes the gift they have given her. Thanks to them, she now has a priceless asset that politicians only dream of having...everybody's attention.

[Tribune7]

For president? Against Obama?

He would crawl over broken glass and through razor wire to do so.

[x]

It depends on how old he was and whether he was in any shape to run himself.

I can't see Reagan taking a back seat to Sarah, if he was eligble to run.

[FrankR]

Another in the long line of "What Would ___________ Do" series...you fill in the blank. So far, everything from Jesus to - now - Reagan.

The "What Would __________ Do" is brought to us by the same people who brought us "Sixty Is The New Forty" and "Blue Is The New Black". Well, I'm over 60, and it sure as hell isn't the "40" I remember, and blue ain't black.

Of course, we have no way to telling what either, or any, of the choices would do...they are not here. We all would like to think that Reagan would adhere to his conservative principles, drawing on his honor and integrity and vote for the right person, which I believe is Sarah.

People have different thought processes and ways we use to arrive at conclusions and decisions.

It's a rhetorical question that has no bearing on the subject at hand and will not change a thing, no matter which way it is answer. Just more fodder for the obama media mill to chew on.