Most of the US public opinion generally remembers the 80s as a successful decade, characterized by a great economic recovery and the victory in the Cold War at the expense of the Soviet Union. Those years came after the uncertain 70s, when the American weakness was particularly visible. Many authors use to describe the then-President, Ronald Reagan, as the leading “actor” of that patriotic renaissance. More than thirty years on, the ghost of the US decline is back. Mitt Romney, the Grand Old Party candidate for the presidential election to be held in November 2012, declared one of his main goals is to reverse this widespread perception. What is his perspective of the world politics? And, should he won the election, how would he act on the international stage to defend the US and Western interests around the globe? The article addresses these issues, focusing on the suggested historical parallelism between Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama, and – as a consequence – between Reagan and Romney himself.
