Obama admires Reagan....WTF

Obama said:

"I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what's different are the times. I do think that for example the 1980 was different. 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 think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.

If you notice, people actually weren't feeling that they wanted clarity, optimism and a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing."

WTF? Is this why Obama is targeting the Youth...they don't remember Reagan and how he started 'The Beginning of the End?' Reagan closed all of the Mental Institutes and put these poor souls on the streets. Reagan refused to even say the word, 'AIDS.' Reagan was a B-rated Hollywood actor that became prez of the U.S. To me, it was one of the most embarrassing moments in U.S. history (how would I know that such new lows would be reached with W?) He spent money like a drunken sailor (nothing against drunken sailors). He spewed FEAR and divisiveness into our society....as I said: He was the Beginning of the End. He set up the tee and ball for bush. Bush came along with a One Wood and drove it 500 yards.

How can any decent Democrat not start to have some doubts about Obama after what he said today? Are our young people that illiterate of our history of Reagan? Are all of the past republicans who are now Dems happy to hear about Reagan today?

As I have said from the very beginning of this Primary Season: I don't trust Barack Obama. He is to the right of HRC.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4086171

Don't call us, we'll call you.

Not that Reagan was great. It's not just the young that have forgotten what 1980 was like. His point was that people wanted "change" and that radical "change" was possible because that's what people wanted.

It's about the transformative impact of his presidency on American politics.

Time for that paradigm shift!

to the LEFT? What the hell was wrong with the excesses of the '60's and '70's....Peace, Love, and Rock n' Roll?

War is better? Fear? Hate?

That's the bullshit line!!!

ray-gun won because g.h.w.bush et.al. made sure that the hostages remained in Iranian hands until Inauguration day of 1981.

If it hadn't been for the Iranian revolution, the hostages and the way the MSM played it up as some big deal -- that fuck ray-gun would NOT have been elected.

Quit trying to re-write history, Obama.

What do you expect a president to say at the dedication of a building named after Reagan? In the other thread you said "praise is praise." That is a very narrow-minded view. You make no distinction then between, for instance, Carter praising Reagan when he died and what Obama said about Reagan?

that's a good one. How many other people did he praise when he actually didn't mean it?

:dem:

You don't even have to read it all. Just go to your local bookstore or library, find The Audacity of Hope and read
pages 31-33, 36, 43, 147, 156-58, 181-82, 201, 209, 288-289, 293.

thoughts about Reagan? Are you capable of putting Barack's thoughts into a persuasive argument?

Good way to turn people off.

He is saying that Reagan changed the path America was on. He did - but not in a good way.

After Watergate, in the 1970s, we got one of the most liberal Congresses we have had in modern times. There was a major effort to limit the power of the Presidency. The Reagan revolution changed the direction. It is when the tax table became flatter and the payroll deductions increased. The gap between rich and poor that had been diminishing, started to increase. he funded the RW Contra thugs.

"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 think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing."

I don't see how you could see this as anything other than a compliment, and a positive assessment of the changes Reagan made as far as what the people were "ready for." Unless you think he's saying the American people are a bunch of fools.

Why is Obama on the "golden Reagan years" bandwagon? Well, actually, I guess I know the answer to that---to show he's a "uniter." I frankly would feel better about it if it was a tactic than if he really believed this.

the Karl Roves, Grover Norquists, and the big corporations making money off war. These people hated the message of the '60's and '70's...Peace is possible (said John Lennon who of course had to be killed) and Equality of all...Can't have that because if women and blacks can do the jobs of white guys, what does that do for the ego of the white guys? Deflation!

Reagan was the beginning of the end. And he is bringing up the name of Ronald Reagan just to get elected??? Are you sure? Talk about 2-faced.

I don't trust him.

makes it sounds like it was a GOOD thing. Actually, the country was ready for it about as much as a woman who is grabbed and raped is "ready for it." I think it was an unfortunate use of words, and probably not exactly what Obama meant -- or I least I hope he didn't mean it quite the way it sounded.

I'm liking this guy more and more everyday!

He's right about Reagan and what Americans wanted then; we should learn from history, not try to rewrite it. He's not saying Reagan's AIDs policy, etc. was correct. The OP is attempting to distort what he said in a partisan analyis of history. Not very effectively, I might add.

Integrity. Pragmatism. Principled leadership.

but it sounds like too positive a spin on Reagan for me just to see it as a statement of fact. He certainly has a different view of the Reagan years than many of us older Democrats.

Were you listening?

He wasn't talking about Reagan's campaign. Can you read with understanding?

Go look at the video for yourself.

He has this positive spin on it which is not valid, as I remember and have analyzed what went on before Reagan and during his campaign and administration. Reagan was elected because there was a backlash toward greater rights for women and minorities, ignorance and lack of empathy toward welfare recipients and the poor, and a desire to "make America great" that was a result of not only the AMerican defeat in Vietnam, but the refusal to acknowledge that the U.S. had embarked on a war in Vietnam with no justification. These are a few of the reasons Reagan was elected. I disagree entirely with Obama's rosy assessment.

I couldn't believe my ears that now even a Democrat was praising the Reagan years like some kind of Camelot. I took it as part of Obama's theme of working together with the Republicans. Yeah, to us who see the Reagan years as the beginning of the erosion of progress made in the 60s and 70s, it's pretty hard to listen to this. But, you know, it's information---some more stuff to add to the stew for those who still are deciding who to vote for. It certainly, on its own, shouldn't sway anyone.

reagan years that illiterate? My grandmother was right...it skips generations. The youth of today is afraid and requires a leader to tell them they can have hope.

