Word: reaganization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...week into the race, it's clear what kind of choice George W. Bush wants to offer America: Reagan vs. Bush. But this time Bush will play Reagan and Gore will play Bush. Get it? George W. hopes to sketch this contest (he's already thinking general election) as the sunny, straight-talkin', conservative cowboy from out West against the tense, aloof, out-of-touch elitist from back East. In other words, he's trying to assume the role perfected in 1980 by Ronald Reagan (but without all that pesky ideology) while casting Al Gore as the pencil-neck child...
...idea. But young Bush (no stranger to great schools) has a way to go before he assumes Reagan's mantle. He looks the part, but he hasn't displayed anything like Reagan's ability to deflect attacks or deliver warm words and one-liners to a camera. (He may need those gifts because his grasp of world issues seems at times Reaganesque.) Nor does Bush have Reagan's base of true believers, since he hasn't been espousing a consistent ideology for 20 years. Or even 10. "Reagan had earned his spurs by 1980," says his former campaign manager, John...
...Reagan's 1980 campaign has been a template for G.O.P. front runners ever since. First among its lessons: Send out a genial, general message early, and avoid specific proposals. Reagan learned the danger of specificity in 1976. He was poised to snatch the nomination from President Gerald Ford--but then he delivered his infamous "$90 billion speech," which called for gutting that much from the federal budget and turning power over to the states. Ford's team jumped on it, and the uproar helped drive the winning margin to Ford. So three years later, Reagan, by then the undisputed G.O.P...
...attention is with him," says Sears. "Does he have something to say? People want to hear two or three simple, powerful ideas. Maybe he can get elected without that, but to exercise real power as President, he's got to have it." And that's the true lesson of Reagan...
...Crowd-Pleasers have the unique ability to score positive numbers in the polls without actually declaring either candidacy or policies ?- rather like George W. Bush in the early part of 1999. Crowd-Pleasers try to mimic Ronald Reagan?s knack for making people feel good about him without ever really being able to articulate why (although unlike today?s wussy centrists, of course, Reagan actually took firm and controversial policy stands). Of course, media plays a critical role in generating those feelings. But it wouldn?t be possible without some basic charisma. They?re not sure why they...