Time Magazine Cover of Obama: Why Obama Hearts Reagan

[Cali_Democrat]

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2044579,00.html

The Role Model: What Obama Sees in Reagan
By Michael Scherer and Michael Duffy



In May 2010, Barack Obama invited a small group of presidential historians to the White House for a working supper in the Family Dining Room. It was the second time he'd had the group in since taking office, and as he sat down across the table from his wife Michelle, the President pressed his guests for lessons from his predecessors. But as the conversation progressed, it became clear to several in the room that Obama seemed less interested in talking about Lincoln's team of rivals or Kennedy's Camelot than the accomplishments of an amiable conservative named Ronald Reagan, who had sparked a revolution three decades earlier when he arrived in the Oval Office.

<snip>

When Obama stood before Congress, the Cabinet and the American people to deliver his second State of the Union address, both the Reagan persona and policies put in appearances. He proposed a freeze in discretionary spending and federal salaries, a push to simplify the tax code and billions in cuts to the defense budget, and he made new calls for a bipartisan effort to repair Social Security. Each of these had been proposed before by another third-year President coming off a midterm defeat in a period of high unemployment.

<snip>

Since the November elections, Obama has brought corporate executives into the White House, reached out to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and made compromise his new watchword. He signed a surprise $858 billion tax cut that would have made Reagan weep with joy and huddled with Reagan's former White House chief of staff Ken Duberstein for lessons learned when the Gipper governed amid economic troubles.Over the Christmas break, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted that Obama was reading a Reagan biography, and just to confirm the bond, Obama recently wrote an homage to Reagan for USA Today. "Reagan recognized the American people's hunger for accountability and change," Obama wrote, conferring on Reagan two of his most cherished political slogans.

<snip>

Obama's affection for Reagan's political style carries with it a clear self-interest. White House aides gaze fondly at the arc of the Reagan presidency in part because they pray Obama's will mirror it.

Read more...http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2044579,00.html

And David Axelrod has the nerve to say Obama is a Progressive x(

[jonnyblitz]

1. I want that picture on a t-shirt!

:D

[bigwillq]

4. Me too!

:rofl: :hi:

[bluestateguy]

2. If it makes you feel any better

I'm sure the conservatives will be just as enraged by this cover as our side.

[emulatorloo]

7. The full article is pretty interesting. OP's excerpts are kind of misleading.

It isn't about how "Obama is just like Reagan". Nor is it that "Obama Admires Reagan's Policies" which he doesn't. It has more to do with using Reagan's style to counter R meme that "government is the problem"

[jenmito]

11. Surprise surprise!

Not really. Of COURSE the latest faux outrage is based on misleading excerpts. Obama spoke of his admiration of Reagan's style since the primaries.

[Hutzpa]

25. It's funny how most here have forgotten how to read.

but then again comprehension is not everyone's cup of tea.

[txlibdem]

40. I'm not going to counter your point

I'm just going to make some snide little comment or insult your intelligence in some other way.

[txlibdem]

39. Countering the meme that government is the problem?

By stating that government regulations get in the way of businesses ability to create jobs and need to be done away with.

By stating that Social Security needs to be "repaired," even though everyone who knows math can see that SS is solvent and we just need to ask the rich to finally start putting their fair share of the costs.

By giving tax breaks to the rich --taking money away from the government and giving it to "the job creators" (who haven't created a job in a decade of these fantastic tax cuts).

By "reforming" banks so that they can continue each and every bad practice that *caused* the economic collapse in the first place.

Yeah, he's taking away all the Republican talking points --and making them his official policies. Good job.

[monmouth]

3. I'm wondering if part of this is a little che....early campaigning ploy

to make right leaning Inds like him more. Just speculating but I still wonder.

[emulatorloo]

5. You skipped the part where it says he loathes the Reagan ideology

and only admires the style.

[Cali_Democrat]

6. Obama's actions speak louder than words

Free trade agreements as well as Reaganesque tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires suggests that Obama supports Reagan's ideology.

[emulatorloo]

8. Did you read the full article?

Because it doesn't support your narrative.

[frylock]

18. obama's actions support the narrative

[emulatorloo]

20. did you read the full article?

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Cali_Democrat]

37. I didn't respond because I obviously read the whole article

I don't post articles unless I read the whole article, sweetie.

[frylock]

32. i don't need to read the full fucking article..

i saw obama, with my own two eyes, endorse supply-side economics when he stated that the obama/bush tax cuts to the wealthiest americans will create jobs. serial wtf?!!

[themaguffin]

53. politics doesn't happen in a vacuum, he converted what would happen into

a concession where other legislation got passed and the dynamics changed. It sucks, but if we can't think and operate in reality, we no better than the teabaggers.

[Arkana]

30. Tax cuts that he swallowed for the sake of helping millions of unemployed people,

ending DADT, and getting START ratified.

He has said repeatedly that he didn't like the tax cuts and doesn't think they'll do a thing to stimulate the economy or create jobs.

[txlibdem]

41. Obama swallowed alright

Trickle Down: doesn't

[frylock]

17. like supply-side economics?

[paulk]

44. Reagan's style was to ignore reality and sell the American

people a future that didn't exist and we couldn't afford.

Obama is the heir to the destruction that Reagan initiated.

