Of all the comparisons between Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush last week, probably the most intriguing -- and politically relevant -- pivots on their style of leadership.
In some ways, the two men clearly converge. Reagan tended, like Bush, to avoid details and focus on big-picture goals. Reagan, again like Bush, favored stark, often religiously infused language that rattled diplomatic sensibilities (especially in Europe) but clarified choices.
Bush alluded to that similarity during the most overtly political passage of his eulogy for Reagan on Friday. "When he saw evil camped across the horizon, he called that evil by its name," the president declared.
Bush was referring to Reagan's labeling of the former Soviet Union as the "evil empire." But few listeners are likely to have missed the implications for Bush's own efforts to define the war against Islamic terrorism as a confrontation between good and evil. With that comparison, Bush linked Reagan's strategy during the waning years of the Cold War to his approach during this new "twilight struggle."
It's here that the dispute over Reagan's legacy begins. Bush supporters point to Reagan's rhetorical clarity and ideological consistency as the keys to his success. Reagan, they argue, showed that a crucial -- perhaps the crucial -- power of the president is establishing bright-line goals and shifting the terms of debate at home and around the world.
In that respect, Bush allies believe he is replicating Reagan. Reagan steered America, and the world, from coexisting with communism to confronting it (albeit mostly by nonmilitary means). Bush admirers believe he is doing the same in forcing the world to confront Islamic terrorists. As in Reagan's day, they see the squeals of protest here and in Europe as signs of Bush's success in shattering conventional wisdom and compelling new thinking.
"I've been going back and reading quotes about Ronald Reagan, and these arguments were exactly the same," said one Republican strategist. "People said he was the most rigidly ideological president ever. There was as much acrimony in Europe toward Ronald Reagan, who was viewed as a nuclear cowboy, as there is toward Bush."
But Bush critics point to an aspect of Reagan's legacy that received far less attention last week than his rhetorical constancy: his operational flexibility on several major issues.
