What if we don’t have a Great Communicator right now but have several viable candidates
Well, Dubya was an obviously "viable" candidate. He won! Twice. And yet, we cringed every time he made a speech and the left took advantage of it and said "See! conservatives are idiots and hypocrites!" Well, except that Bush was not a conservative, so he wasn't a hypocrite....but he did give us all a horrible name.
OTOH, it's not clear to me that Ronaldus Magnus reincarnated could win in 2012....certainly he would not have beaten Obama in 2008.
I agree. You make good points. It would behoove candidates (esp Palin and Bachmann, both heavily targetted by the slime-ball media) to be more nimble.
All I’m saying is that perhaps we should be more nimble, too, and not expect a RR on a White Horse but deal with, and support, what we’ve got.
Also, did you notice that one poster mentioned that RR was READY for that age question. I’ve always thought that that whole moment, as good as it was, might have been scripted out in advance. Doesn’t detract from the force and effectiveness of it, but it does remove it as evidence for the Genius Of Quick Thinking Theory.
Though I do think RR was that, a genius at quick thinking.
I remember a story that does show evidence of Reagan’s ability to think quickly:
On a walk to a campus building (on some UC campus) as Governor. Both sides of the long walkway were lined by protesting students.
Their method of protest was to give him the Silent Treatment.
As Reagan walked by, they all stared at him silently, not breathing a word.
When Reagan reached the steps of the building, he turned, faced the long double-line of students, put his finger to his lips and said “shhhhhhhhh”.
All the students, in spite of themselves, cracked up laughing.
Yes. He was a Genius of Quick Thinking.
It’s just that the famous Age Answer is probably not an example of it.