Is Obama following Reagan?

[Dachs]

You know, you could switch out "Reagan" for "Carter" in the above left-wing drivel, editing for things like "governor of California" and "Gerald Ford", and you'd have a standard bit of right-wing drivel.

in b4 whining about my use of the term "left-wing"

 

[Cutlass]

Only you'd lose accuracy in doing so.

 

[Dachs]

Yeah, that looks just like something a Republican might post

 

[Formaldehyde]

in b4 whining about my use of the term "left-wing"

I agree. Characterizing Carter as a member of the "left-wing" is really hilarious, even though he finally did change his long-term stance on capital punishment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter

After the US Supreme Court overturned Georgia's death penalty law in 1972, Carter quickly proposed state legislation to replace the death penalty with life in prison (an option that previously didn't exist).[29]

When the legislature passed a new death penalty statute, Carter, despite voicing reservations about its constitutionality,[30] signed new legislation on March 28, 1973[31] to authorize the death penalty for murder, rape and other offenses, and to implement trial procedures that conformed to the newly-announced constitutional requirements. In 1976, the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's new death penalty for murder. In the case of Coker v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional as applied to rape.

Many in America were outraged by William Calley's life sentence at Fort Benning for his role in the My Lai Massacre; Carter instituted "American Fighting Man's Day" and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on in support of Calley.[32] Indiana's governor asked all state flags to be flown at half-staff for Calley, and Utah's and Mississippi's governors also disagreed with the verdict.[32]

Despite his earlier support, Carter soon became a death penalty opponent, and during Presidential campaigns (like previous nominee George McGovern and two successive nominees, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis), this was noted.[33] Currently, Carter is known for his outspoken opposition to the death penalty in all forms; in his Nobel Prize lecture, he urged "prohibition of the death penalty".[34]

Carter wrote that the most intense and mounting opposition to his policies came from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, which he attributed to Ted Kennedy8217;s ambition to replace him as president.[45] Kennedy, originally on board with Carter's health plan, pulled his support from that legislation in the late stages; Carter states that this was in anticipation of Kennedy's own candidacy, and when neither won, the tactic effectively delayed comprehensive health coverage for decades.[46]

Some "liberal" Carter quotes:

We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.

Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.

You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I've never detected any conflict between God's will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.

But I can certainly understand why so many from the far-right now try to vilify him:

The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

 

[Karalysia]

 

[Earthling]

It's a terrible shame the Carter presidency and many of his great ideas were not continued and we've been set back decades as a result. On top of the simple lack of progress though, Reagan made things worse for America and the world in new and exciting ways.

As for the original article, I would say Obama does not compare to Reagan at all outside of the vague metric of popularity and such media appeal and even then that's not really much to bother with. The political climate and election cycles haven't and won't be the same going forward nor would I say his presidency or the structure of the Democratic party is going to shape up politically in any way similar to Reagan's and the changes in the Republican party over the course of a decade or two there.

 

[Ayatollah So]

There was an assumption, by those who followed Reagan, and in fact by Reagan himself, that ideological purity was the measure of both competence and honesty.

This is the key reason Obama is no Reagan. If Obama has an ideology at all, it's pragmatism - the supposed avoidance of ideology in favor of ... well, getting things done, I suppose. Getting what things done, you might ask - but you're not supposed to ask that; too ideological. Obama never met a position he couldn't compromise on. In fact he starts with a compromise, then compromises on that.

Newsweek >> Time. Newsweek overviewed Reagan's presidential style recently and compared it to Obama's. They pointed out that Reagan was willing to compromise, but only AFTER fighting a pitched battle for everything he could get, all the while blaming his opponents for the slow progress, and for any negative results. He used the bully pulpit for all it was worth and changed the terms of the debate. And guess what? The aggressive strategy works.

Obama's a Clinton. A triangulator, only with a finger on the pulse of potential campaign donors, more than actual voters.