The new Regan speaks...

[Gob]

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Feb 4 (Reuters) -

Republican Sarah Palin said on Friday an explosion of government spending and debt under President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats had put the United States on "the road to ruin."

In a tribute to former President Ronald Reagan, the potential 2012 White House contender said leaders in Washington had lost sight of the values that made Reagan a Republican icon and a hero to conservatives -- a belief in limited government, low taxes and personal freedoms.

"This is not the road to national greatness, it is the road to ruin," Palin said of the growth in government spending, budget deficits, joblessness and housing foreclosures under Obama. "The federal government is spending too much, borrowing too much, growing and controlling too much," she said.

Palin said Obama had revived the era of big government, and she ridiculed the infrastructure spending and investment he outlined in his recent State of the Union speech.

"The only thing these investments will get us is a bullet train to bankruptcy," the 2008 vice presidential candidate said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California, part of two days of festivities marking the late president's 100th birthday.

Reagan served two terms as president beginning in 1981, and his belief in limited government, reduced taxes and military strength has been the dominant political doctrine of his Republican Party ever since.

His legacy gained new momentum in the last year with the growth of the conservative grassroots Tea Party movement, which has focused on a push for limited government and reduced government spending.

Like virtually all Republican Party leaders, Palin and many of the other possible Republican candidates to unseat Obama go to great lengths to stress their belief in Reagan's principle.

But Palin said the Republican search for the next Reagan would never be successful. "He was one of a kind," she said.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/ ... 9720110205

[rubato]

And the explosion of debt and spending under Bush II and the republican congress when there was no national emergency was ... ? Was ... ? Was what?

yrs
rubato

[Gob]

Reagan would surely be surprised to hear how often and selectively he gets reshaped today. What to say to the notion an Alaska governor who served half a term and then starred in a reality television show might lack the gravitas to be president?

''You know, I agree with that, that those standards have to be high for someone who would ever want to run for president,'' Sarah Palin sarcastically told Fox News last year. ''Like, wasn't Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn't he in Bedtime for Bonzo?''

Reagan's appeal - to conservatives and the nation at large - comes despite the fact he engaged the superpower he had called an evil empire, raised taxes and left behind what was a record deficit. ''People desperately need that kind of attachment to someone who gives them the sense of hope and possibility,'' said presidential historian Robert Dallek.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ ... 1ak4w.html

[Sue U]

Thought 1: Why does anyone give a rat's ass what this nitwit has to say, let alone report it on an international news wire?

Thought 2: Palin/Bachmann 2012!!!!1!1!!!!!11!1!11!!!

[Gob]

She could be the next POTUS, so what she says is worth scrutiny.

The fact that she has slightly below the intellect of a moth is not an exclusive factor

[Andrew D]

If Palin is elected President in 2012, the Democrats' congressional landslides in 2014 will make their landslides in the 1930s look like close calls.

[Crackpot]

I'd have serious doubts about making it to 2014.