Running Against Reagan

The death of Ronald Reagan gives the Republican party a chance to wrap the current president in the mantle of the old one, and it makes John Kerry's job much tougher than it would have been. The Republican convention in New York was always going to play on sentiment, given that it will be only a few miles from Ground Zero. Now, Mr. Bush will stand in the after-glow of the right's Last American Hero -- Mr. Kerry is now running against Mr. Reagan.

That is not to say that the Iraq mess and the economy have ceased to matter. At the end of the campaign, votes will still hinge on whether one has a job or a family member in a body bag. However, just as Al Gore's candidacy was a chance for opt for a third Clinton term, Mr. Bush's re-election attempt is a chance to reaffirm the Reagan years. In a close race, it might make the difference.

And so, Senator Kerry cannot run against President Reagan's conservative successor but rather he must run against Mr. Bush as a man who can't live up to the Reagan legacy. This will stick in the craw of a great many on the left who are acting with a civility they do not feel now that Alzheimer's has done its work. President Reagan is still an object of scorn on the left, and making nice now that he's dead doesn't change that. But to rely on that scorn to win votes is folly. The liberal base is already energized against Mr. Bush, and no one in the middle or on the right will hear a word against Mr. Reagan in death.

Instead, Massachusetts' junior senator will have to say things about the late president that he may not feel so that he may take a page out of Lloyd's Bentsen's book to deliver the verbal coup de grāce, "I knew Ronald Reagan, and Mr. Bush, you are no Ronald Reagan."

And where to start? Mr. Reagan did negotiate two arms deals with the Evil Empire that was the Soviet Union. Mr. Bush can't seem to negotiate with America's allies. Mr. Reagan could discern between regimes that were "totalitarian" (bad guys) and "authoritarian" (bad guys on America's side); for Mr. Bush, "You're either with us or with the terrorists." At home, there can be no greater slam against Mr. Bush than the friendship that existed between President Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. The two would fight tooth and nail during the day, and swap Irish jokes over cocktails at night. Senators McCain and Hagle are Republicans, and Mr. Bush can't get along with them. Mr. Bush will play the Reagan card, and Mr. Kerry must be able to trump it.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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