Era Error

DURING this election season, liberals have often drawn an analogy to the 1980 election. They drew it at first to explain Barack Obama’s poll numbers, which were weaker than one might have expected given the Republicans’ unpopularity. The 1980 race was tight for much of the year, too, they explained. The public thought that Pres. Jimmy Carter and liberalism had failed, but did not yet trust Ronald Reagan and conservatism. Then Reagan reassured it, and the election ended up not being close.

Obama, in this analogy, is “the liberal Reagan,” which is to say the anti-Reagan. The notion is that the long era of conservative dominance is ending, and Obama might bring down the curtain, inaugurating a new era as Reagan did. Former president Bill Clinton alluded to this possibility in his speech to the Democratic convention in Denver. He did not mention Reagan directly. Instead he said that John McCain “embraces the extreme philosophy that has defined his party for more than 25 years.” With unified Republican control of the federal government for most of the Bush administration, the extremists, he said, finally had a chance to implement their philosophy. Having seen its disastrous results, the public now has a chance to repudiate that extremism-presumably, once and for all.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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DURING this election season, liberals have often drawn an analogy to the 1980 election. They drew it at first to explain Barack Obama’s poll numbers, which were weaker than one might have expected given the Republicans’ unpopularity. The 1980 race was tight for much of the year, too, they explained. The public thought that Pres. Jimmy Carter and liberalism had failed, but did not yet trust Ronald Reagan and conservatism. Then Reagan reassured it, and the election ended up not being close.

Obama, in this analogy, is “the liberal Reagan,” which is to say the anti-Reagan. The notion is that the long era of conservative dominance is ending, and Obama might bring down the curtain, inaugurating a new era as Reagan did. Former president Bill Clinton alluded to this possibility in his speech to the Democratic convention in Denver. He did not mention Reagan directly. Instead he said that John McCain “embraces the extreme philosophy that has defined his party for more than 25 years.” With unified Republican control of the federal government for most of the Bush administration, the extremists, he said, finally had a chance to implement their philosophy. Having seen its disastrous results, the public now has a chance to repudiate that extremism-presumably, once and for all.