With President Bush slumping in the polls, it’s no wonder the Republican candidates chose to model Ronald Reagan at their first debate. The front-runners, especially, avoided mentioning Bush almost as urgently as the topic of abortion. Iran-Contra just pales in comparison to Niger-WMD-Katrina-U.S. Attorney-Missing E-mail-Secret Prison-Jeff Gannon-Domestic Spying-Halliburton-Abu Ghraib-Plame-Gate.

AP via Yahoo:

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Ten Republican presidential candidates wanting to succeed President Bush embraced a more popular president, conservative icon Ronald Reagan, at every turn in their first debate of the 2008 race.

“Ronald Reagan was a president of strength,” Mitt Romney intoned. “Ronald Reagan used to say, we spend money like a drunken sailor,” said John McCain. And Rudy Giuliani praised “that Ronald Reagan optimism.”

The world, however, is far different today than it was some 25 years ago when the nation’s 40th president relaxed at his retreat in the rolling hills of Southern California.

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