Worse, Reagan's main theme for his "morning in America" ideal was to provoke Americans into a renewal of the American way of self-reliance, one removed from sucking at the teat of government. On the other hand, Barack Obama's main point was that without government, without The One and all his fixes, we are all doomed.
It was obvious to anyone's ears that Obama's theme was as far removed as Reagan's as can be.
CNN tries hard to shoehorn Reagan's always sunny optimism into Obama's big government puffing prescription for what ails the U.S. And CNN seems to think that Obama was very successful in the attempt.
President Barack Obama addressed Congress shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, but a casual viewer might have believed it was actually morning in America.
Perhaps CNN is right if that "casual viewer" has no clue what Ronald Reagan was all about!
Writing for CNN, Alan Silverleib goes on:
"Morning in America" was the theme of Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign, and it was front and center in Obama's most critical event since Inauguration Day.
The president who has pledged to reverse much of Reagan's economic revolution took a page from the 40th president's playbook in his 52-minute speech, striking a defiantly optimistic tone that belied the nation's sour mood and rebutted critics who have accused him of intentionally talking down the economy for short-term political gain.
Layering a soup of Reaganisms over the top of Carter policies, however, does not find Obama in emulation of Ronald Reagan, despite what CNN tries to promulgate.
Naturally, CNN is bowled over at Obama's amazingness and coolosity, calling the speech a "political tour de force." But, even while pretending that Obama is the new Ronald Reagan, CNN reveals that about every single idea that Barack Obama has makes him rather the direct opposite of Reagan as opposed to his heir.
CNN analyzes the Obama and Reagan agendas thus:
The president's agenda as defined in his address to Congress may have been the most ambitious in a generation or even two, but it was also easily boiled down to a few bullet points: restore financial stability, strengthen education and promote energy independence and health care reform.
It was, in many ways, the mirror image of 1981, when a newly inaugurated Reagan used the combination of stagnating economic growth and skyrocketing inflation to promote an equally ambitious, simple agenda: cut taxes, shrink government and build up the defense budget.
The differrences are striking showing that Obama is NO Ronald Reagan. Where Reagan encouraged Americans to take responsibility and stride forward into a re-dawning of American exuberance, Obama wants America to curl up in a ball and allow big daddy government to take the reins. Obama certainly tried to steal some of Reagan's rhetoric, but it is a far more cynical usage of it than was Reagan's.
Reagan's rhetoric from his mouth was sincere. It was heart felt. It was emboldening, inspiring, soaring. On the other hand, Obama's use of that Reaganesque sunny optimism is a dodge, a shuck and jive used to mask the doom saying that without government we have nothing. Obama's sunny rhetoric is merely a mask, not the sincere belief in the American people that Ronald Reagan held as a guiding principle.
As CNN itself even admits, when Reagan took office he famously said that "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
And here is the key difference. Look at what Obama said:
"I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves, that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity."
Obama rejects that you, the American people, have the capacity to make your own lives better. He rejects that you are smart enough to lead your own lives without Big Government leading you by the nose.
Despite that CNN tries to abscond with Reagan's legacy and give it as a gift to President Obama, Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan.
One other thing about this CNN report stinks. Before the speech on Tuesday, Obama's staffers were telling everyone that his speech would be "Reaganesque" and that talking point was a central theme in the way they were hyping the event. And what do we get from CNN after the speech? The dutiful Obama spin of how "Reaganesque" the speech was by the compliant folks at CNN. What a coincidence, eh?
(Photo credit: cnn.com)
