Michael Tanner, reviewing the Republican debates the other night, just assumes without question that Reagan is the standard bearer, even though his submitted budgets were always higher than what a Democratic Congress would approve and his welfare spending set records that were bested only by his successors. Most annoying is Tanner’s dismissal of Ron Paul: “one had to go all the way down to Rep. Ron Paul’s quixotic campaign before someone reflected Reagan’s commitment to limited government.”
Quixotic, I suppose, means not approved by the political establishment.