Griper Blade: The Republicans and Saint Ron

The first Republican debate went pretty much as could be expected. John McCain criticized the Bush administration's war policies, but didn't really go into any specifics. He also slung a little BS:

New York Times:

"I would not have mismanaged the war," Mr. McCain said. "And I would have vetoed spending bill after spending bill after pork-barrel project after pork-barrel project, in the tradition of President Reagan."

John McCain's been a little late in being a critic of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq. He's been a big cheerleader for the administration all along and the only real alternative he's offered so far is that he would've done the big surge earlier.

But it was a dead man who dominated the debate. That wasn't really surprising, since they held it at the Gipper's Sacred Tomb. And, as McCain demonstrated, it was an idealized, revisionist version of Reagan who haunted the Temple of Ronnie -- it was the Reagan who was tight with tax dollars, not the Reagan of the first trillion dollar budget and the hundred dollar sheet metal screw. It was the president Reagan pretended to be, not the president he was...

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