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Wanted: A Candidate for the Times Philip V. Brennan Republicans scanning the current slate of presidential hopefuls tend to shrug their shoulders and ask themselves "Is this the best we have to offer?" The next question out of the box is the inevitable "where is the next Ronald Reagan when we need him?" The answer that seems to escape them is simply that there isn't a new Ronald Reagan out there waiting to step forward, assume the Gipper's glorious mantle, and lead them to victory in 2008 and nation onto that new shining city on the hill. Ronald Reagan is dead. He is not coming back (and he wouldn't if he could — he's surely gotten where we all hope to be someday). And he didn't leave a clone behind to step into his shoes. The Gipper was a man peculiarly suited to his times. As Paul Kengor wrote in his book "The Crusader" Ronald Reagan was largely driven to seek the presidency by his fierce sense of anti-communism and his belief that given the chance, he could do what the current wisdom deemed impossible: destroy it and the evil empire that spawned it. Everything else was secondary to that goal, and in his eight years in the White House he pursued it with an almost monomaniacal obsession, and, by golly, he did it. He did it because he always had a clear understanding of what it would take to bury communism. Story Continues Below
He surrounded himself with men such as his CIA Director Bill Casey who understood what the president was trying to do and performed mightily to make it happen. And the Gipper stuck to his guns in the face of the determined opposition from the so-called wise men of the elitist foreign policy establishment who agreed unanimously that, like it or not, the Soviet Union and communism were facts of life the world would have to live with indefinitely. To do anything to upset that status quo, they warned ominously would bring on a nuclear holocaust. In the end, the only holocaust was that which consumed the evil empire and all its works and pomps. What Republicans should be looking for is not a reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, but a candidate that has the qualities that made the Gipper the giant that he was. Reagan was an ordinary American with extraordinary assets. He had simple tastes, a sunny disposition, a strong faith in God, confidence in the ability of his fellow Americans to govern themselves without being led around by their noses by a bunch of Washington know-it-alls, a conviction that only a militarily strong America could be safe in an always dangerous world, and that government that governs — and taxes — least is the best government of all. He was modest, yet fully understood his own strengths and never hesitated to use them. He tolerated fools gladly, had incredible sympathy for the less fortunate among us, especially those afflicted by handicaps. He thought everything through, and never acted rashly. He always knew what he was about. He was a generous foe. One of his greatest political antagonists was House Speaker Tip O'Neill who was also one of his closest intimates. I saw that side of him the first time I met him. When his aide, the late great and good Lyn Nofzigger introduced me to the then-California governor, he shook my hand warmly and then stunned me, not by muttering some pleasantry, but by apologizing to me for something he had done involving getting his daughter Maureen who was than working for me, back to California — something that needed no apology whatsoever. And it was no ordinary apology — he meant every word of it — he was sincerely sorry and he wanted me, then a total stranger, to know that. Ronald Reagan was as plain as an old shoe, but he had that innate sense of dignity that never allowed him go take off his suit jacket in the Oval Office. He knew exactly who and what he was: a child of a loving God and always his servant. With General T.J "Stonewall" Jackson he could say "Duty is mine; consequences are God's." He was called "the great communicator" and his ability to talk to the American people and get his points across was ascribed to his background as an actor. While that was a sure asset it was not what made him so effective as a communicator. It was, instead, that Ronald Reagan meant exactly what he said, nothing more, nothing less, and the American people, who can usually spot a phony a mile away, knew that. The question Republicans should be asking themselves now is not where is the new Ronald Reagan when we need him, but instead, who has those same qualities and who can convincingly display them to the American people who hunger for the kind of leadership the times call for. With the Gipper the main job to be done was winning the Cold War. He managed to get the nation to stay the course against solid opposition from the left of the Democratic Party in and out of Congress — the-peace-at-any-price crowd — until that job was done. Today the challenge for a Republican candidate, and hopefully our next president, is to convince the nation that the struggle against Islamofascist terrorism now being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan is not only a matter of life and death, but one that will take a very long time to win. He will need to be another great communicator and to do that he will need to be every bit as genuine and down to earth as Ronald Reagan was, and obviously so. Let's stop looking for Mr. Goodbar and go find the man who like Ronald Reagan, fits the times. Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He can be reached at pvb@pvbr.com. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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