Well, look who's praising Ronald Reagan

Barack Obama made innocuously positive remarks about Ronald Reagan earlier in the week and riled up the nutroots. Obama’s remark also drew out the worst in both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, the latter turning the moment into yet another chance to demagogue and denounce. Here’s Edwards saying that he would “never use Ronald Reagan as an example for change.”

Whoops. In September 2007, guess who praised Ronald Reagan?

We need a new path, one that will lead to reengagement with the world and restoration of the United States’ moral authority in the community of nations. President Harry Truman once said, “No one nation alone can bring peace. Together, nations can build a strong defense against aggression and combine the energy of free men everywhere in building a better future for all.” For 50 years, presidents from Truman and Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton built strong alliances and deepened the world’s respect for us. We gained that respect by viewing our military strength not as an end in itself but as a means to protect a system of laws and institutions that gave hope to billions across the globe. In avoiding the temptation to rule as an empire, we hastened the fall of a corrupt and evil one in the Soviet Union. The lesson is that we cannot only be warriors; we must be thinkers and leaders as well.

And

Millions of people imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain silently cheered the day President Reagan declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Even if these ordinary men and women did not always agree with our policies, they looked to our president and saw a person — and a nation — they could trust.

If you guessed the silky demagogue, you guessed wisely. “Never” apparently means not since the last time he did whatever it is he says he’ll never do.

A majority of Americans rank President Reagan as “great” or “near great.” Saying something nice about Reagan, then, is going to resonate to some extent with a majority of Americans. In saying what he said about Reagan, Obama showed that he’s playing chess while Clinton and especially Edwards are playing Tiddly Winks.