"Presidential Race Returns to Protectionism, Mythic Reaganism"

Retronomics

Call it retronomics. ``They're looking to the past for their policies,'' says David Gergen, a professor of public service at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government who served as an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Reagan and Clinton. ``The Democrats' center of gravity has moved further to protectionism since Clinton left office, and the Republicans clearly are not going to hold George Bush up as a model president.''

The leading Republican candidates for president -- Rudolph Giuliani of New York, Romney and Arizona Senator John McCain -- all support Bush on the war in Iraq. On economic policy, they're backing away from the president, whose approval rating was 29 percent in a July Newsweek poll.

The Republicans' complaint is that Bush has abandoned his commitment to trimming the budget and reducing deficits. They hold up Reagan as their touchstone -- even though he had no more success at reducing the size of government than Bush has.

By Matthew Benjamin