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Would Reagan vote for Sarah Palin?
WaPo ^ | Mar. 6, 2010 | Steven F. Hayward

Posted on 03/06/2010 11:49:19 AM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: keywordtrolls; palin; palinmessiah; palinreagan; palinsavior; palinworship
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1 posted on 03/06/2010 11:49:19 AM PST by Al B.
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To: 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.”


2 posted on 03/06/2010 11:50:33 AM PST by Al B.
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To: Al B.

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

SnakeDoc


3 posted on 03/06/2010 11:50:46 AM PST by SnakeDoctor (The night is darkest just before the dawn, but [...] the dawn is coming. -- Harvey Dent)
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To: Al B.

You Betcha!


4 posted on 03/06/2010 11:52:47 AM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: SnakeDoctor; Al B.
"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.

5 posted on 03/06/2010 11:54:39 AM PST by Hardastarboard (Note to self: Never post in a thread about religion again.)
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To: Al B.

No doubt in MY mind.


6 posted on 03/06/2010 11:54:44 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: Brices Crossroads; SoCalPol; Virginia Ridgerunner; onyx

Ping


7 posted on 03/06/2010 11:55:37 AM PST by Al B.
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To: Al B.

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...


8 posted on 03/06/2010 11:56:00 AM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: Al B.
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.

9 posted on 03/06/2010 11:57:00 AM PST by lonestar (Better Obama picks his nose than our pockets!)
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To: Hardastarboard

>>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...


10 posted on 03/06/2010 11:57:50 AM PST by freedumb2003 ( Tagline lost -- anyone seen it?)
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To: Hardastarboard

>> 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


11 posted on 03/06/2010 11:58:04 AM PST by SnakeDoctor (The night is darkest just before the dawn, but [...] the dawn is coming. -- Harvey Dent)
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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.


12 posted on 03/06/2010 11:58:16 AM PST by DoughtyOne (If we as Republicans can't clean up our house, who can or will? Just say no to MeCain(D).)
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To: lonestar

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


13 posted on 03/06/2010 11:58:26 AM PST by darkangel82 (I don't have a superiority complex, I'm just better than you.)
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To: Al B.
... 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?

14 posted on 03/06/2010 11:58:53 AM PST by x
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To: Hardastarboard

SnakeDoc

15 posted on 03/06/2010 11:59:42 AM PST by SnakeDoctor (The night is darkest just before the dawn, but [...] the dawn is coming. -- Harvey Dent)
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To: Al B.

He’d send her a jar of jelly beans.


16 posted on 03/06/2010 11:59:44 AM PST by bgill (The framers of the US Constitution established an entire federal government in 18 pages.)
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To: DoughtyOne
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.

17 posted on 03/06/2010 12:01:05 PM PST by Al B.
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To: Al B.
For president? Against Obama?

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

18 posted on 03/06/2010 12:01:22 PM PST by Tribune7 (Only stupid, racists people support Obama.)
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To: Al B.
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.

19 posted on 03/06/2010 12:01:25 PM PST by x
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To: Al B.
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.
20 posted on 03/06/2010 12:03:05 PM PST by FrankR (Those of us who love AMERICA far outnumber those who love obama - your choice.)
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