The catastrophic Congressional elections left the GOP feeling divided, dispirited, desperate and whipped. Strategists worried about the party’s long-term association with a bitterly polarizing President, who continued to inspire profound hatred from big segments of the electorate. With resurgent Democrats showing discipline and determination to regain the White House after two terms in the wilderness, the Republican rank-and-file felt uncertain and apathetic about the GOP’s most likely standard bearers.

Sound familiar? If so, that’s because this description applies not only to the Republican identity crisis of 2007 but to the situation which Ronald Reagan faced when he decided to make his first serious run for the White House in 1976 (eight years earlier he had made a half-hearted, last minute bid on the eve of the national convention).

If anything, conservatives in that earlier era faced even more daunting obstacles in trying to maintain their hold on the White House and to take control from the Democratic majorities in Congress. In 1975-75, Republicans held only 143 seats in the House of Representatives (compared to 202 today) and only 41 seats in the Senate (compared to 49 today). George W. Bush may be deeply unpopular with much of the public, but Richard Nixon had been driven from office by an indignant electorate for his apparent involvement in shabby criminal activity. In 2008, with Bush ineligible to run for re-election, the Republicans inevitably will present some fresh face to the public but in 1976, the GOP establishment tried to rally around the unelected, incumbent Gerald Ford (who looked vastly more formidable after his death than he ever did during his Presidency).

In short, Ronald Reagan’s historic success in rebuilding and reinvigorating his shattered and demoralized party should encourage us to replicate the transformation in the next two years. As we approach the birthday celebration (on February 6th) for this greatest Republican of our time, we should revisit the crucial victory lessons from President Reagan.

In all his campaigns for the California governorship and for the Presidency, Reagan demonstrated the timeless value of three essential political characteristics: clarity, cheerfulness and unity. If Republicans manage to emphasize and exemplify these traits they will win in 2008 and beyond and re-enforce their status as the nation’s majority party.

1. CLARITY. Throughout his public career, Reagan associated himself with a handful of simple but profound ideas: government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem; the people deserve lower taxes and less regulation; Communism must be defeated, not accommodated. In his public pronouncements he never varied from these core principles and he never worried about repeating himself, confident in the knowledge that the truth always sounds fresh and appropriate.

By contrast, today’s Republicans too often look uncertain and confused. Though President Bush and the GOP Congressional leadership deserve credit for holding firm to conservative values on taxes, their disappointing performance regarding government spending (particularly when it comes to earmarks and pork) helped cost them control of both Houses of Congress. If the people see both parties as equally willing to raid the federal treasury and to squander the public’s money, they will naturally prefer that party that at least promises that they’re only performing that raid on behalf of “the little guy.” If, on the other hand, Republicans recapture their status as honest advocates for smaller government, as leaders who seek to spend less, not just spend differently, they can win most arguments with high budget, big bureaucracy Democrats.

In this regard, the next GOP Presidential candidate must go well beyond Reagan’s generalized calls for shrinking government and cleaning up the mess in Washington. Unfortunately, the performance of the Republican Congress in recent years has produced intense skepticism regarding any discussion of spending cuts, so conservatives must reach new levels of specificity about what to cut, and how. To achieve Reaganesque clarity in this cynical environment, candidates should indicate whole Cabinet departments that must disappear (Commerce? Education ? Housing and Urban Development? Health and Human Services? Agriculture?) and watch the bureaucrats howl. Republicans should also promote a “Fresh Start” approach to government programs: “zeroing out” every department and agency and then starting from scratch to authorize those that perform essential and appropriate public purposes, and to dispense with those many that do not.

On the war on terror, clarity also represents the one indispensable element in the public debate – with an unflinching focus on contrasting the evil nature of our adversaries and the essential decency and goodness of the United States of America. Reagan drew a derisive response from “enlightened” opinion when he characterized the Soviet Union as “the Evil Empire,” but most Americans and freedom-lovers around the world appreciated his clarity. They deserve similarly unambiguous precision in defining the stakes, and describing the combatants, in the current War on Terror. Republicans should be able to declare that Islamo-Nazi terror must be defeated and destroyed, not understood, not appeased, and not just negotiated to a standstill.

Above all, the modern GOP should follow Reagan’s example and concentrate on a few over-arching issues, rather than dissipating energy and destroying focus with laundry lists of new programmatic proposals on special interest issues of less universal importance.

President Reagan earned the nickname of “The Great Communicator.” The next Republican nominee will follow his victorious example if – and only if- he wins a comparable reputation as “The Great Clarifier.”

2. CHEERFULNESS. President Reagan’s amiable, optimistic, sunny personality played an indispensable role in his appeal. In 1980, his opponent Jimmy Carter tried to scare people with the prospect that the former California governor would dismantle social security and blow up the world in a nuclear war, but Reagan could defuse those fears with his famous “there he goes again” comeback in their televised debate.

Above all, Reagan understood the crucial difference between toughness and meanness: his critics might ridicule him as a doddering, out-of-touch old fool but they never managed to characterize him as nasty, cruel, angry or gloomy.

Reagan’s obvious kindness and warmth represent especially important attributes for a Republican candidate, because of long-standing assumptions (tirelessly encouraged by the media) that conservatives are cold-hearted, stingy, arrogant and unpleasant. Any Republican contender who seems to live up to those negative stereotypes (like Bob Dole, whatever his countervailing virtues) stands no chance of winning the Presidency.

Political Scientist Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute argues that the most effective candidates will always be “Nice Republicans” or “Tough Democrats.” Voters automatically assume that Democrats are kind and generous (look at all the federal money they want to hand out in ambitious new programs) but these liberals have to somehow prove that they’re also tough. Look at Bill Clinton’s tireless efforts in this regard in 1992 (emphasizing his tough-on-crime credentials, presiding over an execution in the midst of the campaign, standing up to Afro-Centric rapper Sister Soulja, calling for a more hawkish foreign policy on the Balkans and China), and take note of Hillary’s similar poses today.

When it comes to Republicans, on the other hand, the public assumes that their candidates are tough – pro-defense, anti-crime, supportive of traditional values – but the successful conservatives need to demonstrate that they’re simultaneously “nice.” In this context, the branding of George W. Bush as a “compassionate conservative” represented a political masterstroke. Continued...