Watch for This

The NYTimes notes the impact of Reagan on the various campaigns.

To summarize the Times' obviously unbiased view - Bush is wrong either way.

The article lays out both campaigns' bona fides:

In France, Mr. Bush heralded the late president as a "gallant leader in the cause of freedom," and lionized him in an interview with Tom Brokaw. In Washington, Mr. Bush's aides said that it was Ronald Reagan as much as another president named Bush who was the role model for this president, and they talked of a campaign in which Mr. Reagan would be at least an inspirational presence.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Mr. Bush's likely Democratic challenger, was no less warm in praising Mr. Reagan, with a speech and a tribute on his Web site.

So they both like Reagan. Got it.

"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.

So Kerry's campaign thinks there are risks for Bush, but they don't matter anyway...?

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.

On purely cosmetic grounds? Perhaps not.

On the grounds of actual accomplishment? There might be something to be gained, yes.

I have a better idea. Let's compare Reagan's speeches with those of John Kerry.

Over the next month or so, watch for the press, in ways subtle and not, to link Reagan with Kerry, while trying (as this article did) to detach Bush from it.

Posted by Mitch at June 7, 2004 06:56 AM