Here's how the Republicans should choose their presidential candidate for '08.

[hiaasenrocks]

Since it's apparently nothing more than a game to see who can be The Next Ronald Reagan, just go ahead and make it a contest to see who can best impersonate Ronnie.

Have a TV show hosted by Ryan Seacrest. The three judges would be Nancy Reagan, Mike Deaver and Ken Duberstein. But they'd only be there to critique.

The candidates could use their primary money to hire a voice coach and some top Hollywood make-up artists.

Each candidate gets to deliver 2 minutes of a famous Reagan speech.

Then all registered Republicans have 2 hours to cast votes, via 800 number and text messaging, and the next night all the contestants come back to see who is eliminated.

This would take 9 weeks, leaving only one Ronnie-clone standing.

Hey, Fox, if you use this idea, you owe me major royalties.

[liberalhistorian]

1. LOL, you know, you just might

be receiving some major royalties soon, knowing how the Fox folks think and the way things are done nowadays.

[hiaasenrocks]

2. No kidding. Everything is a "reality" show, but not very realistic.