What a difference a shellacking makes . . .
Just after Barack Obama won the White House in 2008, Time photoshopped him into an iconic FDR photo at the wheel of a convertible, jaunty cigarette-holder in mouth.
Obama was riding high as the champion of the left, the promise and personification of a born-again big-government New Deal. That was then, this is the 9+% unemployment, recent-shellacking now. So with which president does Time now find it in the president's interest to be associated? Why, Ronald Reagan, of course.
The new Time cover, unveiled by Time editor Rick Stengel on Morning Joe today, features a Photoshop of a smiling Obama and Reagan, the Gipper's arm approvingly clapped around PBO's shoulder. The legend: "Why Obama Loves Reagan," [a symbolic heart in place of "loves"].
Stengel explains that for years Obama has admired Reagan's style, if not substance, and has sought to emulate it. Whatever. The bigger point is how the cover reflects the realization by some the more sentient precincts of the liberal media that Obama's big government project has failed. If PBO is to win in 2012, nothing might help him more than to be associated with the man who made famous the phrase "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
