Ronald Reagan is the Frank Sinatra of Republican politics — all GOP politicians want to be him, and all GOP voters long for someone like him. (Just Google “second coming of Ronald Reagan.”) Enter Donald Trump, the latest Republican candidate to be compared to Reagan. Specifically, Trump supporters — in response to Trump trailing Hillary Clinton by double digits in early general election surveys — point to Reagan’s 1980 presidential bid as an example of a candidate who overcame a big deficit early in the campaign to win decisively.
Trump, should he win the Republican nomination, could beat Clinton (should she win on the Democratic side), but that fact has nothing to do with Reagan; as smart people have pointed out, 1980 is a terrible comparison to 2016. CONT.
Harry Enten, FiveThirtyEight