Hmmm. Methinks the Weekly Standard is parodying some Republicans who are pining for another Ronald Reagan. I haven’t heard any Dems looking for another Harry.
In '48 Reagan campaigned for Truman because Truman did a lot of things right --NATO, the Marshal Plan, and the Berlin Airlift, all of which halted the Russian empire at Greece, Turkey, and Austria.
Truman saw the need to stop Stalin and pushed for a huge expansion of the defense budget. The Taft Republicans fought the military every inch of the way saying that of course they supported the troops but they did not support the mission.
If we condemn Truman for the dumb things he did then we have to condemn Reagan too. If we can forgive Reagan by saying he changed with the '70's then we can forgive Truman by saying he would have changed had he lived that long. There's no having it both ways.