EJ Dionne Column Explains the Appeal of Obama

[scheming daemons]

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's critics bear a remarkable resemblance to the liberals who labored mightily to dismiss Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Reagan's foes wrote him off as a right-wing former actor who amiably spouted conservative bromides and must have been engaged in some sort of Hollywood flimflam.

Like Reagan's enemies, Obama's opponents concede that this Democrat gives a great speech. Indeed, both Obama and Reagan came to wide attention because of a single oration that offered hope in the midst of a losing campaign -- Obama's 2004 keynote to the Democratic National Convention and Reagan's 1964 "A Time for Choosing" address delivered on behalf of Barry Goldwater. But surely speeches aren't enough, are they?

Yes, Obama gets his crowds swooning. So did Reagan. It's laughable to hear conservatives talk darkly about a "cult of personality" around Obama. The Reaganites, after all, have lobbied to name every airport, school, library, road, bridge, government building and lamppost after the Gipper. When it comes to personality cults, the right wing knows what it's talking about.

But don't worry, say Obama's adversaries, he'll collapse because voters won't trust him to handle foreign policy. He's too inexperienced and has these perilously idealistic ideas. Yes, and President Jimmy Carter's campaign in 1980 was absolutely convinced it could persuade the country that Reagan was a dangerous warmonger who could not be trusted to keep America safe.


Full article here....

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/obama_is_reagan.html




Obama and Reagan are ideological opposites... but their campaigns are following similar arcs.....

[algoreagain]

1. Dionne himself said 1 month ago that the media is biased against Hillary

Even as he wrote a pro-Obama piece 1 month ago, Dionne admitted:

Let's grant the Clintons their claims: The press is tougher on Hillary Clinton than it is on Barack Obama; the old, irrational Clinton hatred is alive and well in certain parts of the media; Hillary Clinton gets hit harder when she criticizes Obama than Obama does when he goes after her.

When analyzing Obama's success, he shouldn't leave out the media as a big factor. He did not mention it once in today's "analysis". What a hypocrite.

[woolldog]

2. WSJ had a similar article...

"More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country, to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values . . . For those who have abandoned hope, we'll restore hope and we'll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again!"

So Ronald Reagan proclaimed on July 17, 1980, as he accepted his party's nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Detroit, Mich.


Earlier that day, the New York Times ran a long profile of Reagan on its front page. The author, Howell Raines, lamented that the news media had been unsuccessful in getting Reagan to speak in anything other than "sweeping generalities about economic and military policy." Mr. Raines further noted: "political critics who characterize him as banal and shallow, a mouther of right-wing platitudes, delight in recalling that he co-starred with a chimpanzee in 'Bedtime for Bonzo.'"

Throughout his campaign, Reagan fought off charges that his candidacy was built more on optimism than policies. The charges came from reporters and opponents. John Anderson, a rival in the Republican primary who ran as an independent in the general election, complained that Reagan offered little more than "old platitudes and old generalities."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120398899374792349.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

[Cha]

3. The big difference between Obama

any raygun is integrity. raygun had none..it's about time our side has a leader who has broad appeal.

[algoreagain]

4. don't forget media coverage as a big difference n/t

[FrenchieCat]

5. In what way? n/t

[Adelante]

12. RIP

That was quick.

[jaybeat]

6. I think that remains to be seen

In 1980 Ronnie had already proved himself to be an SOB, as Governor of California, among other things.

To date, Obama seems to have excelled mainly at keeping himself out of trouble. He hasn't PROVEN himself to be a scumbag, hut he hasn't exactly stuck his neck out, either.

My fear is that he, like Reagan, is more of a blank slate onto which people--dissatisfied but generally without rational frameworks to help inform them as to WHAT, exactly, is wrong--project their own vague hopes and dreams. A leader with that sort of "mandate"--if you can call it that--can run amok to a ridiculous extent and still be loved by many. The deification of Saint RayGun being the best, and worst, example.

I hope Obama aspires to something better, and has the backbone to pull it off.

But so far, I haven't seen it, and so he makes me very, very nervous.

[Cha]

7. Oh yeah, Obama stuck his neck out in Oct, 2002 when

he gave a speech against the political war on Iraq while hilary was giving her disingenous speech on the senate floor for the need to bomb Iraq.

