Hillary Clinton versus Barack Obama?  Nope.  Indiana versus North Carolina.  March 30, 1981.

Also that day …

Tom Hanks’ endorsement of Barack Obama is fairly conventional stuff, typical Hollywood celebrity me-too gruel. We’ll probably soon forget it ever happened.

But one thing does stand out: An odd but reassuring embrace of … Ronald Reagan?

Yup. Ronald Reagan merits mention in Hanks’ message, and believe it or not, it’s not hateful, derogatory, or sneering.

Here’s what Hanks says about Obama:

He has the integrity and the inspiration to unify us, as did FDR and Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy and even Ronald Reagan when they ran for the job.

Not bad company for the Gipper. Brings back happy memories the early ’80s … and “Bosom Buddies.”

… so while you’re cashing your check, let’s remember the great tax cutter, Ronald Reagan.

We learn from the York Daily Record:

Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, is coming to the York area Tuesday, according to the campaign.

Details are not yet available about the visit.

According to a news release, Michelle Obama will return to Pennsylvania Tuesday for a series of campaign events.

She will make stops at both Montgomery County and the York area.

In light of what the Obamas think about small-town Pennsylvania, Michelle might have to hold her nose when she visits the town.  After all, York features a big Harley Davidson plant.  At least some politicians who’ve visited York’s Harley factory in the past didn’t seem bothered to circulate among those folks.

Hal Riney, who created this ad for Ronald Reagan, has passed away.

Twenty years ago today — the greatest moment in Presidential St. Patrick’s Day ceremony ever.  March 17, 1988: President Reagan raises a pint at Pat Troy’s Ireland Own in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.
Here’s the photo.

… Here’s President Reagan’s remarks:

The President: Well, thank you very much. I know that they’ve got me scheduled. So, I just have a minute or two to say something here, and first of all, a very great thank you to Pat Troy, the owner of this particular place. Jack Kilpatrick and I — this has been a very happy surprise. We just thought we were coming over here for a St. Partick’s Day lunch. [Laughter] It was quite a surprise, but a very pleasant surprise.

You know, my father told me when I was that high that the Irish built the jails in this country and then filled them. [Laughter] And then 8 — no, I’ll tell you, you’re thinking what I did, and for a long time I was very chary about saying anything. I didn’t know why he was so proud of that — [laughter] — until I got a ticket once from a Chicago cop. [Laughter] And when I heard that brogue I found out what he meant. [Laughter] The police forces of America are largely Irish. So, by now, I can tell you, I’ve got a pub named after me in Ballyporeen. [Laughter] But I just want you to know — you know, I’m very leery about ethnic jokes now in my position. [Laughter] So, the only ones I can tell are Irish. [Laughter]

Well, no, I really set out to tell you that on that same trip to Ballyporeen, where I found that pub, I went up on Cashel Rock later, where St. Patrick erected the first cross in Ireland. And the young Irish guide who was showing me around took me through the cemetery, and he stopped beside one very ancient, large tombstone there. And the inscription on the tombstone read: “Remember me as you pass by. For as you are, so once was I. And as I am, you too will be. So, be content to follow me.” And that was too much for some Irishmen of more recent vintage — [laughter] — who had scratched underneath, “To follow you I am content. I wish I knew which way you went.” [Laughter]

Well, I thank you all for this, and a happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you. And why didn’t I find this place 7 years ago? [Laughter]

Mr. Troy. That’s because you were in the Eire Pub in Boston, that’s why. [Laughter] Can’t keep out of the damn places, can you? [Laughter]

The President. No, it’s those people over there that tell me where I’m going everyday.

Audience member. We love you!

The President. Well, again, thank you very much, and thank all of you.

Mr. Troy. Let’s hear it for our President — President Reagan! [Applause]

… And here’s the next-day Washington Post coverage:

At Ireland’s Own, the pub in Old Town Alexandria, Reagan arrived with White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker, syndicated columnist James J. Kilpatrick and sculptor Marie Pietri, Kilpatrick’s wife. A table had been reserved for Baker.

