Since the start of the presidential primary campaign, Republican candidates have missed few opportunities to laud the achievements of conservative hero and former president Ronald Reagan, or to portray themselves as his worthy successor. As Michele Bachmann declared after the Iowa caucuses, “What we need is a candidate in the likeness and image of a Ronald Reagan…What we need is a fearless conservative, one with no compromises on their record, on spending, on health care, on crony capitalism, on defending America, on standing with our ally Israel.”[1]
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have also invoked Reagan as an example of a model president. They have contrasted what they see as his superior handling of the economy with the woes suffered during President Obama’s tenure. In an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal in December, Gingrich, who proudly touts himself as a “Reagan conservative”, wrote of an economic “nightmare” in America, which “will not end until Reagan-era economic policies are restored.” One such policy is “spending controls”.[2] Frontrunner Mitt Romney has likewise expressed his admiration for the “smaller government policies of the Reagan era [which] helped turn around a struggling economy and create millions of jobs.”[3]
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