FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya.
Who wants to be the next Ronald Reagan?
Well, last night's Republican debate held at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley was a free for all for the quest to define who's a true conservative. Just listen to Mitt Romney go at Senator John McCain.
Mr. MITT ROMNEY (Former Republican Governor, Massachusetts; Presidential Candidate): I guess I'd also note that if you get endorsed by The New York Times, you're probably not a conservative.
Mr. ANDERSON COOPER (Moderator): Senator McCain?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Senator JOHN McCAIN (Republican, Arizona; Presidential Candidate): Let me note that I was endorsed by your two hometown newspapers who know you best…
Mr. ROMNEY: I know.
Sen. McCAIN: …including the very conservative Boston Herald…
Mr. ROMNEY: I'd say the same thing.
Sen. McCAIN: …who know you well better than anybody. So I'll guarantee you the Arizona Republic will be endorsing me, my friend.
CHIDEYA: Here to offer their take on last night's showdown, our political strategists Jamal Simmons and Angela McGlowan. Angela is an analyst for FOX News and author of the bestselling book "Bamboozled: How Americans Are Being Exploited by the Lies of the Liberal Agenda." And Jamal was press secretary for the presidential campaigns of both Senator Bob Graham and General Wesley Clark.
Welcome to you both, and let me jump right into this. Simi Valley, California, isn't just home to the Reagan Library. It's also the place where an all-white jury acquitted officers in the beating of Rodney King. I think we remember that.
So what's the symbolism, Angela, between - behind holding the debate there?
Ms. ANGELA McGLOWAN (Analyst, FOX News; Author, "Bamboozled: How Americans Are Being Exploited by the Lies of the Liberal Agenda"): That symbolism has nothing to do with Rodney King. It was the fact that you have a division on the Republican Party. Certain conservatives are not so crazy about John McCain. But certain evangelicals are not that crazy about Mitt Romney in being a Mormon. You have the evangelicals that are supporting Mike Huckabee.
But one president that held it all together from being fiscally responsible to international issues to bringing down the Cold War and that is Ronald Reagan. So any candidate that can closely align himself to Ronald Reagan more than likely will bring the party together. And as it looks right now, John McCain is that guy.
CHIDEYA: Jamal, there's an expression that some people have used called getting your fanny tanned. And people tried to do that to Senator Barack Obama when he invoked the legacy of Ronald Reagan as one which reverberated and, you know, people spotted as did he believe in Reagan's message. But, certainly, Ronald Reagan was, as the saying goes, a great communicator.
So why is this legacy so important to the Republicans in this specific case?
Mr. JAMAL SIMMONS (Political Strategist): Well, I think everyone in the country, history and memory have a way of looking back fondly over times that are - that were a little bit rough for a lot of people. And Ronald Reagan, while, I think, Senator Obama was trying to make a point that Ronald Reagan was a profound man in the sense that he moved the debate in the direction that he wanted to go. He got people and the American country behind him to go in that direction. Even a lot of people who didn't agree with him still liked him a lot and they moved in that direction.
The problem is the direction he took the country was actually not a good direction. I don't think Senator Obama was trying to imply that it was a good direction or that he was in favor of it. But just, though, that Reagan had some phenomenal skills and was able to move the debate.
So for the - you know, for most Democrats, when you talk about Ronald Reagan, it's sort of mixed. He got some credit for standing up on national security policy. But if you lived in the city like where I'm from, in Detroit, you saw the city decimated by the loss of funds to cities and housing and education and economic policies that really favor the rich over the middle-class working people and the poor.
Ms. McGLOWAN: There's something that I would like to add. Even Ronald Reagan had Charlie Rangel at the White House and he brought Charlie Rangel and Bob Packwood and Bob Dole together on the war on drugs, especially when crack was taking over Detroit and Chicago and Harlem.
So even though certain communities are not very happy with some of the things that Ronald Reagan did, what Obama was saying in essence is that this is the president that could bring Democrats and Republicans together on issues that impact all Americans.
CHIDEYA: I want to break it down a little bit as to who the key players are. It seems as if - we saw, for example, former Senator John Edwards dropped out of the Democratic race. It seems as if the Republican race may be tightening to a two-man race between John McCain and Mitt Romney.
Now, McCain came into this debate just 24 hours after a big win in Florida and an endorsement from Rudy Giuliani who also dropped out. Did he continue his momentum do you think, Jamal, going into the debate?
Mr. SIMMONS: Oh, I think that John McCain is, certainly, in the poll position here, as we say in racing. He is the person who's setting the pace for everyone else. And Mitt Romney has got to find a way to catch up. I think the Schwarzenegger endorsement today is going to be big for John McCain. And that the real issue here, I think, why people are going for John McCain, in some sense, it also explains why Barack Obama is having the boom that he's having over the last couple of weeks.
I think Americans are really looking for someone who they can trust and who they can - they'll know that they're going to do tomorrow what they said they're going to do today. And Mitt Romney is an attractive candidate, but you just don't know where this guy is going to come down on issues. He's been a liberal Republican. He's been a moderate Republican. Now, he's a conservative Republican. And so when the political winds shift tomorrow, no one knows which way he'll blow.
CHIDEYA: Angela, let me actually direct to you towards a very specific issue that may get you to this point.
Ms. McGLOWAN: Okay.
CHIDEYA: You know, McCain and Mitt Romney were talking about Romney's record on the Iraq war.
Ms. McGLOWAN: Yes.
CHIDEYA: McCain claims Romney had set a timetable for getting out of Iraq. Let's listen to Romney's response.
