Your thoughts: What do Ronald Reagan & Barack Obama have in common?

Off the top of my head:

1. Great communication
2. Teflon
3. Expansive Political Ambition
4. A belief in the character of the American People


1. Communication goes without saying. Obama is perfecting his skills of keeping it light while delivering harder political punches

2. Polls consistently show that 70% plus like / approve of Barack Obama as a person, more than the approval of his policies.

3. Both want(ed) 'Transformational Presidencies'. A no lesser commentator that Bill Clinton said that the Obama Administration opens the possibility of 30 to 40 years ascendancy of progressive politics.

4, Both believe(d) in American common sense. Obviously Reagan and Obama had/have very different views of sense, let alone commonality. In my opinion, this separates both from Bill and Hillary Clinton. The Clintons paid close attention to polls to gauge what segments of Americans thought, or thought they wanted. Whether Bill or Barack was/is being more realistic in a era of deep polarization, time will tell.

Your thoughts?

PS. I will never forget reading "OMG he's the anti-Reagan!" , early in the Primaries at FR.

Very little of the crap that's flung at him actually sticks.

I made other comparisons here: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Laelth/15

:dem:

-Laelth

but it was rather deft of the President to engineer that into the beer summit. It completely diffused his role in the matter.

One reason for Reagan's Teflon was the assassination attempt. It recalled the JFK assassination, and Reagan (wrongly) acquired some lustre from that. Not that I wish any such thing on President Obama, but if there were a sense that there were some personal danger to him for fulfilling his mission, it might put a sealer coat on that Teflon.

I thought of Obama as the Reagan of the left since the election campaign, and I wonder if that's part of why the right's freaking out so much - he's got a lot of the styles and attributes of their main leader figure, but a near complete reversal of him in terms of beliefs and policies.

They both had the idealism thing going on, a general Things Can Be Made Better type attitude that extended beyond mere faith in the populace. Obama's is obvious, but Reagan was too, and not just in the "American common sense" angle for either of them. (Hell, Reagan tried to make overtures to the Soviets for a joint planetary defense plan in the event of alien invasion, which is rather too wacky an idea for a standard deep cynic or pragmatist to push out of the blue.) They exhibit it in different ways, of course, but in a fairly cynical field, I think the intensity of either man's idealism matters. Of course, we can't forget that Obama takes his in fairly different directions than Reagan did.

Other than that, not much.

Reagan's popularity was based on lies. He surrounded himself with people bent on America's destruction, and his policies intentionally brought harm to America for the benefit of corporate fascists.

None of which applies to Obama.

Just kidding ... sort of.

:shrug:

:dem:

-Laelth

Flame away, but please cite evidence.

Thanks in advance.

:hi:

I was always turned off by his message and the head shaking.

I imagine a lot of people here were never that far into Reagan's target audience. If I was dumped back into his presidential campaigns at my current age (I was way too young to understand them at the time), I may or may not have been swayed by him, but the election results make it pretty clear a lot of other people were.

came out of left field to win the nomination from a better known candidate, who looked like a sure thing one year out, by the sheer force of personality.

Bush looked like a lock one year out.

Reagan was well known and had an established political apparatus. He ran Ford very close for a sitting President.

Obama was known somewhat too.

so that they have in common

today as being a two term Governor of California, did in the 1970s.

I was there and he had the entire hall hanging on every word.

I can't imagine having those memories.

And also, both did get elected president.

person.

Obama does not have Teflon. I wish he did.

Obama had teflon from the beginning.

5. Looks good in a cowboy hat.