John, Fred Thompson is tonight, as you suggest, giving one of the strongest performances of his campaign. Quite consciously, he is arguing to be Reagan’s heir. In debates, that is a winning issue. But I think any honest assessment of Republican challenges requires an admission that the
Republican party needs to go beyond the core Reagan messages (which, to be clear, I embraced with enthusiasm). David Frum’s new book, Comeback, makes a similar argument. At a certain point, these candidates have to set an agenda for the future, creating conservative responses to terrorism, health care, immigration, global competition. Reagan nostalgia is insufficient as an
agenda.