Anita Dunn Trumps George Will

Everyone from Mediaite to National Review (which posted the Mediaite video) is hailing George Will's statement on John Huntsman:

“In almost every cycle there’s a Republican who appeals to people who don’t really very much like Republicans . . . Mr. Huntsman’s announcement that he would take the high road had a whiff of moral arrogance about it and we will see. He said ‘I’m not going to run down my opponent.’ He stood where Ronald Reagan stood. And when Ronald Reagan stood there in 1980 he said this about his opponent, Jimmy Carter, ‘A litany of despair of broken promises of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten.’ That’s politics.”

But the real jewel comes from former White House communications director Anita Dunn talking about Michele Bachmann and picking winning candidates.

Chrystia Freeland: So, Anita, isn't Michele Bachmann your fantasy? I mean are you talking her up partly because the Democrats would love to run against Michele Bachmann.

Jonathan Karl: The answer is yes.

Anita Dunn: No, I learned a long time ago not to try to pick candidates and this kind of thing. I remember very well Democrats feeling that Ronald Reagan was the candidate we wanted to face in 1980 because we didn't want George Bush or Howard Baker for God's sake.

UPDATE: Even funnier is that George Will supported Howard Baker and George H. W. Bush ahead of Reagan in the 1979 Republican primaries. Mark Levin:

"A couple of quick things: 1. As I demonstrated last week [March 9, 2011 show (about the 31:00 mark)], remarkably George Will missed the Reagan Revolution not only in 1976 but as late as 1980. In the 1979 Republican Presidential Primary, his first choice was Howard Baker, his second choice was George H. W. Bush, and his third choice was Reagan. Not until days before the 1980 general election did he write on November 3, 1980 that Reagan deserved election. For all his wonderful columns, the Republican electorate better understood the needs of the nation and the excellence of a potential Reagan presidency than Will. It is hard to believe he was so wrong about a matter of such great import, despite Reagan's presence on the national scene for many years."