( CNN ) -- Kudos to MSNBC 's Joe Scarborough for owning up to `` my boneheaded error '' ( his words ) when last week he claimedâ€ ” in a slam of President Obamaâ€ ” that President Reagan cut his vacation short and `` immediately went back to the White House '' after the Soviet Union mistakenly shot down a Korean Air flight in 1983 . The facts , of course , are nothing like that , and we will get to that in a moment . Scarborough is not the only Republican figurehead using a rewrite of Reagan history to attack the President , who opted not to cancel fundraising events the day Malaysia Airlilnes Flight 17 was shot down by the Ukrainian rebels . Hosts on Fox News also did some editing to the Reagan narrative . And this past weekend on CNN 's State of the Union , House Homeland Security Committee Chair Michael McCaul said Reagan `` rallied the world community '' with his remarks on the 1983 disaster , without mentioning that half a week had gone by before he delivered them . Opinion : Who will speak for the MH17 victims ? It is true that , given Putin 's involvement with supplying the rebels with weapons and the United States ' frosty relationship with Russia , the post-crash optics were not good for President Obama . And Obama supporters may blame all his administration 's troubles on Republican obstructionism and some veiled racism , but the White House 's inability to get ahead of the message has also contributed to his dismal 42 % job approval rating . ( P.S . Obama , next time , just visit the border . ) But Reagan as a role model ? Not if you look at the facts : Not only did President Reagan not rush back to Washington after the Korean Air disaster , but , according to his press secretary , he went horseback riding later that same day . In fact , Reagan had to be coerced by his inner circle to cut short what had already been a 25-day vacation in California . He did not deliver his much talked about speech in which he condemned the Soviet Union for its actions until four days later . The fact is that Scarborough 's error is no error at all ; it emerged from an airbrushed history that reflects a persistent viewpoint : For many Republicans , President Reagan did no wrong . As a result , Obama 's missteps , real or not , are magnified , distorted . It 's like comparing an attractive woman to a Photoshopped image of a model . In this case , the model who has been nipped , tucked and repackaged is the Gipper . Consider for example , in 1982 , two years after Reagan took office , the unemployment rate soared to 9.7 % , the highest since the Great Depression . It was 9.6 % in 1983 , the year of his 25-day vacation . In January of that year , his approval rating was 35 % . In case you were wondering , Obama 's lowest was 40 % . Considering how often Obama is criticized for his more than 140 rounds of golf , I do n't think I need to tell you what would be said about him if he had taken a month off while the country was dealing with the highest unemployment rate in more than 40 years . Or if he was approaching anywhere near the 436 vacation days Reagan tallied in his two terms . In fact , Reagan once joked , `` It 's true hard work never killed anyone , but I figure why take the chance ? '' I ca n't imagine President Obama , who Republicans openly call lazy , getting away with that . I do n't love President Reagan , but I do n't hate him either . Opinion : Putin 's big blunder . As with everyone else who has held that office , there are things you can point to that Reagan did exceptionally well and things I 'm sure he would have liked to have done over . There were blemishes : Iran-Contra and a HUD scandal in which millions of federal dollars were criminally funneled to big contributors to Republican campaigns , including Reagan 's . And Reagan failed to publicly address the AIDS crisis until May 1987 , six years after the first cases had appeared . Thousands died on his watch . Reagan never balanced the budget . He raised taxes . In fact , he signed the biggest peacetime tax increase in history . We can debate why and compare his rationale with that of Obama 's , but to pretend he did n't do it is ludicrous . We become better by learning from mistakes . But first we must acknowledge they exist , which is why the continual lionization of Reagan does the country a disservice . Rewriting and sugarcoating his history may provide this current brand of Republicans with a feel-good narrative , and regular , ready-made ways to slam the current President , but it does n't help us learn from the past . This week President Obama is scheduled to sign an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees . Some may be surprised , but Reagan himself denounced employment discrimination against gays and lesbians more than 30 years ago while governor of California . This is all part of his legacy as well . Scarborough made a boneheaded error . But the biggest error many Republicans like him make is scrubbing away Reagan 's errors just so they can throw mud at Obama . It turns their admiration for the Gipper 's `` character '' into worship of a caricature .
LZ : Some in GOP slam Obama over MH17 reaction , say Reagan did better with 1983 Korea crash . LZ : Reagan went horseback riding , took 4 days to comment . It 's all part of Reagan revisionism . Obama 's record constantly set against airbrushed version of poor Reagan record , he says . LZ : Reagan had high jobless rate , scandals , hiked taxes . We do n't learn from faked history .