Reagan centennial stirs GOP to look back, ahead POLITICS

FILE- This Jan. 20, 1981 file photo, shows President Ronald Reagan as he gives a thumbs up to the crowd while his wife, first lady Nancy Reagan, waves from a limousine during the inaugural parade in Washington following Reagan's swearing in as the 40th president of the United States. Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011, marks the centennial anniversary of Reagan's birth. less FILE- This Jan. 20, 1981 file photo, shows President Ronald Reagan as he gives a thumbs up to the crowd while his wife, first lady Nancy Reagan, waves from a limousine during the inaugural parade in Washington ... more Photo: AP Photo: AP Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Reagan centennial stirs GOP to look back, ahead 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

As Republicans mark the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth Sunday, a nostalgic GOP confronts a nagging question: Can the party of the former president and California governor hope to produce future leaders who can meet his iconic political gold standard?

"Reagan is still the lodestar for Republicans," said Sacramento political consultant Sal Russo, a UC Berkeley student activist in 1964 when he was tapped to be a driver, and later a special assistant, to Reagan when he was California's governor from 1967 to 1975. "You can't have a conversation about Republican politics without bringing him up."

Russo - now a leading force behind the Tea Party Express, which is creating a populist firestorm in GOP politics - said Reagan's legacy provides a template for Republicans who hope to gain ground, and even win back the White House, in 2012.

"Reagan understood political reality, and his positions evolved - and there's nothing wrong with that," Russo said. "Both political parties have a tendency to get a little insular." Moving beyond isolation, he said, is "what Reagan did - both in California and the rest of the country."

Learn from the past

As his centennial approaches, Californians who worked alongside him and journalists who covered him say the life of America's 40th president and his remarkable political career hold key lessons for the state he governed and the party he led.

But it presents challenges: With the 2012 presidential elections looming, the question of what constitutes "post-Reaganism" - and who is likely to best represent it - is daunting for the Republican Party on the brink of one of its most wide-open presidential primaries in decades.

Lacking an obvious front-runner or even a candidate who is assumed to be first in line for the nomination, party donors and leaders probably will gravitate toward a candidate who can conjure some of the winning Reagan magic - critical against Democratic President Obama.

But those who have studied Reagan say he's a tough act to follow - especially when a weak economy and extraordinary political vitriol have roiled the political landscape.

"It's one thing to talk about Reagan, but what Reagan did was more practical and mainstream than what most people remember," said journalist Lou Cannon, the Reagan biographer who has penned five books on the former president, who died in 2004.

Not a chance today

As governor, Reagan raised taxes in California, while as president, "Reagan's greatest legacy is that he started a reduction of nuclear armaments with (Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev," said Cannon.

"Can you imagine a Republican Party nominating someone who was ready to raise taxes and wanted that reduction? That person wouldn't get out of the Iowa primary," he said.

For a new generation of Republicans, Reagan remains the role model not only as "the great communicator" but also as "the great educator," said Republican attorney and veteran party strategist Ken Khachigian, who served as Reagan's chief speechwriter during the presidential campaigns of 1980 and 1984.

"He laid down a set of principles, not just as president but even before that - principles that define the Republican Party: a strong America, a strong defense, less government regulation, reasonable or lower taxation," said Khachigian.

But his greatest strength was his presentation of ideas, Khachigian said.

"He knew how to create word pictures and paint portraits in people's minds of what he was trying to tell them," Khachigian said, like the "shining city on the hill" - the phrase Reagan used to describe what he called America's special place in the world. "When you add that together with his voice, and the way he presented himself, the boyish quality ... he had a very familiar and easy visage," said Khachigian. Reagan's harshest critics often found themselves frustrated, Khachigian said, because "he could give a tough speech and never look tough and threatening."

Reagan Energy Secretary John Herrington, a former chairman of the California GOP, said presidential candidates hoping to follow in Reagan's footsteps must learn the lesson of authenticity.

"He was the same guy in private as in public," said Herrington, who met Reagan in June 1968 when he began work as an advance man for the then-governor's first campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

Reagan "tapped into a lot of principles that the rank and file believed in, and he was able to bring pride back to the office," said Herrington. "As a leader, he made you proud."

No modern version

Insiders say it is still unclear who among the current crop of GOP hopefuls, in California and on the national scene, can easily assume that mantle.

"I think one of the reasons the Tea Party Express has been most successful is that we employ a lot of lessons I learned from him," said Russo, whose movement has helped bring politicians such as the often-divisive Rep. Michele Bachman of Minnesota and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the GOP fore.

But Khachigian warned that "it's been a long stretch" since Reagan was able to attract large swaths of Democrats, labor and independents into the GOP camp - and that's part of the challenge.

The GOP, he said, cannot only look back - it needs to look forward to leaders who can provide, like Reagan, a guiding light for Republican values.

"Someone will come along who has that gift," he said, "but it does set a very high bar for others."