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Obama Is the New Reagan
Effective government is what we need. Call it New Deal II. And Roosevelt’s oratory, his Fireside Chats, helped to inspire people to support his programs. Roosevelt, Reagan...Obama.
As it happens, early in 1968 I found myself in Sacramento working as a speechwriter for Reagan. William F. Buckley had been visiting Reagan at his place in Pacific Palisades, and it became evident that Reagan was thinking of running for the Republican nomination.
In 1962, following his narrow 1960 loss to Jack Kennedy, Richard Nixon had run for governor of California, losing to Edmund G. (“Pat”) Brown. Nixon gave his angry “last press conference.” In 1966, Reagan had defeated Brown by a million votes. Buckley persuaded Reagan that he needed me for a speechwriter, even though I had never written a political speech.
I quickly educated myself in what a political speech must do. It’s not primarily about information but about communion—with the target audience. But Reagan didn’t need a speechwriter. He was a good one himself. He wanted themes, paragraphs, memorable sentences. I did, however, help him a great deal on a speech about education.
In person, Reagan was a great deal like Obama, in his self-confidence and his equanimity under pressure. One morning, a member of staff asked the governor whether had read that day’s column by Herb Caen, a hostile San Francisco journalist. “Yes,” Reagan replied. “What’s the matter with that guy?” (Nixon, for whom I soon became a speechwriter, probably would have said, “We’ll get him. Put him on the list.”)
Reagan’s sense of humor disarmed even people who disagreed with him. At a press conference he was asked by a reporter, “Governor, have you seen all those anti-war pickets marching around the capitol?” Reagan asked, “Do you mean the ones carrying signs that say “Make love not war?” “Yes, governor.” Reagan: “Well, since you ask me, I don’t think they could do much of either.”
But he could also be steely, as in his confrontation with the air traffic controllers who were on strike, or in hitting Lybia’s Qaddaffi hard in the Gulf of Sidra affair. That was foreshadowed at a press conference. “Governor, the Black Panthers in Oakland are threatening a blood bath.” Reagan: “If they want a blood bath they can have a blood bath.”
Reagan’s “What’s the matter with that guy” came to my mind when Reagan destroyed Carter in a 1980 debate with “There you go again.” And in 1984 when he dismissed his age with a joke in a debate with Mondale: “I’m not going to hold my opponent’s age and inexperience against him.”
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MarcosElMalo
This is going to ruffle quite a few feathers! I have the same sense about Obama and I hope we're right. The thing that strikes me most about him is that he seems to be relatively free of that noxious political disease, Ideology. Let us hope that Obama's defining quality is his thoughtfulness, and that we are not merely projecting empty hopes upon an empty, media constructed vessel.
monay101
i pray obama win because we need change not the same
o crap we are better than that we deserve better than that
so when u vote be sure u are making the right choice
monay
MLaine
I don't agree with your premise that Obama is like Reagan.
I find Obama a much more serious, and intelectual man than R.Reagan. Reagan had charm and good looks, and a wonderful delivery, yet he lacked the real gravitas this position needs.
oldskoolgirl
I think Obama will need to steal a page from the original Roosevelt's (Teddy that is) playbook as well - the original "Square Deal" trust busted the big business players back down to size.
When one man makes $3,000,000,000 a year and another man who works for him makes $ 30,000 a year - if he's lucky! - then some BUSTIN' needs to happen. The divide between the two is just too vast. It is causing our entire capitalistic system to disenegrate. The pyramid of money at the top has disentegrated the chuck of salaries underneath it to the point that the top is toppling.
The few in the middle who make enough to be comfortable just aren't able to speak for the many beneath them any longer who have nothing and do all the work and make just as many sacrifices as those who justify those billion dollar salaries because they take the big risks. Their big heads need to be cut back down to size.
Justcoz
Obama is not the next Reagan. He is the first Obama.
TiiiMMMaHHH
From EUROPEAN COMMISSION CHIEF JOSE MANUEL BARROSO, via BBC:
"This is a time for a renewed commitment between Europe and the United States of America. We need to change the current crisis into a new opportunity. We need a new deal for a new world.
"I sincerely hope that with the leadership of President Obama, the United States of America will join forces with Europe to drive this new deal - for the benefit of our societies, for the benefit of the world."
If any of you are familiar with Codex Alimentarius, North American Union, New World Order, Bilderberg, or any of those terms, you should be worried. At least with Bush, you could see the lies a mile away... BTW, I voted for Cynthia McKinney, she was the only one to stand up and question the forensic evidence, or lack thereof, of 9/11, and the voting fraud in 2000 and 2004.. ask yourself this.. after two fraudulent elections, why was it so easy for Obama? Where did all his money come from? What REAL favors are attached? Then check out google video, type in "peter gibson" and see the cnn clip of Obama's press core being tricked into getting on a plane so Obama could meet with Bilderberg. He's just another Dark Suit.
AmericanLiberalElite
Should the Grenadians be afraid?
keepakeeper43
Lets hope that Obama's oratory are not full of disaster, like Reagan's "Shining City on the Hill" or "Standing Tall" crap.
AndreainNY
Obama and Reagan couldn't have been more opposite in their positions.
murphro2
First: LBJ, except for the Vietnam war, was a great president, a master at making ideals into policy. Bush will go down as the worst ever (apologies to James Buchanan), one who by the end had accomplished literally nothing while president, having won no victory for American prosperity or freedom.
Second: Everything new is invariably compared to the past. Old time Republicans like Hart, estranged from their party, seem to hoping real hard that Obama is the next Reagan. Reagan, a holy word for the GOP. It is not beyond possibility that Obama could far outshine Reagan, that only Roosevelt or Lincoln could be called equals. That has yet to be written. But he does possess a singular quality of large vision (like Reagan and Kennedy) and an attention to detail (like Clinton). This could foretell a very effective and far reaching presidency, and a long cold winter for the GOP. President Obama, a Game Changer.
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