DeFrank Talk
Reaction to Tom DeFrank’s Gerald Ford tell-all “Write It When I’m Gone” shows an interesting split.
When Ford reinforces conventional wisdom it’s shouted from the rafters:
Rudy: strong. Bill: can’t keep it in his pants.Hillary: pushy dame.
But when Ford speaks ill of the dead turned plaster saint, not so much:
“A superficial, disengaged, intellectually-lazy showman who didn’t do his homework and clung to a naive, unrealistic, and essentially dangerous worldview. Foreign leaders have said they were appalled by Reagan’s lack of knowledge of the issues.”
The Republican field continues to try on Ronald Reagan’s clothes, and carry his pen, while denouncing usurpers who are not worthy of the mantel.
But do they want the entire Reagan package? How ’bout the space aliens part?
“Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us? What could be more alien to the universal aspirations of our peoples than war and the threat of war?”
9/21/87 United Nations*
Some remember. 
*Extra Bonus fun in this speech: Eight years after Iraq invaded Iran, Reagan gives the aggressor [that Saddam guy] a rhetorical pass and calls on Iran to accept the UN’s terms for a cease fire or face “enforcement measures.” Why They Hate Us: The Middle Years
DeFrank Talk
But when Ford speaks ill of the dead turned plaster saint, not so much: