NYT: Reagan may not be much help to Bush in election

[LTR]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/07/politics/campaign/07REPU.html?ei=5062&en=2b0daab7e3429b75&ex=1087272000&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=

Even some Democrats said they were concerned that the death of Mr. Reagan would provide a welcome, if perhaps temporary, tonic for a president who had been going through tough political times.

"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."

Still, Mr. Kerry's aides said they believed Mr. Reagan's death would be, as a political matter, far in the background by the summer. And Republicans said there were risks in too conspicuously invoking Mr. Reagan as part of Mr. Bush's campaign.

Advisers to Mr. Bush said they had not determined how prominently Mr. Bush should identify his presidency with Mr. Reagan, whether Mr. Reagan's image should be incorporated in Mr. Bush's advertisements and whether Nancy Reagan might appear on Mr. Bush's behalf in the fall.

Some Republicans said the images of a forceful Mr. Reagan giving dramatic speeches on television provided a less-than-welcome contrast with Mr. Bush's own appearances these days, and that it was not in Mr. Bush's interest to encourage such comparisons. That concern was illustrated on Sunday, one Republican said, by televised images of Mr. Reagan's riveting speech in Normandy commemorating D-Day in 1984, followed by Mr. Bush's address at a similar ceremony on Sunday.

"Reagan showed what high stature that a president can have — and my fear is that Bush will look diminished by comparison," said one Republican sympathetic to Mr. Bush, who did not want to be quoted by name criticizing the president.

Another senior Republican expressed concern that by identifying too closely with Mr. Reagan, Mr. Bush risked running a campaign that looked to the past, which this adviser described as a recipe for a loss.

[LTR]

1. kick

:kick:

And I thougth a Reagan-related thread wouldn't drop off the page.

Silly me.

[Bandit]

2. Sounds like they want to run Ronnie again instead of Bush*

"Reagan showed what high stature that a president can have — and my fear is that Bush will look diminished by comparison," said one Republican sympathetic to Mr. Bush, who did not want to be quoted by name criticizing the president.

Some Republicans said the images of a forceful Mr. Reagan giving dramatic speeches on television provided a less-than-welcome contrast with Mr. Bush's own appearances these days, and that it was not in Mr. Bush's interest to encourage such comparisons. That concern was illustrated on Sunday, one Republican said, by televised images of Mr. Reagan's riveting speech in Normandy commemorating D-Day in 1984, followed by Mr. Bush's address at a similar ceremony on Sunday.

ROTFLMAO

[madrchsod]

3. he`s dead

can`t help bush-in fact a hell of alot of people who voted for him are dead or as in dixon in nursing homes

[supernova]

4. I knew it!

Even the repubs are recoiling from using Reagan to pump up *

"Reagan showed what high stature that a president can have — and my fear is that Bush will look diminished by comparison," said one Republican sympathetic to Mr. Bush, who did not want to be quoted by name criticizing the president.

But you know what? Rove is just tone deaf enough to do it anyway.

[Moderator]

5. RatTerrier

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[LTR]

7. Sorry

They were short paragraphs, though.

I saw your post too late to edit. My bad.

[lanparty]

6. Great Communicator vs ..

The Great CONFABULATOR!!!!!

It's not a good contrast. Comparing Bush with Reagan will only make Bush look stupid. And that is ironic since Reagan wasn't too bright of a bulb himself.

Somewhere, Pat Buchanan is saying ...

"I knew Ronald Reagan, and George W Bush is no Ronald Reagan".

[Renew Deal]

8. That's what I've been saying.

"Reagan showed what high stature that a president can have — and my fear is that Bush will look diminished by comparison,"

Bush will look like the idiot he is.

[LTR]

9. No matter how hard he tries...

...Dubya is just not a 'Reagan'.

[Servo300]

10. Quite true.

[July]

11. So they're already talking about using Reagan for political ads?

What was that about not politicizing Paul Wellstone's death?

I give you . . . GOP hypocrites!

[ElementaryPenguin]

12. This will BACKFIRE big-time!

Images of Reagan will only remind the average repuke how downhill the party has gone - and the "Reagan Democrats" - they can kiss them goodbye - side by side Chimpy looks like the Saturday Night Live skit joke that he is!! Reagan sucked - and he was scripted - but he could give a helluva good speech and had a charismatic, rugged American thing that seemed much more authentic than Chimpy's frat rat, Eddie Haskel meets Barney Fife meets Gilligan version!!

Simply put - Reagan (a puppet) seemed PRESIDENTIAL
While the Mad War Chimp puppet - has never seemed presidential for even a single moment!

[JHB]

13. * has all of Reagan's faults and none of his....

...well, I don't think they're actually "virtues", so let's just say strong points.

[Bake]

14. Well, you know, Reagan was TALL.

Smirk just looks like a little wimpy shrub by comparison. And that's before he even opens his stupid mouth.

Bake