Reply #2: Uh-oh, here it comes. [View All]

[CBHagman]

It's funny that the candidates apparently have invoked Reagan relatively few times, though they certainly will score off that charts in that regard tonight, I expect.

It's been my experience that Republicans who invoke the name of Ronald Reagan ALL economic growth of the past 30 years to his policies (They act as though G.H.W. Bush's presidency simply didn't exist). They attribute all lowered taxes to him (though it's Congress who makes the laws; the president only signs them) and keep silent on Reagan era tax increases.

And the entire eight years is depicted a paradise on earth. You'd think there were no foreign policy missteps, no economic uncertainty in the cities or in the Great Plains, no flights from the bloodshed in Central America. No stock market crash of '87. No Iran-contra. No HUD scandal.

And I'd wager there would be no mention of those things tonight, and not just to avoid wounding Nancy Reagan's feelings. It's always morning in America in the past that exists only in Republican minds.