I have no understanding of why he would lionize the man in any way, shape, or form.

[jenmito]

9. We knew this since the primaries. Did you vote for Obama? n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Perhaps you should see my posting history in 2008

I voted for him in the primary and general election. I also donated $250 to his campaign and worked the phone banks in the fall of 2008. :hi:

[jenmito]

12. Then you should KNOW better. n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

13. When I voted for him...

I didn't think he would extend the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. He said he wouldn't sign a bill that extends the tax cuts and he did. He did not live up to his promise.

edit: typo

[jenmito]

14. He didn't have the votes. But what does that have to do with your OP? n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

15. Huh?

[jenmito]

16. I said Obama talked about his admiration of Reagan's style since the primaries

which is why I questioned if you voted for him, because your OP is about Obama "heart"ing Reagan as the magazine cover shows. What does the fact that he didn't have the votes to pass tax cuts for only the lower 98% have to do with anything?

[Cali_Democrat]

19. Reagan's biggest policy achievement was his tax cuts for the wealthy

And Obama supports this. If you look at a chart, you will see that this policy ushered in the modern era of high deficits:



Decreased revenue will lead to increased deficits. Obama has chosen to continue this policy. You can say he had no choice, but I believe otherwise. Living up to his campaign promise of letting the tax cuts expire would have been the best thing to do. Now he owns the deficit.

Not only does Obama like Reagan's "style", he also supports many of his policies from tax cuts to deregulation.

[jenmito]

21. NO he doesn't! Did you watch his SOTU Tuesday? He said those tax cuts have to end

when they expire. As you must know, he campaigned AGAINST tax cuts for the rich not only during the campaign, but all the way up to the midterms when the Dems. got "shellacked" and refused to pass tax cuts only for those making $250,000 or less. His admiration does NOT extend to his policies. :eyes:

ETA: The author of that article said tonight on Hardball that Obama wants to move the country to the left the way Reagan moved it to the right.

[frylock]

34. they were due to expire!

but obama's gonna go to the mat this time, by golly, to ensure they will expire. and during a presidential election year, no less! fuggin hilarious!!

[jenmito]

45. As were those for the "lower" 98% of us! And the FACT is there were not enough Dem. votes

in the Senate to extend the cuts only for the middle class.

[frylock]

46. and you think those votes will be there in 2012?

[jenmito]

47. Yes. Nearly 2 years in politics is a lifetime and a half. Enough time will have passed that

the Dems. (and some Repubs.) will realize that the tax cuts for the rich did nothing but put us deeper in debt.

[Name removed]

49. Deleted message

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[jenmito]

50. Deal. n/t

[niceypoo]

23. Didnt have the votes?

What votes? Sorry, that tired cliche fails miserably.

[jenmito]

24. It's not a "cliche." It's reality. Conservadems voted with Repubs. to vote against

tax cuts for the lower 98% only.

[niceypoo]

38. Its a cliche

We heard it for a decade from the sissified Democrats in congress. Its an excuse for doing nothing.

No matter, Obama needed no votes to let the damaging RW tax cuts die.

[jenmito]

48. At least now you're putting the blame now where it belongs-on the "sissified Dems. in congress." n/t

If Obama let the tax cuts die, that would include those for the 98% of us.

[paulk]

22. hmmm

"Reagan recognized the American people's hunger for accountability and change," Obama wrote

actually, reagan recognized the American people's hunger for denial

[frylock]

35. a lot of people went hungry during the glorious reagan years..

reagan didn't recognize jack fucking shit.

[txlibdem]

42. Don't forget the mentally ill that got kicked out onto the streets by Reagan

"Compassionate Conservative?" Oxymoron.

Obama has adopted Reagan's failed ideas that trickle down works. That is a fact. Obama has bailed out every company in the land. Where is the bailout for the millions of Americans who are losing their homes? Where is the bailout for the 8 million who lost good paying jobs thanks to trickle down economics and a twisted ideology that said that government regulations need to be stopped.

The apologists on DU need to wake up and smell the coffee. The President is no friend of yours, nor mine. He is a friend of big business and now is a friend of deregulation.

[paulk]

43. I find Obama's statements on Reagan disturbing

on so many levels that I hardly know where to start...



you don't say nice things about the guy, afaic

EVER.

[jeanpalmer]

52. Reagan was a disaster

took us down the path of deficits and militarization -- the two worst trends of the last 30 years. If anything, Obama ought to be condemning him.

[uponit7771]

26. Yes, Americas first black president loves one of the most racist presidents in US history

[KeyserSoze87]

28. Obama is the Democrat version of Ronald Reagan.

He will get reelected in 2012.

[Arkana]

29. Well I guess if Time says it it must be true!

[Clio the Leo]

31. Nancy worked HARD to get her boy-toy into the White House...

.... and who are you to try and stop her final effort at taking over the world!

[babylonsister]

36. rofl!!! nt

[craigmatic]

51. I guess Obama wants to embrace reaganism so he can kill it.

[ProSense]

54. Obama has been compared to a

few Presidents. He's Bush, JFK, Reagan and...

The Obama-Lincoln Parallel: A Closer Look

It must have been fun to do the Photoshop cover.

Wheee!

Obama and Reagan have about as much in common as Clinton and Nixon.

[Name removed]

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