… The public’s assessment of a retiring president always shadows the race to replace him: In exit polls, attitudes about the overall job performance of Ronald Reagan in 1988, Bill Clinton in 2000, and George W. Bush in 2008 powerfully predicted whether voters supported his party’s choice to succeed him.
But in those elections, the party nominees actually spent relatively little time debating whether to maintain the outgoing president’s specific policy agenda. …
In its early laps, the 2016 race is unfolding very differently. CONT.
Ron Brownstein, National Journal