Thanks, cp, for the added analysis.
Today Rush did try to tie Reagan to Santorum. CW heard it, although I didn’t.
Seems he said Reagan spoke of family values and of evil, and that the left tried to get Reagan to back down but he didn’t, and now they try to get Santorum to back down because they hate him like they hated Reagan, so that’s how Rush tried to tie them in.
Hello??
The left also hate Sarah Palin, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich.
But that doesn’t qualify as tying into Reagan, in Rush’s book, if your name is Newt Gingrich.
I am so disappointed in Rush. I haven’t been interested in listening to him simce that day he came down so hard on Newt.
I haven’t bought any Two if by Tea since then either.
Of course, they urgently need to put forward either Santorum or Romney (as the author of this article tries to do) as the "natural ally" of small government / Tea Party voters, or they have major problems even in the primaries (as suppressed voter participation has shown) let alone in November, because TP is not represented / "balanced" by either one of them.
There is a reason why Santorum talks only (and not very articulately) about religion and presumed, but artificial, "family values" issues, and why Romney talks about "executive/management experience" with the rest filled in with platitudes - it's because they have nothing else to fall back on, in their actual public or private experiences.
But neither has the credentials to show for small government (a unifying "glue" which represents and unites a majority of conservatives) so the "conservative elite" media has to emphasize that aspect to "pump up" their conservative image - therefore, they will use any buzzword or reference, however tangential, that can tie them to "Reagan" - just as they used "Reagan" in attacking and trying to destroy Gingrich.
McCain constantly talked about being a "soldier in the Reagan's army" and nobody was buying it - just like they are not buying it from Romney or Santorum, so the established practitioners of "conservative media" have to artificially "implant" the "Reagan" credentials into them, to give credibility with the small government / Tea Party who are already leery of GOP (as evidenced by 2010 elections and the turnout in these primaries).
As W.C. Fields said, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull [manure]."
That seems to be exactly what is going on now with the "conservative" media.