Mr. ROMNEY: Every single debate that I've attended…
Mr. COOPER: Senator…
Mr. ROMNEY: …15 debates, I do not propose nor have I ever proposed a public or secret date for withdrawal. It's just simply wrong.
And by the way, raising it a few days before the Florida primary, when there was very little time for me to correct the record, when the question I was most frequently asked is oh, you're for a specific date of withdrawal, sort of falls in the kind of dirty tricks that I think Ronald Reagan would have found to be reprehensible.
CHIDEYA: Once again, Ronald Reagan invoked.
Ms. McGLOWAN: Right.
CHIDEYA: Was this a question of lies, dirty tricks, just plain elbow-to-elbow politicking? What was going on here?
Ms. McGLOWAN: Well, it depends on what sound bite you use because, apparently, when Mitt Romney made that type of statement, he explained that he was not for setting a particular timetable. But let's look back at Florida. Right before the Florida primary and people were getting ready to vote, Mitt Romney was very strong on the economy seemingly. He was polling well on the economy, and John McCain was polling very well on national security. So maybe the John McCain handlers thought the strategy would be, make Mitt Romney look weak on national security. And in essence, Floridians voted for John McCain on the economy as well.
So I think it was pretty dirty politics. But I think that Mitt Romney came out on top, and that he even had Sean Hannity interviewing Lindsey Graham, who's a big McCain supporter saying, in essence, that Mitt Romney didn't say what John McCain said he said. But at the end of the day, with Rudolph Giuliani endorsing McCain, I thought that that was great. But what would really put McCain over the top is if Mike Huckabee endorses him. That will bring more of the conservatives to John McCain's side.
CHIDEYA: Jamal, one of the things we've talked about a lot here on NEWS & NOTES is the prevailing winds of African-American sentiment going towards the Democrats. And so you haven't seen a lot of campaigning by Republican candidates like McCain, like Romney, like Huckabee in African-American neighborhoods. But, you know, maybe step out of your comfort zone a little bit here. What do you see in these guys that might resonate with African-American voters in traditionally African-American communities?
Mr. SIMMONS: Well, the only place where I'll disagree with you is I think that Mike Huckabee has made some effort with the African-American community. He did show up at one of the debates that was targeted at African-Americans. He did show up at the Martin Luther King celebration at Atlanta last week, a couple of weeks ago.
So I do think that Mike Huckabee has - and African-Americans I know in Arkansas say that he was pretty popular receiving 40-plus percent of the vote down there. So on that score it's a little bit different.
What I would say for the others, though, particularly John McCain, you know, African-Americans sometimes can be, you know, we're fairly socially conservative and I think that there's a case you could make to African-Americans on socially conservative issues around choice or around some of the other - the breakdown in family values, those issues that exist, and if you come to African-Americans, you talk about that, you talk about economic empowerment and, you know, some of my best friends are Republicans, so we talk about this. You talk about economic empowerment, you talk about the break down the family, I think that you have a receptive audience.
The problem comes, though, when something happens like Katrina or with Rudy Giuliani when something happens like, you know, police brutality case and then they side with the police. The African-Americans are at heart just don't trust Republicans to be there for them when the going gets tough.
CHIDEYA: Angela, when you look at Mike Huckabee, is he someone who could: A, try to reach out to other communities besides the traditional Republican base; and B, is he a goner, a has-been? I mean, is this really now a two-man race?
Ms. McGLOWAN: I don't think that he's a has-been and I think he's really going to help the Republican Party. I think that Jamal was right that he has done well in African-American communities. I think he's a secret weapon. But if you go back to the race of 2004, Bush got 16 percent of the black vote in Ohio because Karl Rove and Ken Millman went into the black churches and talked about faith-based initiatives, talked about pro-life issues and the sanctity of marriage. And you had black ministers from the pulpit saying it's time for us to vote our conscience, not culture or color.
So I think that Huckabee could be a secret weapon to help the Republican Party reach out to that community. I thought that it was a mistake that the Republicans did not show up to Tavis Smiley's debate that he proposed on September 29th of the last year and I think that we have a grand opportunity in reaching out to our community. But sometimes, it's just showing up.
CHIDEYA: Now, Jamal, what about the endorsement game? McCain picked up an endorsement today from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. How big is that news? Is it going to influence things in Cali or beyond?
Mr. SIMMONS: What's interesting is, I think, Howard Simon wrote about this. This is one of these elections where endorsements seem to matter. And usually they don't. I mean, look at what happened with Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy? We'll see what happens next Tuesday but it certainly did get Barack Obama a lot of attention in bringing people out. You also seeing, I mean I think for, again, if you're talking about Republicans, Schwarzenegger helps. Obviously, it's California on the 5th of February and so the (unintelligible) governor always helps you on a state because governors are pretty powerful; they've got a lot of people who depend upon them who want to make them happy.
So getting endorsements, to which endorsements you get matter more than just getting blank endorsements. Some of them have good PR value, you make it a good press release out, some of them really can offer you substance on the ground: workers, money, fund-raisers, that sort of thing.
Ms. McGLOWAN: And if I may add in Florida, McCain getting the endorsement by Governor Crist and also by Mel Martinez helped them with the Cuban vote and that put them over the top so I do agree with Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsing McCain could help him out a lot.
CHIDEYA: All right. Well Angela and Jamal, thanks so much.
Ms. McGLOWAN: Thank you for having us.
Mr. SIMMONS: Thank you.
CHIDEYA: We've been speaking with Republican strategist and Fox News political analyst Angela McGlowan and Democratic political strategist Jamal Simmons. He joined us from our NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C.
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