Hugh Hewitt
<font color=blue>"I've been dreading this every election year for three cycles, said Jim Jordan, Mr. Kerry's former campaign manager. "Bush has totally attached himself to Ronald Reagan. He's going to turn Reagan into his own verifier."
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That quote from a piece in this morning's New York Times that tries very hard --after Jordan's outburst of candor-- to find something with which to cheer up Democrats. No use. Focus on President Reagan inevitably reminds people of why Reagan was a great president: character, principles, good humor, optimism and a deep, deep love of America. <font size=4>Then they look at the current president and see the very same qualities. Of course the celebration of Reagan's life and leadership will buoy George W. Bush's campaign<font size=3>, and for very good and legitimate reasons. W is the Gipper's political heir.
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The dishonest media types are trying to distinguish between the two.<font size=3> Take this howler from the editorial writers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune: <font color=blue>"The current administration could learn from [Reagan's] eight years in office."<font color=black> As though even one of these writers admired Reagan then or now. Their complete and transparent dishonesty in posing as Reagan-boosters in order to try and attack Bush is humorous but also revealing of the lack of courage in their number. They don't know how to gracefully remain silent, so a spoonful of Bush-hating is used to help the hypocrisy go down.
There's plenty of great stuff available this morning. Peter Robinson, discussed below, has two pieces out --one in the subscriber-only WSJ and one in the New York Post. Peter's WSJ piece begins this way:
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"One day in 1977, Ronald reagan asked Richard Allen, who would become his first national security adviser, if Mr. Allen would like to hear his theory of the Cold War. 'Some people think I'm simplistic and being simple. My theory of the Cold War is that we win and they lose. What do you think about that?'
"'I was flabbergasted,' Mr. Allen now says. 'I'd worked for Nixon and Goldwater and many others, and I'd heard a lot about...detente and the need to 'manage the Cold War,' but never did I hear a leading politician put the goal so starkly.'
"'Governor,' I asked, 'do you mean that?'
"Mr. Reagan replied, 'Of course I mean it. I just said it.'"<font color=black>
Mark Steyn also has penned a wonderful essay on Reagan.
More and more such essays and programs will flow out throughout the week, reminding America of what it takes to be a great nation and the qualities of a great president. Which brings us back to the New York Times' piece. <font color=blue>"One senior Democratic Party official, who declined to be identified, said that [diminished news coverage of the campaign] might not be such a bad thing. 'It's going to overshadow Kerry and Bush for the entire week,' this official said. 'It must be a welcome respite to reporters, pols and voters alike.'"
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Of course the week's ceremonies won't overshadow Bush, who will preside over the state funeral. But neither will it overshadow Kerry, who is in compelling ways the heir to Jimmy Carter's mantle far more than he is to Bill Clinton's. In fact, the 1980 and the 2004 campaigns are starkly similar, and they share with 1972 the undeniable and unavoidable choice between a candidate pledged to victory in war and one pledged to retreat and a self-deluding multilateral ism which is really appeasement. This unavoidable comparison is why Jim Jordan has been worried about this week for years.
One other story from this morning's papers: <font color=blue>"GM to pour $3 billion into China,"<font color=black> is the headline from the Detroit Free Press business section. Putting aside the image of Caddies in The Forbidden City, the article underscores why The Democratic Party generally and American labor specifically needs to figure out that the new world economy simply cannot overlook manufacturing costs and transportation costs. Someone ought to ask John Kerry if his proposed CAFE standards, which will add even more cost to the bottom line of the vehicles coming out of America, aren't the biggest outsourcing threats of them all.
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