Is Obama the Democrat's Reagan ?

Not that he supports the same policies as Ronald Reagan but that he understands how to play the media?
Reagan and his advisers did not really care what they said about him so long as they showed a favorable photo in the background. Television is a visual medium and they knew that. Reporters were fascinated with the show biz knowledge of Ronald Reagan.

Now the same Republicans that worshipped Reagan are criticizing the media for following Obama. They can't understand why people like Obama so much? One point we may want to remember is that no matter who followed George W Bush, they would be looked upon as a political saviour of sorts. Anybody had to be better than what we have at present. I think that plays a large part in the attention paid to Obama.

However, he is very clever and shrewd about what plays best for the television audience. In a way, he is a rock star politician. It is a bonus that he is intelligent and speaks rationally on the issues. He is similar to Ronald Reagan in more ways than we care to admit, in my opinion.

So I'd say he's like JFK in this respect.

That was my Mom's view of St. Ronnie. My mother served in the US Army during WW II, the war Ronnie refused to serve in.

My view is that Obama is Bill Clinton ver 2.0.

Smart. A player, and is too focused on having everybody like him.

He wouldn't have made it through his first term if the Internet existed in 1980.

I'd have to say Obama is the Democrat's Obama.

:-) He is one of a kind. He's not like anybody else? Right?

I think he can be compared to FDR.

I hope he understands the situation as well as FDR.

The primary difference being that Reagan, through his pursuit of acting, was trained to perfect his public persona while for Obama it comes naturally. That translates into the difference between: phoney vs. sincere.

And this is what is really killing them and why they don't understand it. It's subjective perception of his humaness, which is rare among politicians.

Reagen was a long time radical, to be honest, who had the luck of FINALLY breaking through during a bad time for the country with a re-made image as Mr Positive ... But, make no mistake, he had at least a 15 year or so period of having radical (and worse, disasterously wrong) political beliefs that were buried below a successful facade makeover ...

I agree that you can see vicerally, Obama's humaness ... It is hard, however, to see how even over the course of the last 4 months or so, when it has gotten VERY tough, to see it kind of sucked out of him a bit ...

THAT is politics, and what the process does to them ... THEN, the maniacs get to say "see, they are all the same" ...

BO did the right thing by standing by Wright and his church at first ... He weathered that storm and the media hated him for not bowing to them, that is why when the idiots kept doing stupid A stuff the media piled on even more ... Eventually, it got to be more than BO could carry politically ...

They keep chipping at him like that ...

Still, again, LIGHT years between Reagan and BO from a human and philosophy standpoint ...

Barack Obama is unique. He is a new politician for a new era. To compare him with Reagan or any other would be like saying The Beatles were the British Elvis or Elvis was the Rock-N-Roll Sinatra.

People like to label. They like to compare. Then someone comes along that defies comparisons. Barack Obama is that someone.

Care to guess what it is?

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/summary.php?cid=N00009638&cycle=2008

:shrug:

I tend to agree with you but I know people will make that comparison. We like to try and resolve these types of issues before they hit the mainstream.. :)

:)

:hi:

:eyes:

(Although in Zell's case, the corpse is, at least technically, still alive.)

Why must some always go negative?

:banghead:

He's Bubba 2.0


That's a compliment to Bubba.

:P

Whatever.


My point stands.... Obama is everything Bubba was in 1992.... without the infidelities floating around.

Remember...back then the right-wing said that Clinton was a former coke-head, a closet communist, loathed the military, his wife was a controlling bitch, he had shady land deals, he was triangulating, he was inexperienced ("failed governor of a small state") and he had a problem keeping it in his pants.

Almost all of those criticisms are the same they are throwing at Obama this year.... except the infidelity one.



hence...


Obama is Clinton.... without the Bimbo Eruptions.

At all.

And I believe the actual criticisms at the time were the weed-smoking at Oxford and being called a "draft-dodger."

Unfortunately, Bill will be remembered for two things. For a certain shot-spot on a dress, and for showing how to revive a way out of kilter economy. The second is quite some achievement. The first isn't.

No Democrat should be mentioned in the same breath as Reagan. Except for "low information voters", aka, "Dumbfucks", and DLC trash.

Reagan was the "front-man".. the " ctor-playing-the-part-of-president"..

GHWB & his henchmen were ALWAYS in charge..

They found an articulate, spokesperson to be the "face" of the presidency.

Reagan ended up as governor, for the same reason, although back then he DID still have some of his marbles left. The sad thing is that his governorship is still felt in CA.. They things he UN-DID are still plaguing this state, and every college person today, can trace their own financial difficulties back to reagan..

Republicanism is all about the myth.. They make 'em, and propagate 'em. Their actual underlying philosophies are so abhorrent, they MUST be cloaked in mythology..

Religious extremism
Racial hatred
Corporate greed
Sexism
Hatred of poor people

How else could these ideas be "sold" to the masses, without the mythology??

of snitching on his friends in the McCarthy hearings and then, as president, busting unions, with one of the most intellegent activists ever to run for president.

Really. I don't

Maybe Obama is the Democratic party's Obama.....

Reagan, the great communicator, couldn't bring himself to say the word "Aids". The only regret I have about that scumsucking freak is that he didn't get the same health care he left my grandmother with after he deregulated the Savings and loans. She died in abject poverty, of Alzhiemers, wiped out by that very deregulation, and the "loss" of billions by the greedbags.

FDR is our Reagan in the sense that our policies are derived largely from what he started. But we don't put FDR up on a pedestal and pretend that he was a demigod when history clearly shows that he made some serious mistakes with Japanese internment, court packing, etc.