Newt in 1988: Bush won’t win if he runs to continue Reaganism

A reader in England sent the video of Gingrich in 1988 saying that candidate George Bush the elder should not follow Reaganism. I replied:

Great find. This is persuasive, whereas the Elliot Abrams article charging that Gingrich was critical of Reagan is not persuasive, for the reasons I gave. Here Gingrich is clearly repudiating and rejecting, not some secondary aspect of Reaganism, but Reaganism itself. Also his political prognostication is dead wrong. Bush the elder won in 1988 by running conspicuously (albeit cynically and dishonestly) as the heir and successor of Reagan. If he had run as himself, as he did in 1992, he would have lost.

It will be interesting to hear how Gingrich reconciles his 1988 statement with his contemporary claim to being a staunch Reaganite.

In any case, we now know that both Gingrich and Romney distanced themselves from Reagan in the 1980s.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 26, 2012 09:11 AM | Send