It was one of those questions designed to catch politicans off guard, to make them think on their feet, and say something spontaneous, rather than an answer they had rehearsed.
It came up during the Livingston Press and Argus debate on Thursday (Oct. 30, 2008) featuring candidates for 8th District Congress, the 66th and 47th House seats, and district judge.
It asked the candidates to name the Democratic and Republican politicians they most admire.
The Democratic candidates had a variety of answers -- FDR, Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Milliken, Abraham Lincoln, L. Brooks Patterson, Lana Pollock.
Two of the Republican candidates and the Libertarian (actually a Republican) favored one name -- Ronald Reagan. None of them mentioned either George Bush, or even Michigan's own Gerald Ford. Or Abraham Lincoln or Theodore Roosevelt. (Mike Rogers named his mother, but his brother Bill didn't.)
Just Ronald Reagan. And mainly for his "ability to communicate."
Talk about lock-step thinking. Maybe that's why the party is where it is this year. It's stuck in a 1980s way of thinking while the nation has moved on.
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