I am simply aghast.

making himself into a man of the times, doesn't matter if it's a Repub or Dem (he also cited Kennedy). He's a very bright student of history and politics, and that's what makes him effective as a politician in his own right.

Reagan was a very gifted politician. He understood communications and strategy better than anyone. It is not a validation of Reagan's policies to admit that.

It's funny that Obama is being criticized by HRC folks for the same analysis of Reagan's strong suit that two long-time Clinton advisors made in their book 5 years ago.

He is also a an intellectual who can actually remember the historical landscape. Imagine a couple in their late 20s (he would have been a teenager). They catch a smell of reaganomics and the antigovernment propaganda. They "work for a living" as opposed to the welfare queens and want to strike it rich. They get in on thinking the wife should stay home. He gets a "better" corporate job. They get to move into a bigger house in one of those shiney new subdivisions.

They join a country club drive a nice car and cheerfully wear their designer clothes thinking that it is morning in America.

People did think it was better at the time. That doesn't mean it was, of course. But we can't sit here and rewite everyone else's experience. And the results won't do that either. If some people have come out feeling good, it is not going to change what they felt about it.
His point is that when people have an agreement about a sense of the world or the direction of the country they are ready for change. Reagan was able to identify that and he was able to lead people in a direction suited to HIS ideology. Thus, he was successful in that goal.

The idea to do that might be a good one. The idea to be optimistic and positive about it might be a good one.

I have witnessed in my lifetime of 40 adult years.

being stupid. RR started us down a road that ends with Bush. Greed, hate, fear, intolerance, and violence.

You want to tap into that most base of humankind, go ahead. Go ahead, stand up for Ronald Reagan and his hatred and destruction and murder of innocents.

sick

Does that mean all 47 states are stupid? Common, give
the people some credit. Obama is correct to mention Reagan.
RR really did change the country.

Did you vote in '80 and '84?

Do you give the people credit for voting for W?

The PTB (powers that be) have been starving the public school system financially...why? So our children grow up with NO critical thinking skills. Then there is the rich, white boy owned media. Five rich white guys own 80% of our media...with that, it is pretty easy to manipulate people and their thoughts.

And btw, reading is down in this country.

Lots of Americans are stupid...maybe more accurately they are sheeple...esp. the religious wingnuts.

They're all afraid of a gay person trying to fuck them...and women getting some power, therefore, chipping away at abortion rights.

It's pretty simple to manipulate them...just hit their buttons after you created the buttons. Just say TRIAL LAWYERS ARE BAD, TRIAL LAWYERS ARE BAD....over and over...pretty soon dumb ass people are cutting off their nose to spite their face.

... admired this evil @hole.

voice of reason! He was evil. :pals:

He must have the DLC running his campaign. Actually, I'm glad he said it. Everyone finally gets to see what a "shapeshifter" he is.

Obama has a different persona and agenda for every voter. What a nightmare it would be to have him as president.

will make some of his supporters think twice. Let's hope so.

so obama can use the word INSPIRATIONAL and try to get a few votes from republicans that tells me something about the character flaws in obama......

I think john lewis hero of the civil rights movement along with dr king said, "He is no Martin Luther King Jr. I knew Martin Luther King. I knew Bobby Kennedy. I knew President Kennedy. You need more than speech-making. You need someone who is prepared to provide bold leadership."

he buys into the BULLSHIT that the election is a "horse race" and appearances should (does?) trump substance.

He SHOULD be bemoaning and objecting to that being the case rather than admiring one of the best practitioners of the BIG LIE OF USAMERIKAN "elections".

have become choreographed PR events....but it seems that there are so many who eat it up..hook, line and sinker.

I want publicly paid for campaigns....then people who really cared could run for public office.

Good 'nuff fer me!

:sarcasm:

Republicans continually lie to try and sell the bullshit that it was Reagan who single-handed brought down the USSR...(Because Reagan has no other legacy for the sheep to hang on to).

It's insulting, to every other American president before Reagan, (and after)...Truman, Ike, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford & Carter (and Bush Sr., as well)...ALL, increased military spending, (each year during their respective terms)...Carter for instance, increased military spending no less than 5% in each of his four years...as had all the other's increased spending...

In so much, the "Military Industrial Complex", I'm not defending here...

The Soviet Union could not keep pace with our military spending and Gorbachev knew it would be suicidal for his country to continue trying to keep up the madness & pace, with the US...

Not to mention the FACT that Reagan was long gone, out of office, when the Soviet Union actually threw in the towel in 1991, during Bush Sr. presidency... http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/19335/art-1.html

All Reagan has to show for his presidency is union busting, environmentally he was a disaster, corporate deregulation, destruction of equal time doctrine via the FCC, ,trillion dollar deficits, ridiculous raid on Grenada, (to change the story, of 230 US Marines who were blown up by terrorist because of Reagan’s idiocy & hardheadedness), Iran-Contra, the mentally disable thrown out into the streets, etc. etc...And the republicans are successfully distorting the facts.

Reagan, started this fascist corporate take over of America and so many voted for this republican liar and blindly & carelessly went along with the greed and selfishness...

It irks me to no end, how democrats, liberals, refuse to recall, nor speak the truth, the way the facts really are!

I know how you feel....RR was JUST the beginning of the End. He started it all...the deregulation, the privatization, the union busting, the hatred of the poor, the ridicule of the women who wanted equality, and the avoidance of compassion to those who were ill with AIDS.

reagan is depraved of spirit and soul. And Karma bit his ass.