{"id":11191,"date":"2018-05-17T18:26:11","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T01:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11191"},"modified":"2018-05-17T18:26:11","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T01:26:11","slug":"the-miraculous-image-rehabilitation-of-former-republican-presidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-miraculous-image-rehabilitation-of-former-republican-presidents\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miraculous Image Rehabilitation of Former Republican Presidents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"article-header__subtitle\">It\u2019s an evergreen media strategy for disparaging the sitting GOP executive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"drop\">W<\/span>hen Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, many in the media considered him a dangerous extremist.<\/p>\n<p>Some reporters warned that Reagan courted nuclear war and would tank the economy. He certainly was not like the gentleman Republican and moderate ex-president Gerald Ford.<\/p>\n<p>But by 1989, the media was fond of a new adjective: \u201cReaganesque.\u201d Reagan in retirement and without power was seen as a senior statesman.<\/p>\n<p>Not so for his once-centrist and better-liked vice president, George H.W. Bush, who suddenly was reinvented as a fool and a ninny in comparison.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2018\/05\/george-w-bush-image-rehabilitation-media-strategy-to-disparage-trump\/\">Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review It\u2019s an evergreen media strategy for disparaging the sitting GOP executive. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, many in the media considered him a dangerous extremist. Some reporters warned that Reagan courted nuclear war and would tank the economy. He certainly was not like the gentleman Republican [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1187,1098,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Uv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4652,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-reagan-for-everybody\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":0},"title":"A Reagan for Everybody","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Who exactly was Ronald Reagan? by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers One of the strangest developments following the recent funeral of Ronald Reagan was the emergence of all sorts of \"authentic\" \u2014 and irreconcilable\u2014Reagans. Die-hard conservatives assured us that the California governor who signed the most liberal abortion legislation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;June 2004&quot;","block_context":{"text":"June 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/june-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5336,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/reagans-second-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":1},"title":"Reagan&#8217;s Second Act","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Media concedes simple truth, not simpleton by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers Ronald Reagan's death in the midst of a hotly contested presidential election has occasioned all manner of oddities. There was John Kerry, the absolute antithesis of Ronald Reagan, making the pilgrimage to Simi Valley and monitoring his remarks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bruce S. Thornton&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5699,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/iraq-a-convenient-scapegoat\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":2},"title":"Iraq a Convenient Scapegoat","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Bring up Iraq \u2014 and expect to end up in an argument. Conservatives are no different from liberals in rehashing the unpopular war, which has become a sort of whipping boy for all our subsequent problems. The Wall Street Journal\u00a0columnist Peggy Noonan recently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Iraq&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10602,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/allegations-of-foreign-election-tampering-have-always-rung-hollow\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":3},"title":"Allegations of Foreign Election Tampering Have Always Rung Hollow","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Blaming foreign influence on an election loss has become a habitual practice for unsuccessful presidential candidates, but such allegations have never rung true. On her current book tour, Hillary Clinton is still blaming the Russians (among others) for her unexpected defeat in last year\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;George W. Bush&quot;","block_context":{"text":"George W. Bush","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/george-w-bush\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9774,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/prosperity-is-destiny\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":4},"title":"Prosperity Is Destiny","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0By Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review If the economy grows during Trump\u2019s administration, his opposition will dwindle. \u201cTen thousand cuts an awful lot of family ties.\u201d \u2014 Pike Bishop in The Wild Bunch When Ronald Reagan entered office in 1981 amid negative economic growth, roaring inflation, and high unemployment, his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;George W. Bush&quot;","block_context":{"text":"George W. Bush","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/george-w-bush\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4665,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ronald-reagan-what-weve-forgotten\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":5},"title":"Ronald Reagan: What We&#8217;ve Forgotten","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 18, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A shorter version of this essay appeared in a Reagan commemorative issue of\u00a0National Review Magazine. by Victor Davis Hanson There will be a great deal of blanket praise written about Ronald Reagan in the next few days. Yet I don\u2019t think his legacy will be judged by his unwavering ideological\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;June 2004&quot;","block_context":{"text":"June 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/june-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11192,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11191\/revisions\/11192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}