What do you mean she’s the next Reagan?

While there will never be another Ronald Reagan – just like there will never be another Abraham Lincoln – there will also never be another Sarah Palin. While we have had 44 presidents, it is the rare great one which comes along every couple of generations or so that stands out. You can probably name only four or five great presidents off the top of your head. When we say Sarah Palin is the next Reagan, we say it meaning she’s the next great one.

Andrew Coffin writes on Big Government (h/t @PATR2012):

Governor Palin went out of the way in her [Young America’s Foundation Reagan 100] speech to not lay claim to the mantle of Ronald Reagan. "Many people today are looking for the next Reagan. But he was one of a kind, and we won’t see his like again," she said later in her speech, but it’s his principles and values to which we must lay claim.

Her devotion to Reagan’s fundamental philosophy is what makes Sarah Palin our next great one. She will look differently than he did. She will speak differently than he did. But she has emerged from all the leaders we have had since Reagan as the rare embodiment of not only his philosophy and character, but of his courage and tenacity to fight for that philosophy. "She may just become to her era what Reagan was to his," Tony Lee writes at Human Events.

This is not to say that others are not devoted to Ronald Reagan. Many conservatives consider themselves Reagan conservatives and rightfully so. Conservatism (and its popularity) owes much to Reagan who brought it to the masses in a way that had never been done before. Sarah Palin and other conservatives of our times are products of that.

While we understand and respect others’ devotion to Reaganism, we believe that Sarah Palin is the full package. She not only brings his philosophy and values to the forefront. She lives them. She is charismatic in that she is one of the few who can do to a room what Reagan did. Watching her deliver the vice presidential nomination acceptance speech in 2008 was like watching Reagan. It was electrifying.

No one is ever someone else. But if there was ever someone who best fills that void created by the passing of the great Ronald Reagan, it’s Sarah Palin.

The historical parallels are all there. We have a president who’s direction and execution of policy is out of touch with the country, just like the late 1970’s when Jimmy Carter was president. We have a so-called “polarizing” figure that provides a stark contrast to the unpopular liberal policies of a sitting president. We have an electorate uncertain about Palin much the way they were uncertain about Reagan when he was the shadow opposition.

There are those who doubt. There are those who are not sure yet. I urge them to read further: Not Sure About Sarah Palin?