A Reaganesque Problem for Republicans

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/davidcorn/2009/05/a-reaganesque-problem-for-repu.html

A Reaganesque Problem for Republicans

By David Corn | May 5, 2009 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)


Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels tells GOPers in Washington to stop "whining.". David Brooks complains that Republicans "are no longer the party of community and order" (as if they were ever the party of community) and that they "talk more about the market than about society, more about income than quality of life." Meanwhile, Mitt Romney disses Sarah Palin for making Time's list of 100 most influential people: "{W}as that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people? I'm not sure. If it's the most beautiful, I understand. We're not real cute." (Actually, Romney is kinda cute--certainly more handsome than influential these days. When was the last time you heard someone say, "Well, Mitt Romney thinks...."?)

The Republican disarray is entertaining. They don't really know how to get their collective footing. In Texas, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a Republican, is challenging Republican incumbent Rick Perry for the governorship. She says the economy is the top issue. He's been talking about secession. It's respectable Republicanism versus yahoo Republicanism.

I (almost) feel their pain. What's driving the GOP batty is Barack Obama. And he's doing what Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s: getting Americans to root for the president. That drove the Dems crazy back then. Now, it's the Republicans' turn to be frustrated (just as they were when Americans backed a Democratic president who had tarnished the Oval Office with his sexual escapades).

The American public, according to the polls, clearly regards Obama as a smart, capable fellow, and they want him to succeed. They need for him to suceed. They all may not care for his specific policy prescriptions or each of his individual decisions. They may not fully understand his various plans. (Quick--explain TARP.) But they do want him to be right on this stuff. And they trust him to give it a decent shot.

Republicans cannot win by challenging him on policy points. He's bigger than that. And that's what happened with Reagan. Polls in the 1980s showed that a majority of Americans often disagreed with his policies, but, still, they supported him. Why? Because they liked him--or the idea of him.

Obama brings a different bundle of traits to the White House than did RR. But the dynamic is the same. Obama's approval ratings are in the 60 percent area. No doubt, if you removed parts of the South from the equation, those ratings would soar into the 80 percent or higher range. (Reagan would have gotten a bump if the Northeast was yanked out of the polls in the 1980s.)

So far, Obama has not given the Republicans much of a target. You can't get too far in politics by sniping at a popular figure whose success most Americans feel invested in. Consequently, the whining and R-on-R bickering will continue. And cable news and political reporters thank you.

A lot of Reagan's policies were unpopular and hurt the poor & middle class, but Reagan was pretty popular with many Americans.

Obama is pretty popular with most Americans as well, but his policy proposals are more popular and should help the poor & middle class.

Reagan was just reading lines; Obama can actually write what he reads.

the first post, too.

Obama is not smart because he reads from a teleprompter.

from a teleprompter. There was one on DU when all that teleprompter crap was whining down.

compared to Ronald Raygun in any way.

between Prez Obama and reagan..HUGE! P Obama is about facts and truth and not about trying to piss the TRICKel down.