Liberal demonize all republicans, it’s par for the course. My point is that Reagan was an accomplished man, even before he ran for office. You can demean being an actor, but that’s falling into the same mindset as his liberal critics. O’Donnell’s resume is paper thin in comparison. Critics called Reagan a mental lightweight and it didn’t stick because it Reagan had the charisma/intelligence/experience to parry it and make the critics look like the fools. For whatever reason, it did stick to O’Donnell (and I don’t think she is an idiot).
” You can demean being an actor, but that’s falling into the same mindset as his liberal critics. O’Donnell’s resume is paper thin in comparison. Critics called Reagan a mental lightweight and it didn’t stick because it Reagan had the charisma/intelligence/experience to parry it and make the critics look like the fools. For whatever reason, it did stick to O’Donnell (and I don’t think she is an idiot).”
First, I’m not “demeaning” him for being an actor- any actor will tell you that it’s not as easy as it looks, and making it famous is extremely difficult. I’m paraphrasing what critics said about him.
As for his experience before running...well no, he really wasn’t very experienced in a political sense (and he struggled his first two years as Gov. to learn the ropes, signing legislation that he later really regretted). Sure, Reagan had a lot more charisma- but who else can even compare to him today, especially his disarming sense of humor? I can’t think of anyone. Is this what you’re really driving at, then?
And no, the attack that he was supposedly not-so-bright did “stick” with a lot of people (I’ll say it again- go back and actually read things that were said about him at the time). The real difference between Reagan and O’Donnell on this aspect is that establishment Republicans wanted to make a big issue out of this with O’Donnell, whereas they didn’t with Reagan.