The three legged stool, or so it's called, made up the "Reagan Revolution" and swept an actor from California into the White House twenty eight years ago. Now the question is whether or not that famous coalition is doomed and if not, who is the best candidate to carry it on.

Merrie Spaeth was Ronald Reagan's first ever Director of Media Relations, in fact she created the office and created an avenue for Reagan to by-pass the issue and go straight to the American People. I recently had the honor of sitting down with Merrie to talk about Reagan Conservatism, the coalition he built, and the legacy it deserves.

As you watch each debate, Reagan's name gets evoked the most as each candidate fights to prove they understand and can duplicate that famous formula. Reagan was pragmatic, not dogmatic, in his approach to bring parties together. "President Reagan used to love to say if you agree with me on 80% of any one of those issues, you’re in my camp and I think we need to do that today. There’s been an unfortunate tendency to create divisions among conservatives rather than, maybe I shouldn’t use the word unity, but rather a shared vision," says Merrie. "There are a couple of things about Reagan, even though he was tall and handsome, he had tremendous charisma, he wasn’t arrogant. He never exuded that he came from privilege. You always felt that he was just somebody glad to be an American. A Reagan Conservative is someone with strong values on fiscal conservatism, strong national defense, strong social values but who understands that those three things fit together and that people may agree with you 100% on all of them."

Perhaps the missing fourth leg of the stool was the working class person, the "Reagan Democrat" whom Merrie Spaeth think's the GOP has a good chance of capturing those people in 2008. ". I don’t want to criticize President Bush, but I think that’s very important is that we remember that we, Republicans, are working class people. here was a real important article I read about a teacher in Richardson, a member of the Teachers Union, and she wrote that the teacher’s union has to change...that they've settled for stability over accountability… and it’s a bad bargin for the kids, it’s a bad bargin for the educational system, and it’s really a bad bargin for teachers. That is a quintessentially Republican statement. Accountability is what we’re after, false stability doesn’t provide stability it just provides a downward spiral and I think that the Reagan democrat today in his or her heart of hearts understands that but we need to articulate it and we need to get out there and sell it whether it’s in jobs or its in health care."

Another change from the '80 election is the shear size of special interests groups that can fragment a candidate into many different directions and promises. "Are the special interests more of a player than in process now than in 1980, yes," adds Merrie. "Although, the social conservatives were a big player in the 1980’s so it’s sort of disingenuous of us to sort of say now “I guess they shouldn’t be."

As the Reagan's Director of Media Relations, Merrie Spaeth brought the White House into the space age and understands the how communications play a role in campaigns, "A number of things have happened, the communication revolution over the last 25 years or so has made it possible to find people to find one tiny position in any state, nook or cranny and get them on your side and raise money for them, so yes those are all changes that have gone on."

"As I look at what’s happening, we’re more and more of a television age, Reagan was just marvelous at being able to talk to people through television. That trend is simply accelerated and the best candidate out there today of course is Senator Obama in terms of understanding how to talk to people through television. That’s worrisome as I look at the fact that he’s better than our candidates. It’s interesting how many of the issues are still the same, people want security, they want opportunity, they want to be proud of their country, they want to believe in freedom, they want to help people here and abroad."

Many have asked, "if Ronald Reagan were running today, who would he be and could he win?" and California's current actor turned Governor came to mind. "If President Reagan were running today Imagine Gov. Schwarzenegger considerably more conservative and I think you have President Reagan today. Someone who is deeply concerned about individuals, very aware about people at the bottom of the socio-economic scale and very determined to create, not just conditions where they can take care of themselves, but a real sense of how you create strong local community institutions who can help them. I am a member of First Presbyterian and one of our ministries is the Stewpot, which provides food medical services dental services Saturday school for kids and if you look at the people who are served by the Stewpot there is a direct correlation between alcoholism drug abuse mental problems and homelessness. You don’t solve that with more money from the federal government at the top you solve it by very strong and compassionate local programs."

Does that mean a populist message, being offered by both Sen. Obama and Governor Hucakbee, is the message that will resonate most? "I don’t think Sen. Obama is a populist, he is someone who is far to the left in the political spectrum who believes Government is the solution to the problems and Government is the funding source. While I admire him tremendously and think he is a fabulous performer, I think those are the wrong policy issues. I tend to think of a populist, I am sort of not sure what the word means anymore. It used to mean people who thought who had faith in the wisdom of the people and the local governmental body as proper place to tackle issues. It doesn’t seem to mean that anymore so the term I think is in transition.

"What Reagan was above all things was very optimistic and I think if Republicans are optimistic and appeal to opportunity that differentias us significantly from the Democrats who think everything is bad, everybody is bad, everything is going wrong. All you have to do is look at John Edwards and his corporate greed strategy, how a multimillion dollar trial lawyer can say that with a trial face is beyond me. But I look at the CEOs of the companies we work with and for and those people are devoted to creating job, they are devoted to good working conditions for the people who work for them, they are involved in their communities. The corporate leadership that I see and work with are the genuine good guys."

Who does Merrie support in 08, "I have given money and decided to max out to Rudy Giuliani in the beginning and have continued because he was an assistant Attorney General at Justice when my late husband Tex Lazar was there, Tex thought very highly of him, my friend Buck Revell from the FBI who is a 25 year friend of mine and someone I admire enormously and whose judgment I trust, came and told me he was supporting Rudy and to me national security and the ability to deal with international security and law enforcement bodies around the world is the number one issue and to me Rudy comes out on top on those issues. Now there are a lot of different issues, it’s going to be a long year, that’s where I am currently. Sean Hannity has got a marvelous way of putting it, he says all the candidates have strengths, it’s a really exciting year, it’s important that we’re all civil to each other. "

And about change, she has a unique spin on the word of the day "I was interested in Iowa and New Hampshire in how often the Democrats are using the word “Change, We All Stand for Change.” The line I’ve been using is “Change has become the new Peace.” If you are as old as I am and remember the Vietnam War, you remember the saying “Give Peace a Chance.” And if you were stupid enough to say something like “what does that mean,” you were accused of being Pro-War. Change has become the new Peace, it has rapidly seast to lose its meaning but it’s also become a trap. It’s very dangerous for the Democrats by saying we want change without a single definition on any issue. Should we have a democratic president, people are going to come to them with wildly different expectations. Take of course the war on Iraq and the withdrawal of troops as probably the number one issue Senator Obama has made it perfectly clear the day after he is President he gives the order to start bringing the troops home. Senator Clinton, much much smarter, much savvier. She said the day after I am elected I call the generals together to give me a plan. And then she said very careful w’e going to bring home the troops the right way. And take it from me, if she is elected, she is going to fall back on that and said it “I am going to bring them back the right way” which is going to turn out to be not anytime soon. So change is going to be new peace.

Moving forward, Merrie is a member of the Board of Directors for the Ronald Reagan Conservative Society who is working to keep the principles of the Reagan Coalition alive in the candidates running for office. "I consider Reagan one of the great presidents of the 20th century and I think he will be regarded as one of the great president’s of all time. I don’t think we should make him into a Myth and he certainly had some shortcomings, everybody does, remembering what he stood for and those are very very worth goals. I think there is a lot to learn from our all of our great fathers. I mean George Washington who still stands as a role model of somebody who put country ahead of himself. Who kept plugging along, made mistakes, but kept going on. You could learn many of the same lessons from [President] Lincoln Many great leaders have things we can learn from and I’d like to learn more about Washington more about Lincoln more about our great Presidents and I hope people will learn and study Reagan and hold him out as a very effect role model as a leader."