A chip off the old block

Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein observes that:

"Parties emulate their successful presidents, and for Republicans Ronald Reagan is their successful president. But Reagan's relationship with the truth was pretty complicated, and he would regularly say things that were just not true. I mean, regularly: after every press conference someone would have to clean it up. The thing is that Reagan's genius was for believing what he wanted to believe, and once he was set on something it was nearly impossible to break him from it. ... One of the lessons that Republicans learned from Reagan was that facts just get in the way; what you want are politicians with strong beliefs, not a complex grasp of details."

Which is exactly why we got the Iran-Contra scandal, the Iraq War (plus "Mission Accomplished" and no WMDs), Abu Ghraib, the Great Recession and, well, Mitt Romney.