It was pretty fun tonight. Much more spirited. Seems almost like Hillary and Edwards were ganging up on Obama. Their internal SC polls must show Obama with a good sized lead.
Kind of disappointed that Obama didn't take her on about the Reagan thing. I mean, he did chide her for stating -- incorrectly -- that he vouched for some of the Rebuplican ideas as being good ones.
Ending "welfare as we know it?" Republican idea, although Moynihan deserves credit, too. Bill Clinton picked it up and ran with it. Pretty damn good idea, as history has proven.
Keeping up the moral outrage against totalitarianism while rewarding Soviet moves toward greater freedom? I'd say it was an excellent idea.
Deregulating large sectors of the economy? Eliminating regulating agencies (look up the CAB and the ICC in case you forgot)? Superb idea. Time has proven that.
No, the point isn't that everything worked. Some things didn't. Namely, the whole "starve the beast" theory that if revenues fell the Congress would necessarily have to cut spending in lock-step. Oops.
Rather, the point is this: the activist Republican Party filled a great intellectual chasm that existed in the stagflation days of the 70s, where big-government democrats and status quo loving country club Republicans had allowed their lack of new ideas to grind the nation into a state of decline.
I guess Obama's quote was the classic Michael Kinsley definition of a political gaffe: when a politician inadvertently speaks the truth.
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