The republican primaries....

"The republicans had a great candidate...BUT unfortunately he had been divorced and then re-married. He had also worked actively with members of the other party on a hot-button issue. It turns out that even members of his immediate family disagree with his politics. His campaign staff quit early on in the primary process. In the face of primary attacks when his opponents had more money and organization, he asked for an end to the negative, intra-party attacks. And, to top it all off, he had crazy and "zany" ideas about American technology in space." These are the current talking points in the media concerning Newt Gingrich. However, I was describing a candidate in the 1980 GOP primaries; Ronald Reagan. Reagan was divorced, and re-married and had children from both marriages. His daughter, Patti, vocally took part in anti-nuclear marches around the nation in 1982. Reagan also worked closely with the opposition party both as president and as governor of California to advance policies that greatly benefited the people he served. On the morning of the New Hampshire primaries in 1980, Reagan's top campaign staff resigned. It was candidate Reagan who re-asserted the "11th Commandment" against speaking ill of a fellow republican. Finally, it was candidate Reagan who had the "zany" idea to think about using space as a frontier to defend our nation. The media derided it as "Star Wars" but the program is now alive, developing and becoming a reality. And the threat of his idea alone helped win the Cold War. Why make this comparison between Gingrich and Reagan? Make no mistake, I am not saying Newt is another Ron Reagan, but there are two reasons. First, perhaps the Tea Party has become SO extreme that even Ronald Reagan wouldn't meet their standards. Second, it demonstrates plainly that we the people should be very skeptical of the media's analysis of presidential candidates and decide for ourselves which candidate to support.