SUBTITLE: GIPPER WATCH
Although I was too young to remember the "Raygun" presidency, I am somewhat amused at the invocation of the Great Gipper's name by Republicans as if his presidency was a golden age in their version of Camelot.
So powerful is the memory of Reagan, that even Al Gore is using his name to shame George Dubya into taking a leadership role on climate change:
http://www.ft.com/...
Mr Gore said Mr Bush should follow the example of former US president Ronald Reagan, who after an initial delay responded to the 1985 discovery of a hole in the ozone layer by supporting a marked reduction in chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs.
"We have to have a binding reduction on carbon,’’ he said.
Anyway, I suppose in a public debate it's good to to use the enemy's words against them--the 'thuglicans do it all the time when they invoke JFK out of context whenever they want to cut taxes or justify their more aggressive foreign policy.
Reagan was overrated--he benefited from the economic recovery after Jimmy Carter and Paul Volcker implemented 'tough love' measures to combat the stagflation of the 1970s that was a direct effect of the previous Nixon administration's economic policies. Had Ronnie won the GOP nomination against Ford and the election in '76, he would be a one term failure as well. (I worry that it will be the likely Democratic Presidency of 2009-13 that will bear the brunt of the blame for the coming economic collapse caused by Bush/Greenspan's housing bubble).