What the
 
Reagan-Flap
 
Really Says
  
about Obama, 
  
Clinton,and
 
Edwards

By Hank Edson

The recent flap over Barack Obama’s comments on Ronald Reagan speaks volumes about what distinguishes our three democratic presidential candidates. But what it says is not complementary to either Obama or Clinton. Instead, once again, it shows us that John Edwards is the real candidate all Democrats should support.

Obama’s Intent

When Obama described Reagan’s Republican Party as the “party of ideas,” his intention was to use Reagan as a sort of yardstick for measuring whether or not a candidate has the mojo to rally a large majority of the nation’s political support. By invoking the concept of “the Reagan Democrat,” Obama intended to show that the Clintons did not measure up to the Reagan yardstick and to suggest, however, that he would.

Obama was thus casting a Clinton White House as one which would lack a governing majority, one that would only perpetuate an entrenched partisanship the nation would not willingly choose if offered an alternative.

By contrast, an Obama White House, he implied, would, in a Reaganesque manner, make the Democratic Party once again a “Party of Ideas,” capable of maintaining a governing majority. This governing majority would attract “Obama Republicans” discontented with the Presidency of George W. Bush, who, however, would never vote...READ MORE!