The American electorate still prefers a Reaganesque president, says Scott Johnson at Powerline. Writes Johnson:
The Washington Times reports on a new Rasmussen survey that reinforces the idea that Republicans shouldn't give up on 2008. Rasmussen tested five descriptions of a Presidential candidate; the one that came out on top, with a 44% positive rating, was "like Reagan."
Most Republicans have been pretty confident that last year's election wasn't a repudiation of conservatism. This is borne out by the fact that "conservative" outpolls "liberal" by 32% to 20%. In some polls over the years, of course, the disparity has been even wider. But "progressive" scored 35%, which can only mean that many Americans haven't figured out yet that "progressive" means "even more liberal than they used to be." No doubt some still associate it with Teddy Roosevelt.
"Moderate" polled only 29%, which suggests that most Americans want a Presidential candidate to stand for something, as long as it isn't liberalism. But what people really want, apparently, is another Reagan. And they're much more likely to see a Republican in that role than a Democrat.
Last year's election could only be a repudiation of conservatism if Republicans had been governing as conservatives. They weren't. Last year's election was a rejection of liberal-leaning big governmentism and weak-willed Republicans "leadership" that spent too much, regulated too much, and reacted too ineffectually to massive liberal power grabs such as the Kelo ruling allowing governments to seize private property for virtually any reason that government deems to be in the government's interest.
A Reaganesque conservative who believes in federalism, in smaller government, in lower taxes, and who believes it is urgent that the Kelo ruling be rolled back, stands a pretty good chance in '08 in my estimation.
