In foreign policy, Reagan was an anti-Communist whose views were well within the mainstream of foreign policy thinking post-World War II.
If Chuck Hagel is outside the mainstream of foreign policy thinking then so are others whose worldview he appears to match -- George H.W. Bush, Colin Powell, James Baker, Brent Scowcroft, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn.
Imagine Mr Fox as an ambitious senator with wealthy friends, a strong interest in mainstream areas of foreign policy (relations with Israel, defending NATO) a more obscure speciality interest (Sri Lanka) and his own political action committee.
"I know that Chuck Hagel has a clear worldview and that it aligns with the mainstream of U.S. foreign and defense policy," Mr. Nunn said, adding that "No one is perfect.
None of which should make us forget that the first Bush term was a sharp break, and a destructive one, from the mainstream of U.S. foreign policy, and Obama's term has been in large part a correction.
But after his appearance, it's clear that Mr. Hagel is very much in the mainstream of American foreign policy, has a résumé and experience that would be valuable at the Pentagon and is capable of speaking his mind, even if he allowed himself on Thursday to back off on some positions, like his concern for Palestinians, in the face of a Republican attack on his nomination.
Almost nobody in the mainstream of the foreign affairs community is doing that, despite some recent frittering around the edges of the once universal consensus on the criticality of victory in Afghanistan.
Its eagerness to please is a reminder of the long shadow cast by the Weinsteins over the mainstream end of foreign-language cinema down the years – something that's beginning to loom once again.
There will be no shying away from the tough issues: the influence of those who twist faith into ideology; the cultural attitudes that exclude women from mainstream society; the impact of foreign policy on domestic affairs; and, vitally, the divisive effects of the catastrophic failure of state education in many parts of urban Britain.
Still, Sanders has proven surprisingly mainstream on a number of foreign policy issues.
More generally, both of them fit into the mainstream of Democratic thinking on foreign policy and national security, which emphasizes working with allies and using force as a final recourse.
