"Now, it is blasphemy for Democrats," Obama pollster Cornell Belcher said of Reagan, "but that hope and optimism that was Ronald Reagan" allowed him to "transcend" ideological divisions within his own party and the general electorate. (This is from July of 07)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0707/5097.htmlHere's Obama's own words: I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like
with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. (I'm not sure how backing Republican memes about the government's excesses is progressive, but I didn't get the Kool Aid gene, anyway, so maybe I'm not qualified to judge.)
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3263Here's an article from February of 08 that I found interesting:
1) Obama has surrounded himself with centrist economic advisers, like the frustratingly reasonable Austan Goolsbee of the University of Chicago. Former Fed chief Paul Volcker is also a supporter.
2) Obama seems skeptical that we can somehow "stop globalization" by pulling out of NAFTA or the World Trade Organization. Better to cut smart trade deals and help displaced workers.
3) Obama's healthcare plan is more cautious than Hillary's, with no mandate to buy coverage. And no single-payer Kucinich kind of deal—at least not yet.
4) Obama has resisted the temptation to call for an interventionist mortgage rate freeze or a moratorium on resets, as Hillary did, to help homeowners. Instead, he favors tax credits.
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/2/12/is-obama-really-the-liberal-reagan.htmlAnyway, just google Reagan Obama and you'll see that not only have most political observers noticed and noted it, but Obama and his advisers brag about it.
And many of us believe Obama is all astroturf, too, you understand. This man built his campaign on corporate money, then once his war chest was large enough, he stopped taking PAC mony (except through his own PAC) and started pretending he was funded by "grass roots" efforts. Like much else about Obama, that's false.
Obama supporters will be hurt if he loses, but they will be broken hearted in he wins. Dude's as phoney as Reagan, but like Reagan, his supporters don't see it. The cult of personality rules.