Sunday, August 03, 2008


Is Obama the new Reagan?

Give me a break!

The Detroit Free Press ran an article comparing Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. I threw up in my mouth a little when I read it.

Reagan was governor of California from 1967 to 1975. For eight years he ran one of the biggest, most populous states in the Union.

Barack Obama has been an ineffectual junior Senator for all of 3 1/2 years. Before that he was a "community organizer" (like Al Sharpton!) and taught at a law school. He has never governed a thing and as a Senator hasn't been much of a leader. His claim to fame is that he is an eloquent speaker, at least when he has an adoring audience and a prepared speech.

Ronald Reagan wasn't much for nuance, but you knew where he stood: lower taxes, smaller government, a strong national defense and a commitment to defeat communism. In large part because of Ronald Reagan, kids don't have air raid drills and schools are no longer labelled fallout shelters like my elementary school was. I remember walking downstairs every day as a child past the fallout shelter signs with the symbol for radioactivity on them.

Where does Barack Obama stand? Well, what time of the day is it? On Iran, he talks about unilateral talks with a terror state, and then praises President Bush and says we have to get tough with them. On Iraq he sets a hard deadline for troop withdrawals and then qualifies that by saying it depends on the conditions on the ground. Well duh! Everyone knows that, welcome to reality Senator Obama. If he is elected, be sure that as conditions in Iraq continue to improve because of the surge which he opposed, it will be his administration that will be credited for turning things around. His economic policies (more on those later) amount to socialism. That is not hyperbole, he proposes increased government on a vast scale and bases his economic stimulus on government control of industry and blatant income redistribution.

People questioned Reagan's experience because he was an actor, despite his record of governance in California. People question Obama because he has no experience and no strongly held beliefs to speak of. Big difference.

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