Posted on 12/14/2009 8:46:28 AM PST by kristinn
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States and out of office for twenty years, still has the landslide support of the American people that helped him win two historic terms in the 1980s.
An overlooked poll released last week by Public Policy Polling of over 1200 registered voters showed the Republican icon Reagan was the most popular of the five most recent presidents with 41 percent, impeached Democrat Bill Clinton was a distant second at 27 percent.
The current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama, came in third with 22 percent, thanks to a splintering of support from African-Americans. Only 64 percent named the first African-American president their favorite. Interestingly, 19 percent of African-Americans named Republican presidents their favorite (Reagan-9%, Bush 41-5%, Bush 43-5%) with Clinton being selected by 18%.
Even more distressing for Obama, he was named the second worst president by 37% of those surveyed, barely edging out George W. Bush who was named by 38%.
Nine percent of African-American voters named Obama as the worst, as did 14% of Democrats.
Reagan passed away in 2004. He is the only former president in the survey not still alive to burnish their legacy.
During the last presidential campaign, there was an argument among Republicans about whether the 'era of Reagan' was over.
The standard of Reagan was fiercely upheld by Rush Limbaugh against the likes of Newt Gingrinch:
...Newt could have just as easily said here that conservative principles don't change, that the Reagan coalition is simply looking for leadership and that we need to bring more creative policy alternatives to the table than we have in the recent past. But that's not what he said. He said, "The era of Reagan is over. ... It's the end of the Reagan era." It is not. If the Reagan era is over, if the Reagan coalition is dead, what replaced it? Could somebody tell me? Precisely nothing has replaced it, and that's why so many people are scratching their heads, why so many people are a little nervous, because there isn't any real leadership out there that causes people and inspires people to get behind it and go rah-rah and make certain things happen.
mean, is there a Gingrich coalition that has replaced the Reagan coalition? For that matter, what is the McCain coalition? If we're going to have a new era, what is the McCain era? What is the Huckabee era? What is their winning coalition? They don't have one. You know, all this sounds like Third Way kind of talk, the triangulation of the Clinton years in the nineties. But I don't know what the McCain era would be, and I don't know what the Huckabee coalition is. They don't have a coalition. They're out trying to get votes of independents and Democrats. They're pandering to moderates and independents. Folks, I just want you to think about this: What happens if either of these two guys happen to win, attracting the votes of independents, moderates, the Jell-Os, and Democrats? Does that not equal the demise of the Republican Party?
... Defending liberty takes leadership and guts. Promoting Big Government doesn't. Promoting Big Government is liberalism, and that's easy. It's one of the easiest things that you can do, to run out and simply say, "Well, government's going to fix this. I'm going to have to a plan here. My plan's going to do this, and it involves the government." If conservatism is dead, and if the Reagan era is dead, then I assume that this means the Declaration of Independence is dead as well, that the era of the Declaration has come and gone. Now, what we actually have going on now are people posing as serious thinkers (a common thread in all of this, folks) that conservatism is dead. By the way, that's what the Reagan coalition is, after all. The major elements of conservatism combined into a political movement, is what Reaganism was and of course they're now saying, "That era is gone. We need to replace it with something else." (sigh)
Well, conservatism isn't dead because it cannot be dead. Conservatism is not manmade. Conservatism is a philosophy. It's not a scheme. It's not a plan to figure out what the American people need and want, and then give it to them. That's populism! Conservatism is a philosophy based on God-given natural rights. The Declaration of Independence, is that dead? Of course not! What's dead is leadership on the Republican side, and because there is a lack of leadership of someone who the substantive understanding of liberty and the political skills to advance it, we get all this cockamamie nonsense about the death of our principles. Our principles are not dead! Our principles cannot die.
The PPP survey was released December 11th. No mention of Reagan's overwhelming popularity in the era of Obama was reported in the media.
...Newt could have just as easily said here that conservative principles don't change, that the Reagan coalition is simply looking for leadership and that we need to bring more creative policy alternatives to the table than we have in the recent past. But that's not what he said. He said, "The era of Reagan is over. ... It's the end of the Reagan era."
This spat between Rush and Newt is simply ridiculous.
Look around you, does anybody can say that we live in the Reagan era? Or that Bush-43 were the Reagan era, or Clinton years, or Bush-41 were the eras of Reagan?
When Newt said on Rush's show that the era of Reagan is over it was exactly that, a statement of fact. He never said or implied that Reagan's principles or ideas are over, as he was for a long time about the only Reagan's flag carrier since Ronaldus Magnus left the office. It haven't been either of Bushes or McCain, Giuliani, Huckabee et al. Rush would not even let Newt finish his sentence... It was the strangest miscommunication I've heard on Rush's show.
The Reagan era left with him, his principles and ideas and good works live with us.
Please surrender ! The problem is anyone can Google and see all the Bush administration members talking about Mushroom clouds over US Cities 2002-2003 on TV. Bush and Cheney will never live that down, regardless of the faithful’s wishes. Cheney made other very unrealistic claims with that.
The Mark Levin/Hannity fans live in a bunker where all they hear is about how Bush was right (like dems depend on Obama for info about him.)
...all of which will either be dismissed as propaganda or rationalized away by the Bush administration apologists.
“The Fruit Loops on the right that made those statements about Reaganism being dead, or we need to move on, didn’t seem to understand that Reagan was a strong supporter of our Founding Fathers and our founding documents and ideals.
How are we supposed to move on from that? It displays a serious lack of understanding.”
Fruit Loops covers it pretty well.
I hired 2 ivy league clowns over the years. I had to fire both of them within one year.
;-)
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