WASHINGTON Reuter: President Reagans name is not on the US November election ballot but many analysts including Reagan himself say voting for the Senate will set the tone for his last two years in office.
A victory by the opposition Democrats who seem to have at least an even chance of recapturing the Senate majority that they lost in the Reagan landslide of 1980 could reduce him to the role of a caretaker unable to prevail over Congress.
If the Democrats win Reagan becomes a goaltender just deflecting shots for the last two years” says Senate Republican Campaign Director Tom Griscom.
“You have to give him a chance to come to bat (for his views). If he is shut out in both houses that won’t happen”.
Reagan made the same argument at a recent campaign stop in Colorado the first of an intensive schedule of stumping the plans on behalf of Republican Senate candidates
“I can’t have my hands tied by a totally hostile Congress” he said “The next couple of years will decide whether all our progress since 1980 will be set in concrete or only written in sand”.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 19, 1986
