IF THERE'S ONE NOTIOIN THAT A DEMOCRACY CAN NOT TOLERATE...:

When Reagan was (much) less popular than Carter: Will Bunch, author of "Tear Down This Myth," explains how the Gipper was transformed into a conservative demigod (Steve Kornacki, 2/06/11, Salon)

By 1992, three years after he left the White House, Ronald Reagan was anything but a beloved former president. As a painful recession gripped the country, the public came to see the Reagan years -- which featured a massive defense buildup, soaring deficits and even a stock market crash in 1987 -- as the source of their economic woes. Running for president that year, Bill Clinton promised to enact a clean break from the "failed policies of Reagan and Bush." As Reagan prepared to speak at the Republican National Convention in August, a Gallup poll found that just 46 percent of Americans had a favorable view of him. By contrast, Jimmy Carter, the man Reagan had defeated in a 44-state rout in 1980, was viewed favorably by 63 percent of the American public. The Reagan presidency stood in something approaching disrepute.

...it is that it made a mistake when it elected someone president, especially if we re-elected him.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 6, 2011 4:43 PM