On Fri, 18 Jan 2008, farmelantj at juno.com wrote:
> I am sure that Obama knows that history quite well (he had after all
> been a community organizer in Chicago at one time). He also knows that
> such talk about Reagan makes the rich men, who he needs to finance his
> campaign, go weak at the knees whenever they hear it. Hence, Obama's
> praise for Reagan. Remember too, that Bill Clinton always used to
> praise Reagan too, and who can ever forget his funeral oration for
> Richard Nixon.
Yeah, but didn't Clinton praise Nixon for detente and the negative income tax -- both of which were actually good things -- and praise Reagan for his oratorical ability and the strength of his convictions? Obama here is praising him for one of the main things that was wrong with him, the overthrow of regulation, at exactly the moment in history when its bad consequences should be most clear. It seems more like a cri de coeur than positioning statement.
Although to be fair, by the fact that he elevates Kennedy and Reagan as the two greats above all others in the post-war run (?!?), it seems that what he really values above all other qualities is charisma, regardless of its content, as if great charisma halloweth any cause.
Michael