Reaganism Lives

Carol Platt Liebau | November 10, 2008 12:54 PM

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Scott Rassmussen makes a convincing case that Barack Obama's election represented the vindication of Reaganite principles, rather than the repudiation of them.

After all, President-elect Obama promised tax cuts to most everyone, while the Bush Administration (by necessity, but also rotten luck) was saddled with engineering a $700 billion bailout deal.

Here's a key point Rassmussen (the most accurate pollster this year) makes:

A Rasmussen survey conducted Oct. 2 found that 59% agreed with the sentiment expressed by Reagan in his first inaugural address: "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Just 28% disagreed with this sentiment. That survey also found that 44% of Obama voters agreed with Reagan's assessment (40% did not).

What this means is that Republicans are going to have to be diligent in watching for and publicizing the instances in which Democrats say one thing (lower taxes, more efficient government) and then do another (pay off the unions, spend money like drunken sailors).