Sarah Palin Ain't Ronald Reagan - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Sarah Palin Ain’t Ronald Reagan
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Sarah Palin has undoubted political skills.  In fact, that’s what one should expect from someone who defeated an incumbent governor in the primary and a former governor in the general election.  But her common touch and winning speaking style do not mean she is a reincarnation of Ronald Reagan.

My Cato Institute colleague David Boaz points out three important differences:

  • Reagan served eight years as governor of a very large state; he didn’t quit after half a term.
  • Reagan had spent a long time developing a real political philosophy, one that had changed a great deal during his adult life. In his time as president of the actors’ union, 1947-52, he was known as a liberal, anti-communist Democrat. A long life of watching the world, paying taxes, and reading moved him to the libertarian right. Palin couldn’t name any newspapers she reads. Reagan told Rowland Evans in an interview, “I’ve always been a voracious reader – I have read the economic views of von Mises and Hayek, and … Bastiat…. I know about Cobden and Bright in England – and the elimination of the corn laws and so forth, the great burst of economy or prosperity for England that followed.” Reagan thought a lot about what he believed, and his deep understanding of a set of political principles was perhaps his most notable characteristic when he emerged on the political stage.
  • Reagan was smart and could articulate his views on public policy. One of the standard defenses of Palin is “liberals said Reagan was dumb.” Yes, they did, even after he out-debated Bobby Kennedy in an internationally televised debate just months after he became governor. Democratic mandarin Clark Clifford, who didn’t realize that the bank he chaired was run by actual criminals, famously called Reagan an “amiable dunce.” But now that Reagan’s hand-written radio commentary scripts have been published, no one really makes this claim any more. Read Reagan in His Own Hand, read the commentaries he wrote on yellow pads while being driven from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, and ask yourself: Could Sarah Palin do that?

Like Reagan, Palin is a potent political stump speaker.  But unlike Reagan, she is a long way from demonstrating that she is qualified to be president.

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