I brought up the "rogue," "maverick," "loose cannon" thing as a way of understanding what you might have been getting at. McCain saw himself as a "maverick" who went his own way. Did you mean he saw Palin in that light as well?
Otherwise, what could you possibly have meant? That McCain saw her as a moderate? But he picked her because he thought she'd have appeal to conservatives. [At this point those are rhetorical questions. It doesn't really matter to me.]
It's pretty clear Palin hasn't behaved as Reagan behaved. You might want to see her as the next Reagan, and maybe [a big concession I'm making here] she might turn out to be like Reagan some day.
So far, she hasn't. She hasn't put her energies into a campaign and doesn't really want the presidency.
She may not share McCain's ideology, but her impact on the country hasn't been anything like Reagan's.
My contention is that McCain thought Palin was a moderate who liked to distance herself from other Republicans, just like McCain did. He thought her “rogue” attitude was the same as his “maverick” flapdoodle.
Now your Reagan comments are very strange. She clearly is philosophically very close to Reagan, and not very close to McCain, and that was my point. Your obsession with following in the same career path is not the point I was making at all. Besides, Reagan was still an actor when he was the age Palin is now. so that’s just a specious argument.