That's what he'd like you to think if you're a Reagan fan. As McClatchy reports, "he evokes Ronald Reagan in almost every airplane hangar rally, every restaurant back room, everywhere he can."
In Myrtle Beach, at the end of a long campaign day one night last week, he was more emphatic than ever about the Great Communicator as a crowd of about 200 listened.
"I take inspiration from the strength Ronald Reagan talked about," Romney said. "It was his view that the right way to overcome challenges was for the country to strengthen itself."
Romney, formerly lukewarm about Reagan, is embracing the Reagan myth.
Sean Flaherty, a University of South Carolina student, saw echoes of what he's heard Reagan must have been like.
"Romney seems to be the spitting image, the way he lights up a room," Flaherty said. Romney's position changes don't bother him. "Every politician does that," Flaherty said.
"He's very Reagan-like," said Paul Grimm, a longtime political activist. "He's saying the Reagan revolution was a resounding turnabout, and I want to go back to that kind of strength."
However, there also were people such as Tom Middleton, a real estate broker who went to one of Reagan's inaugural balls in the 1980s.
"I got cold chills. There was God," he recalled. "He made people believe in America again. He was a man of his word."
Aw, jeez! These are people who need a little time travel back to the era of Iran-Contra and Nancy and imperial dinner plates. Bobble-head Ronald Reagan was a bad joke on America. A really bad joke.
