To hear the right\u2019s triumphalism of recent \nyears, you\u2019d think that only smug Democrats were appalled by Reagan \nwhile Republicans quickly recognized that their party, decimated by \nRichard Nixon and Watergate, had found its savior.
The Republican elites of Reagan\u2019s day were as blindsided by him as their counterparts have been by Trump.
A typical liberal-Establishment take on Reagan could be found in Harper\u2019s,\n which called him Ronald Duck, \u201cthe Candidate from Disneyland.\u201d That he \nhad come to be deemed \u201ca serious candidate for president,\u201d the magazine \nintoned, was \u201ca shame and embarrassment for the country.\u201d
A strategic memo by Carter\u2019s pollster, \nPatrick Caddell, laid out the campaign against Reagan\u2019s obvious \nvulnerabilities with bullet points: \u201cIs Reagan Safe? \u2026 Shoots From the \nHip \u2026 Over His Head \u2026 What Are His Solutions?\u201d But it was the strategy \nof Caddell\u2019s counterpart in the Reagan camp, the pollster Richard \nWirthlin, that carried the day with the electorate. Voters wanted to \n\u201cfollow some authority figure,\u201d he theorized \u2014 a \u201cleader who can take \ncharge with authority; return a sense of discipline to our government; \nand, manifest the willpower needed to get this country back on track.\u201d
(yep)