In an editorial board meeting with a Reno, Nevada, newspaper last week, Senator Barack Obama said what turned out to be ammunition for rival campaigns. “Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not,” Obama told the newspaper. “I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10 to 15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom.”

Both John Edwards and the Clinton campaign used these comments to make it clear that they, good Democrats, did not approve of Ronald Reagan’s policies. “I would never use Ronald Reagan as an example of change,” Edwards told the Associated Press. His campaign later put out a statement. “The breadth of change Ronald Reagan brought was crippling for millions of Americans, with the two worst recessions since the Depression, a complete disregard for the rights of American labor, and tax cuts that lined the pockets of the richest Americans at the expense of fiscal sanity and the well-being of the most vulnerable in our society,” said Edwards campaign manager David Bonior.

The Clinton campaign dispatched surrogates to respond. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) wondered, “I would like to know what Republican ideas he thinks are great ideas.” Brown then listed Reagan-supported plans to privatize Social Security and abolish the National Education Association as well as provide tax breaks to the rich. President Clinton also weighed in, saying Obama “said that since 1992, the Republicans have had all the good ideas. So now it turns out you can choose between somebody who thinks thinks our ideas are better, or the Republicans had all the good ideas.”

Today Senator Obama responded to their criticisms at his Columbia, South Carolina rally, saying his statements have been mischaracterized - just another Washinton “trick.”

“I didn’t’ say I liked Ronald Reagan’s policies,” Obama explained. “What I said was that was the kind of working majority we need to form in order to move a progressive agenda forward. So when I see, you know, Senator Clinton or President Clinton distort my words, say somehow that I was saying Republican (sic) the only ones who had good ideas since 1980 – then that is not a way to move the debate forward. That is not a way to help the American people. And I am not running for president just to become president – I’m running to help the American people and move the debate forward. I’m not willing to say or do anything just to win an election, because when you start operating that way, you lose the trust of the American people and we need trust if we’re going to build the kind of country that all of us want for our children and our grandchildren.”

Obama told the crowd that Reagan “was able to tap into the discontent of the American people and he was able to get Democrats to vote Republican – they were called Reagan Democrats.” This skill of bridging party divides is one that Obama admits he hopes to emulate. “We as Democrats right now, should tap into the discontent of Republicans. I want some Obama Republicans!”

Seems like the Obama campaign has been thinking about this - or at least they came up with a snazzy name for these Obama Republicans: “Obamacans.”