Conservatives who worked themselves into a lather because John McCain was not a Reagan Republican are now trying to come to grips with McCain as the proverbial "lesser of two evils" candidate. However, if conservatives really want the next Reagan, maybe all they need to do is look on the Democratic side at Barack Obama. Obama shares many of the same attributes that got Reagan elected, i.e. charismatic personality, good public speaker, call for "change" and he is viewed as a Washington outsider.
Of course, conservatives want to believe Reagan's popularity was due more to his conservative principles rather than his personality. However, how do they explain the election of Senators and Congressmen whose stated beliefs were in stark contrast to Reagan's? Or why the American people have not elected a "Reagan Republican" for president since? Did the American people change from their conservative values once Reagan left office?
The answer is that we elect presidents more on personality than policy, a fact conservatives do not want to admit because it reveals the myth of the Reagan revolution. While I applaud conservatives who put their principles ahead of blind allegiance to a party, they need to realize the voters are looking for a very different "next Ronald Reagan" and that this person may very well be a Democrat.
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