Truth & Consequences 
Ronald Reagan’s miracle working powers are a staple of Republican writing and rhetoric .
Now comes a theory that the infectious optimism from beyond can smote Democrats, even from the grave. OpenLeft’s Matt Stoller suggests that “swing liberals” heard Barack Obama’s comments on the sunlit days of the Reagan Era, and that was enough to flip them to Hillary Clinton.
“We have been fighting Ronald Reagan’s psychologically diseased followers and predecessors since, well, since they called themselves the Confederacy and fought for slavery. And we will keep fighting them if we are to retain a republic. That’s why the self-identified very liberal Democrats swung away from Obama and took Nevada from him. Because he very self-consciously explained that he is not part of that fight, and they want a leader who is.”
Days of Yore 
City of Dreams 
Time to vote at the Wynn Las Vegas, and casino worker/reluctant Hillary Clinton supporter Don Harris told the Washington Post what his problem with her was:
“I just don’t know how many hours she spends in the Wal-Mart boardroom.”
Good Times There Are Not Forgotten 
Clinton has been endlessly analogized to Nixon. Smart but charmless, not a natural politician but works hard. The problem is that while Nixon voters could at least comfort themselves that he would smite their enemies, potential Clinton supporters have no such assurances. At least Nixon was against the damn hippies. Hillary Clinton wants to “dialogue” with the worst her nominal opponents cough up.
Witness the debate on health.
There’s been some competition among Democratic candidates for who can better curse corporations while devising a health plan for the campaign. John Edwards has gotten some mileage mocking Barack Obama’s vision of a “big table” with Obama as Lyndon Johnson saying “Come let us reason together.”
On this one Obama is in full Git R’ Done,DC Edition mode:
“The key to getting this done is to empower the American people, but you also have to have negotiations and you have to be able to listen. Otherwise, stuff is not going to happen….The notion that they will have no say so at all, is just not realistic.
Hall Monitor Paul Krugman says Hillary Clinton’s health plan 
is an Edwards me-to, but doesn’t let her off probation.
And rightly so. Early January saw the Clinton Library as venue for the who-could-be-against-itly named Better Health Care Together, sponsored by old Hillary pals Wal-Mart. For some reason the event is not mentioned on the Clinton Foundation website.
The Bunning of History
Full disclosure. That’s what Hillary Clinton’s detractors demand. Endless rounds of stories about her husband’s Presidential Library, the tantalizing secrets it might hold, 
and endless speculation with a sprinkling of facts about who funded it.
But a bill to require donor disclosure by the Clinton and all future Libraries has failed again to make it to a vote. For months the block was Kentucky Republican Senator Jim Bunning, but now a new stalwart 
has stepped forward to anonymously block Senate consideration.
Is there a more stirring locator in American journalism today? The New York Times’ Patrick Healy tags along as Hillary Clinton trolls the frozen Iowa wastes – and you are there!
The dutiful Lyndon Johnson/1948 Texas Senate race analogies have been made.
Johnson’s in the news more legitimately in Supreme Court filings over Indiana’s Voter ID law. Ballot Access News reports that the Texas Attorney General gets the election year wrong in part of his filing. He also uses this fairly clear case of ballot box stuffing to justify forcing ID requirements on voters – the remote in service of the unproven.
The Washington Post today has an editorial today [“Records Under Wraps – Hillary Clinton’s White House papers would be tied up even if she released them“] which is a rarity in coverage and commentary on the story. It addresses the real issue and the real need: Bush finagling on access to Presidential papers and lack of staff to process what documents make it through the mill.
“….even if Mr. Clinton today asked the National Archives to release confidential communications between him and the former first lady, disclosure could still be years away. That’s because the six archivists at the Clinton library would have to sift through — by hand — more than 138 million pages in 36,000 boxes. And that’s after they respond on a first-come-first-served basis to 287 pending Freedom of Information Act requests”
Meanwhile, an Administration with a proven record of concealment and slipshod handling of it’s papers is now under federal court order not to destroy backup tapes for emails, millions of which may be missing. 