“But we didn’t know until five minutes before he got here that the president was coming,” said Bunty Dornan, an assistant to pub owner Pat Troy.

Reagan’s 45-minute stay sent 300 pub patrons into a frenzy of singing and clapping to Irish songs and telling Irish jokes. The president joined for a verse of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.” Belfast tenor Seamus Kennedy was the featured act but quickly made way for an old pro at scene-stealing who had a couple of gags of his own to tell.

“He said his grandfather told him one of the jokes, that the Irish built the jails, then were the first to fill them,” said Dornan. He described the president’s tumultuous reception as so noisy “you could hardly hear” his other joke.

When it came time to leave, Reagan reached into the pocket of his dark blue suit and pulled out $ 25 to pay his $ 17 tab, the balance going as a tip for his Irish-born waitress, Annie Roche.

Fascinating tidbit in Andrew Glass’ profile today of Reagan-era hawk and arms negotiator Max Kampelman in Politico:

Did Reagan vote for Humphrey in 1968, over Richard Nixon, whom Reagan privately detested?

Kampelman says he has reason to believe he did. He first met Reagan in 1978 in Palm Beach, Fla., when the former California governor spoke at a fundraiser for the American Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which Kampelman chaired.

“He asked me how I got to Washington,” Kampelman said. “I told him I had come from Minnesota with Hubert Humphrey. His eyes lit up. He told me Humphrey was one of his best friends and that he would have made a great president.”

Before Nancy Reagan, even before Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan had … Lili St. Cyr?

From Kelly DiNardo’s sensational blog The Candy Pitch: Tasty Burlesque Tidbits and Delectable Striptease Confections:

It’s Super Tuesday and even The Candy Pitch is wonking out so here’s a political tease. In the picture below, which former president is watching Lili St. Cyr shimmy out of her clothes at a Vegas nightclub? Here’s a hint: Tomorrow would have been his birthday.

Nostalgic admirers of Ronald Reagan should take heart — the Gipper merited eight mentions during last night’s Democratic presidential debate from either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.  Not as many as the 14 times John McCain was referenced, but double the four times George Bush was cited.  And making his first appearance in a presidential debate was this surprise target: John Edwards proudly remembered, “I’ve been in a fight with Bill O’Reilly.”

Barack Obama had this to say last week:

“I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory in America, in a ways that, you know, Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that Bill Clinton did not.”

The Clintons immediately threw their red flag challenging the play and calling for a review.  They blustered after Obama, saying he was not sufficiently a Reagan-hater.

But guess which Democrat joins Obama in publicly recognizing the historical significance of Ronald Reagan?  It’s Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.

Kaine said this on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” today:

“I think Democrats, you know, we didn’t like an awful lot of what Ronald Reagan did, but we do understand, most of us, that one thing he was good at was communicating to the American people a message of hope and uplift at a time where we were in a period of, kind of, gridlock and malaise.

“We’re in that kind of time right now, a time when we can’t really count on Washington to produce solutions that matter, when it doesn’t seem like Washington can competently manage either an overseas war or an at-home response to a hurricane.

“And so what we seem to need, I think, is somebody who is going to have transformative effect of really being about hope and uplift and optimism and counting on the best of the American spirit….

“Everybody called Reagan “the great communicator,” whether they were Rs or Ds. Again, whether you didn’t like what he did, that was one thing, but he had a way of capturing that spirit of optimism and pride in America.”

First off … Kaine is straight-on correct.  Second off… Huh?  A Democratic official invoking malaise — that most Carter-esque of political memories? A Democratic official citing optimism — that most Reagan-esque of political emotions?

What’s going on here?

Well, here’s one theory. Kaine, one of the first to endorse Obama, is jockeying to be a running-mate.  Today’s Washington Post:

“Kaine comes from a swing state, is term-limited out of his job in 2009 and will be looking for the next step.”

The Democrats would be well-served to choose for a VP candidate a Southern governor who fondly remembers Ronald Reagan.  Any chance they’ll do so?  Hardly.