Obama, Romney battle over Reagan legacy

Update:

Mitt Romney is disputing President Obama's assertion that Ronald Reagan couldn't win a primary in today's Republican Party, adding that he could do it in part by going after Obama economic policies.

"I actually think Ronald Reagan would win handily in a primary and frankly in all the primaries," Romney told a group of newspaper editors today. "I also think that our party is intent on preserving the vitality and dynamism of the American spirit that I think is being deadened by a series of government programs that have been increasingly invasive and have attacked economic freedom."

Earlier post:

President Obama is seeking to cast the modern Republican Party -- and likely nominee Mitt Romney -- as too radical, and he's using an old political tactic: Cite other Republicans.

In Obama's view, Ronald Reagan would be read out of today's GOP because he signed tax hikes as president. Even current presidential candidate Newt Gingrich denounced GOP Rep. Paul Ryan's budget as too "right wing," Obama said yesterday in his speech to a group of newspaper editors.

"Ronald Reagan, who, as I recall, is not accused of being a tax-and-spend socialist, understood repeatedly that when the deficit started to get out of control, that for him to make a deal he would have to propose both spending cuts and tax increases," Obama said. "Did it multiple times."

"He could not get through a Republican primary today," Obama added.

The Ryan budget? "Newt Gingrich first called the original version of the budget 'radical' and said it would contribute to 'right-wing social engineering,'" Obama pointed out. "This is coming from Newt Gingrich."

(Gingrich has also attacked Romney's business career; don't be surprised if Obama or his surrogates cite those comments in the months ahead.)

In backing a strong federal government, Obama recited a litany of major programs signed by Republican presidents:

"It was a Republican, (Abraham) Lincoln, who launched the Transcontinental Railroad, the National Academy of Sciences, land grant colleges. It was (Dwight) Eisenhower who launched the Interstate Highway System and new investment in scientific research.

It was Richard Nixon who created the Environmental Protection Agency, Ronald Reagan who worked with Democrats to save Social Security. It was George W. Bush who added prescription drug coverage to Medicare."

Throughout history, political leaders have accused the other party of failing to live up to its own ideals.

Those include Ronald Reagan, a former Democrat who said the party betrayed the legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Reagan liked to say he didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democrats left him.

Romney, meanwhile, says Obama is the one out of the political mainstream, and that his spending and regulation policies will stall economic recovery.

After his three-state primary win last night, Romney said:

"You know, out-of-touch liberals like Barack Obama say they want a strong economy, but in everything they do, they show they don't like business very much.

But the economy, of course, is simply the product of all the businesses of the nation added together. So it's a bit like saying you like an omelet, but you don't like eggs."