Reagan’s Real Strength

With Reagan’s passing there has been a lot of talk about his presidency. Since he left office, the importance of Reagan’s presidency has steadily grown. I personally do not think there is any doubt that Reagan will be seen with FDR as one of the greatest Presidents of the 20th century. The time since he left office has highlighted what I believe was Reagan greatest strength: His ability to get past the liberal slant of the press, and communicate directly with the American people. When conservative have done this they win.

In many (but granted not all) of the major political battles over the past decade, the major determining issue in whether or not conservative won, is whether they were able to get past the news filter. The Medicare debate referenced in an earlier note being one example. But pretty much the same thing is going on now with the economy.

Now that even job growth is strong (and in fact growing faster than Kerry promised to create jobs), the economy is clearly doing very well. But as the economy has been improving over the last 9 month, public opinion concerning the economy has not reflected reality, but has instead been declining. While clearly the economy is doing much better, in recent polls strong majorities have said that while their personal economy situation is good, but they falsely see the economy as getting worst.

Again, if the Republicans can communicate the truth about the economy to the people, since most people vote there pocket book, then they Bush will win. If the slanted press coverage dominates and people still falsely think the economy is bad, then Kerry might win.