thank you!

Someone puts it all together in the Trib -- if Reagan is the father of modern conservatism and consequently Bush II, then he's to blame for its total, miserable, complete failure.

Money quote:

Each of Bush's signature failures -- the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Enron and the corporate scandals, failed tax and trade policies, the attempt to privatize Social Security, the posturing around Terri Schiavo and stem cells -- can be traced back not simply to the conservative ideology and ideologues that sired them -- but to the basic concepts that Reagan championed. The Gipper can't lead Republican candidates out of the wilderness because, to paraphrase, his conservatism is the problem, not the solution.

"they should see Reagan"

From Hilzoy, again, on the Republicans' first debate:

"Giuliani said the only thing worse than an American-led military offensive against Iran would be Iran having nuclear weapons, which he called "the worst nightmare'' of the Cold War. The way to stop Iran, he said, was resolute American leadership facing down the Iranian president.

"He has to look at an American president, and he has to see Ronald Reagan,'' Giuliani said."

1. And here I thought the worst nightmare of the cold war was mutually assured destruction.
2. Hilzoy goes through Reagan's inconsistent and incomprehensible anti-terrorism and anti-Iran policies:

Maybe, instead, Giuliani thinks that when the Iranians see a US President, they should see the Ronald Reagan whose administration failed to respond at all when terrorists bombed our embassies in Beirut and Kuwait, and who did not fire his Secretary of Defense when he countermanded the President's order to strike terrorist training facilities after 241 of our troops anjd 64 other people were killed. Or perhaps he has in mind instead the Reagan who, when the marine barracks were bombed, swore that we would stay in Lebanon and then, four months later, began pulling our troops out.

That's not even the whole thing! But the Reagan myth has taken hold. The general public doesn't like it questioned because it seems like a mean attack on a nice man. The Republicans don't like it questioned because they cling to a childlike faith in Big Daddy, and Reagan is the most recent one they have to feel good about. That, and they tend not to care about logical consistency.