Outside the Beltway

Senator McCain, Sarah Palin Is No Ronald Reagan

· Sunday, November 28, 2010 · 16 comments

It’s becoming common for defenders of Sarah Palin to try to draw analogies between her and Ronald Reagan, and John McCain picked up that meme himself when he appeared on CNN today:

McCain compared his former running mate, Sarah Palin, to former President Ronald Reagan, noting that some viewed Reagan as divisive too. “I think that anybody who has the visibility that Sarah has is obviously going to have some divisiveness,” McCain said. “I remember that a guy named Ronald Reagan used to be viewed by some as divisive. … I think she had a positive impact on the last election, and I’m proud of her.”

US Politics, , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. largebill says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 16:59

    Doug,
    You look foolish when you go down that road.  When people compare the attacks on Palin to the attacks on Reagan and note similarities they are not comparing the two people and saying they are the same.  Early on, Reagan wasn’t viewed as we view him today.  The nuts on the left aided by the media (or is that being redundant) mocked him as a big dummy.  The biggest thing Palin has in common with Reagan is neither of them are anything like what their opponents paint them to be.

  2. André Kenji says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 17:47

    Reagan was painted as a extremist, not as a imbecile. People forgets that already in 68 – twelve years before he was elected – he was considered to be vice-presidential contender. In a Time Magazine cover, no less.

  3. section9 says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 18:36

    Sorry, Doug, but your Romneybot ship will never come in. As a matter of fact, I suspect it is taking on water fast.
    I will post here what I posted over at Cubachi about why John McCain is so happy with Sarah Palin:

    John McCain gets up in the morning and does a tap-dance every time he thinks of Sarah. Why? Well, aside from the fact that Sarah basically shares his Teddy Roosevelt/Jacksonian reformist conservatism, Palin is John McCain’s canister of napalm on the House of Bush and their project to impose dynastic rule on the Republican Party.
    Through Palin’s personality, drive, and force of character, McCain has driven a stake through the heart of the ambitions of the Bushies and their Romneybot minions. Nothing he could have done or imagined could have worked as well as the force he loosed on the Republican Party with this one stroke of mad genius.
    He does a mad grin every time he thinks of what he has done to the Bushes.
    John McCain is loving every nanosecond of Sarah Palin’s rise to power.
     

  4. Patrick T. McGuire says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 18:38

    She must be doing something right or else you wouldn’t be paying so much attention to her.

  5. Smooth Jazz says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 18:43

    “Ronald Reagan was a man of strongly held ideas. Sarah Palin repeats sound bites she writes on her hand…Senator, Sarah Palin is no Ronald Reagan.”
    Dude, You are full of yourself. Or too afflicted with Palin Derangement Syndrome to see that Sen McCain wasn’t comparing the 2 as leaders with X, Y, Z accomplishments; Rather, he was comparing the enthusiasm of their respective supporters.
    Your “repeats sound bites she writes on her hand” hatchet job is more hyperbole and riff raff than anything meaningful. If you bother to study Gov Palin’s record you would see that in a short period of time she cut spending dramatically in AK, and took on the old boys network up there with a vengeance. Methinks you haven’t bother to read up on her for yourself, and get most of your info on her from the whackjobs on MSNBC and elite snobs like Katie Couric.
    Sen McCain never compared Gov Palin to President Reagan the way you imply. No need to go Lloyd Bentsen on us. 
     
     
    <!– –>

  6. Smooth Jazz says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 19:01

    “Sorry, Doug, but your Romneybot ship will never come in. As a matter of fact, I suspect it is taking on water fast.”
     
