Bush Is Not Reagan

The NY Times finds Republicans who are worried that Bush does not fully fill Reagan's shoes.

And the specific issue that may vex President Bush will be stem cell research; if Nancy Reagan and William Safire are for it, papering over a split between libertarian-conservatives and religious conservatives won't be easy.

One might hope that the Partial Birth Abortion ban and the Federal Marriage Amendment were enough to motivate the religious right and assure them of the importance of a Bush victory. And this (evidently paraphrased) thought of Mr. Reagan's may provide inspiration - "He told his former chief of staff and Treasury secretary, James A. Baker, that he "would much rather get 80 percent of what I want than to go over the cliff with my flag flying," as Mr. Baker put it on CNN on Sunday."

Time will tell.

MORE: We love this too: He [Reagan] once cut off debate among his advisers over how much credit to give the Rev. Jesse Jackson for negotiating Syria's release of a downed American Air Force pilot by saying, "The only way we can lose is if we're not gracious."

UPDATE: The WaPo updates the stem cell question. My excerpts.

Comments

[TM]

From the AP:

Fifty-eight senators are asking President Bush (news - web sites) to relax federal restrictions on stem cell research, and several said Monday that the late President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites) underscored a need to expand the research using human embryos.

The senators' letter to Bush was sent Friday, before Reagan died after a long struggle with Alzheimer's.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&u=/ap/20040607/ap_on_he_me/stem_cells_5&printer=1