Mitt Romney’s campaign is circulating a statement from a former Pentagon official that characterizes Romney’s remarks Tuesday to a veterans convention as “Reaganesque.”

“Mitt Romney’s speech to the VFW convention was Reaganesque,” says former under secretary of defense Eric Edelman, in the statement. “In contrast to Barack Obama’s policies of vacillation and hesitation, Gov. Romney set out a vision of determination and clarity of purpose.”

The Romney campaign e-mail-blasted the statement to reporters immediately following Romney’s speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nev.

The comparison to Ronald Reagan, the former president and ultimate Republican icon, was no accident.

Romney deliberately invoked Reagan at the beginning of his remarks to the VFW by asking veterans the same question Reagan famously asked during his October 1980 debate against then-incumbent Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

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“Has the American economy recovered?” Romney asked. “Has our ability to shape world events been enhanced, or diminished? Have we gained greater confidence among our allies, and greater respect from our adversaries? And, perhaps most importantly, has the most severe security threat facing America and our friends, a nuclear-armed Iran, become more or less likely?”