    Perhaps that explains it. I’m told constantly this is not a left wing blog, but this guy Doug sneers at Gov Palin with seemingly 3 posts a day similar to bloggers at DailyKOS, Andrew Sullivan, Firedoglake and other left wing wacko sites. He doesn’t look at Gov Palin on the merits of her positions; He has to diminish her and attack her like elitist snobs on left wing blogs.
    Case in point: His suggestion that Gov Palin doesn’t have any strongly held convictions like Ronald Reagan and simply writes stuff on her hand. If this guy bothered to follow any of her recent positions, he would know that she has been very eloquent in staking out positions on disparate subjects – similar to her recent position on QE2. His snarky put down of her as someone who simply writes stuff on her hand is indicative, to me at least, of someone who has made up their mind about her, and is putting up his obligatory hit job post. Perhaps he doesn’t want her to debate the boys, because he is scared she may kick their butts similar to how she handled “Bite Me” Biden during the VP debates in 2008.
    Being a Romney supporter would certainly explain his snarky hatchet posts on Gov Palin. Whether that is the case or not, the guy has a serious case of Palin Derangement Syndrome.

  7. Palin Patrol says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 19:12

    Leave Sarah alone!!!!!1!

  8. anjin-san says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 19:33

    > If you bother to study Gov Palin’s record you would see that in a short period of time she cut spending dramatically in AK
     
    That must have been right before she cut out, betraying her sworn duty to the people of Alaska.

  9. steve says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 20:20

    ” If this guy bothered to follow any of her recent positions, he would know that she has been very eloquent in staking out positions on disparate subjects – similar to her recent position on QE2.”
     
    LOL. Wins the internet today.
     
    Steve

  10. Smooth Jazz says:
    Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 22:32

    “That must have been right before she cut out, betraying her sworn duty to the people of Alaska.”
     
    Please spare me. If you are an Obama supporter, you don’t want to go there. The guy spent 3 years in the Senate, and 2 years of that he spent running for President. Before that he was a state senator voting present on anything of consequence, and prior to that he was a community organizor. At least, Gov Palin had exec experience running something –  a state, a city, a business. Your guy was barely a senator, and it clearly shows. He is in WAY over his head, and is the weakest President in memory. In short, Obambi has been a dismal failure.
     

  11. Pug says:
    Monday, 29 November 2010 at 08:45

    She isn’t like Ronald Reagan.  She is like Richard Nixon.  Aggrieved, resentful and divisive.

  12. Franklin says:
    Monday, 29 November 2010 at 09:23

    Please spare me. If you are an Obama supporter,
     
    I stopped reading there.  You have no actual retort to the fact that she’s a quitter.

  13. anjin-san says:
    Monday, 29 November 2010 at 10:22

    I caught part of Palin’s (aka “the quitter”) on a recent Hannity appearance. There were a number of montages with Palin voice overs, and Reagan’s image was used several times. As long as she is making what is obvious effort to create comparisons between herself and Reagan, the whining should be kept to a minimum if the end results are not flattering to her.
     
    > Smooth Jazz says:
     
    I stopped reading there.

  14. Franklin says:
    Monday, 29 November 2010 at 13:40

    I’m told constantly this is not a left wing blog, but this guy Doug sneers at Gov Palin with seemingly 3 posts a day similar to bloggers at DailyKOS, Andrew Sullivan, Firedoglake and other left wing wacko sites.
     
    Ahhh, so you try to only read things if you think you’ll agree with them.  Good to know you have an open mind.
     
    Also, it’s really amusing when a post honoring Reagan is disparaged as left wing.

  15. MarkedMan says:
    Monday, 29 November 2010 at 13:52

    I’m truly curious: what is it that makes Reagan so revered by right wingers.? He is forever to me the guy who made it OK to run up deficits because of ideology and then deny the reality of what happens.

  16. Terrye says:
    Monday, 29 November 2010 at 19:52

    I remember Reagan. I like Reagan today better than I did then. I appreciate him more that is for sure. But Reagan was not like Palin. Reagan was a two term Governor as well as a former head of a large union and he had been very visible in politics and business for many years. He was much older than Palin is now and had more of a resume.
    Reagan was not a slave to ideology either. His stance on immigration would not be conservative by today’s standards, but I think that in terms of immigration he was a product of his times. He was a man who tore down walls, he did not build them.
    So yes, a lot of people tried to make fun of Reagan and all that, but he was still much admired by a cross section of the American people. I just don’t think Palin can garner that kind of broad based support.

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