Another debate

As I reported last week, the Democratic candidates for president held
their first debate, a year and a half before the election. Well, last night,
it was the Republican's turn. Held in a highly symbolic setting, the
Ronald Reagan Library in California, the debate pitted the 10 GOP
candidates against each other. To be quite honest, I hadn't even
heard of 4 of them. There could be a couple of reasons for that - first,
alot of attention has been focused on the 2 higher profile candidates,
Rudy Giuliani and John McCain; second, alot of attention has been
garnered by Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
In any case, the GOP event last night focused on the Iraq war again.
Most of the gentlemen didn't object to the war itself, but as to how it
was executed. Abortion and gay rights were other hot button issues
tackled. But the most revealing point about the debate itself was how
many times the name of Ronald Reagan was mentioned -19 times....19!
As CNN reported, "GOP hopefuls were not shy about hitching them-
selves to the Reagan mantle". The legacy of the late president clearly
loomed large over the arena. All Republicans dream of another Ronald
Reagan; GOP politicians try to become 2nd comings. Sadly, I do not
see another Ronald Reagan emerging from these candidates. Maybe I
will be proven wrong, but he was the last of a dying breed, a politician
with brass ones, who did the right thing without trying to please every-
one. Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman were 3
other presidents who were also such "let the chips fall where they may"
type leaders. Let's hope the U.S. will see another such leader in the
near future.