[jaybeat]

14. Giving a speech is one thing

Voting to FUND that war, over and over and over again, the exact same number of times as Ms. Clinton, is something else.

Something like, more of the same.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. EJ Dionne sounds like HE is a Reagan Democrat. "Reagan offered, well, change we could believe in."

Yet Reagan didn't play to type. He reached out warmly to Democrats, notably in his 1980 convention speech that was his single most effective political sally.

"Everywhere we have met thousands of Democrats, independents, and Republicans from all economic conditions and walks of life bound together in that community of shared values of family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom," Reagan declared. "They are concerned, yes, but they are not frightened. They are disturbed, but not dismayed. They are the kind of men and women Tom Paine had in mind when he wrote -- during the darkest days of the American Revolution -- 'We have it in our power to begin the world over again.'"

You can almost hear the Republican crowd shouting, "Yes We Can!" Reagan offered, well, change we could believe in.

I guess E.J. Dionne and the other Washington Post Neoliberals see Obama as another blank slate
on which they can mold their insane corporatist, interventionist, neoliberal agenda. Who will
act like Reagan, not just talk like Reagan, in order to bring those Reagan Dems home.

Let's just say I hope Obama greatly disappoints the Post in their expectations of Reaganism in the Democratic party.

It's the Overton Political Window come home to roost: Republicans have gone so far to the right that we are supposed
to cheer for Reagan values and encourage the Democratic party to embrace Reagan's politics, not just his acting skills.

Still, Democrats kept telling themselves, right to November, that voters wouldn't fall for any of this.
Charisma, eloquence, idealism and hope were no match for experience, realism, prudence and predictability.

Hope! E.J. Dionne is talking about Reagan here. (!) He's probably right. Many people like Dionne associate Reagan's
image AND his policies with idealism & hope. The hope that finally, "we" will be able to tell poor and working people
to stand on their own and stop relying on handouts; we will be able to tell middle class people they have no obligation
to society and the government exists to make them rich; we will be able to free coporations from state sovereignty
and turn them into sovereign state-like entities that do not need to pay tariffs. Corporate power will replace state power.

If Obama takes back the rhetoric but not the policy of Reagan, which the Post and others now see as mainstream
(witness the univeral trashing of anyone who would oppose NAFTA) will Dionne and other Reagan Dems be angered and feel
cheated by the man of the hour?

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. "The conservative age is as dead now as the liberal age"

"This is our time," Obama says in a short sentence full of meaning. The conservative age is as dead now as the liberal age was in 1980. Jimmy Carter, in many ways not a liberal at all, became the whipping boy for the end of liberalism. George W. Bush, no pure conservative, has come to symbolize the collapse of conservatism. "It is time to turn the page and write a new chapter in American history," Obama says -- exactly the sentiment of the Ronald Reagan who invoked Tom Paine.

Sounds like Dionne is advocating for the death of both conservatism and liberalism. He's projecting neoliberal "Third Way" mentality on Obama just like people projected old-fashioned Democratic values of the "white male FDR voter" onto Reagan.

[BeyondGeography]

13. That's a great line because it illustrates the potential we have for fundamental change right now

The Reagan Era is finally over, W. has driven the bus off a cliff, but Clinton still acts as if the Big Bad Right packs a mean political punch. They can, but only if you play defense and think and act as if you're waiting for them to unload on you all the time. She is understandably traumatized by her past experiences with them, whereas Obama looks across the way and sees a party that has demoralized many people who are now looking for a dignified way out. He offers that; she doesn't even see the opportunity.

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. Still it's a good article. Here's the part I like:

The Reagan metaphor explains why Hillary Clinton was in trouble from the moment she failed to knock Obama out of the race in Iowa. During the last two months, Democrats in large numbers have reached the same conclusion that so many Republicans did in 1980: Now is the time to go for broke, to challenge not only the ruling party but also the governing ideas of the previous political era and the political coalition that allowed them to dominate public life.

[Onlooker]

11. I've thought this way awhile

Obama's strength is his wonderful oratory and simple message (just like Reagan). The reason Obama has a good chance of winning the WH is that those two things appeal to the disinterested voter. Obama draws people in by not making them think too hard. Compare that to Gore and Kerry who could not state a position in less than 50 words. Obama keeps it succinct and simple.