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The Obama Watch

The Opposite of Ronald Reagan

By on 2.9.11 @ 6:08AM

If only it were a matter of exploiting, for political purposes, President Obama’s youth and inexperience.

While Americans across the country are holding celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Reagan, President Obama and his media allies are peddling the line that he is just like Reagan. So let’s try this thought experiment. Suppose Obama did follow in the tradition of Reagan, Thatcher, and what could have been his ideal mentor, Jack Kemp.

Suppose as a result that President Obama embraced reducing tax rates, cutting spending, slashing unnecessary regulatory burdens and restrictions, and maintaining a strong dollar, anti-inflation monetary policy. And suppose as the inevitable result of those policies, the economy took off in a generation long boom, just like it did under Reagan.

How would conservatives, the Tea Party, and America have responded? We would have loved Obama like no other political leader, even Reagan. That is because his reach would have been even broader than Reagan.

Instead of the Tea Party forming in opposition to Obama’s policies, Obama would be leading the Tea Party in opposition to the Republicans, discredited because they fumbled away Reaganomics. The Democrats would consequently rout the Republicans for a generation, like they did under Roosevelt.

In the process, Obama would have accomplished what no other political leader could have possibly accomplished. He would have led African Americans, Hispanics, and the poor firmly into the Reagan Coalition, creating a new consensus encompassing the vast majority of Americans.

That would have been the foundation for a new explosion of prosperity, vaulting a newly unified America another generation ahead of the rest of the world. But the unique contribution of President Obama to that could have been the extension of Reaganomics into the empowerment agenda that would ensure that his base of African Americans, Hispanics, and the poor would ride that wave to their own breakthrough of personal prosperity and full participation at last in the American Dream. (Exactly how that could have worked is explained in full detail in my new book forthcoming from Harper Collins in the spring, America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb.)

If Obama had followed this course, I myself would be joining Obama’s campaign for what would be an inevitable re-election à la Roosevelt 1936, and there would be talk of Mt. Rushmore.

But it was not to be. For President Obama chose, indeed his whole life represents, just the opposite course. Instead of throwing open the doors to the American Dream to African Americans, Hispanics, and the poor, President Obama’s retro New Left vision arising out of the 1960s is on a course to abolish the American Dream, for all.

The Anti-Reagan

Exactly contrary to the party line peddled in the Democrat party–controlled press, President Obama, his philosophy, and his policies are doggedly, thoroughly, and comprehensively the polar opposite of everything Reagan stood for, fought for, and accomplished during his life and as President. If President Reagan was alive today, he would be leading the Tea Party on his way to a historic victory in 2012 perfectly analogous to the victory of Roosevelt and the Democrats in 1932.

Contrast Obama as president with Reagan. Reagan came into office riding the wave of his campaign pledge to reduce income tax rates across the board by 30%. That means for everybody. In 1986, he led Congress to adopt a historic tax reform. As a result, the top income tax rate of 70% when he came into office was reduced all the way to 28%. The tax rate for the middle class was reduced to 15%. The working poor were removed from the income tax rolls altogether.

President Obama came into office promising to increase the tax rates for virtually every major federal tax on the nation’s employers and investors — income taxes, capital gains taxes, taxes on corporate dividends, death taxes. While he has deigned to delay that tax piracy for two years, allowing some semblance of an economic recovery to flower now, he is vowing to go ahead with it as scheduled under current law in 2013. And while President Obama got away with telling Bill O’Reilly and the nation in his pre-Super Bowl interview that he didn’t raise taxes once in his first two years, his Obamacare legislation did manage to raise payroll tax rates, capital gains tax rates, and dividend tax rates, on the nation’s employers and investors, now scheduled for 2013, in addition to all the tax rate increases above.

While America suffers from the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world, President Obama has also already raised taxes on business in the Obamacare bill and other legislation. Obama further pledges to double tax the foreign earnings of American companies, which will only ensure that American business will be uncompetitive in today’s globalized economy. (This is all discussed in further detail in my book published last year by Encounter, President Obama’s Tax Piracy.)

In President Reagan’s first year in office, he led enactment of the then much vilified Reagan budget cuts. Since spending cuts are popular today, the Democrat party–controlled press has pushed that history down the memory hole, but those Reagan budget cuts slashed federal spending by close to 5% in the first year. In constant dollars, non-defense discretionary spending declined by 14.4% from 1981 to 1982, and by 16.8% from 1981 to 1983. Moreover, in constant dollars, this non-defense discretionary spending never returned to its 1981 level for the rest of Reagan’s two terms! By 1988, this spending was still down 14.4% from its 1981 level in constant dollars. Even with the Reagan defense buildup, which won the Cold War without firing a shot, total Federal spending declined from a high of 23.5% of GDP in 1983 to 21.3% in 1988 and 21.2% in 1989. That’s a real reduction in the size of government relative to the economy of 10%.

In sharp contrast, in President Obama’s first year in office, he led enactment of nearly $1 trillion in increased spending in the so-called stimulus bill, which didn’t stimulate anything except increased government spending. He followed that a month later with an omnibus spending bill providing for an additional $410 billion in federal spending in his first year. That included an 8.3% increase in discretionary spending in a year with no inflation. In his first two years alone, he increased federal spending by 25%, to its highest levels in history as a percent of GDP, except for World War II.

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About the Author

Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Senior Policy Advisor on Entitlements and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (97) |

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 2.9.11 @ 6:45AM

As usual you make some excellent points.

However, with the Republicans calling for measly 32 billion cuts in a 3.7 trillion dollar deficit it's not only Obama who is the problem.

Obama is the obvious problem and I think everyone knows that.

The entire Congress has become anti-Reagan and I dont' think there are any easy solutions forthcoming.

Don't get me wrong. I think Obama is the worst thing that could have happened to America at the worst possible moment in history.

However, the Republicans are seemingly doing everything they can to blow a big opportunity with idiotic cuts so meaningless as to hoist themselves by their own petard.

What we are hearing is a chorus of hollow calls for cuts, while the symphony of doom plays on.

In some respects meaningless moves by the Republicans at this point will prove far more dangerous than anything Obama can do in the future.

The Obama damage has been done, and in spades.

All the public can do now is sit back and wait for the other shoe to drop as they watch a new Congress sell out once again to special interests while they peddle the notion that 32 billion a good start.

You know what that is? That's Obama's campaign slogan of hope simply reworded.

In fact, for the public, there's little hope left as a new army of sell outs marches to the beat of a different drummer.

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 9:41AM

But you don't merely admire Reagan, you worship him as if were Jesus incarnate.
Isn't such called idolatry?

old white guy| 2.9.11 @ 10:16AM

jeez alan surely you can do better than that. the O is definately no reagan.

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 7:25PM

I demand you pay attention to me and recognize my importance, and relevance.

USSAlabama| 2.9.11 @ 11:26AM

Barack Obama is so desperate to be 'great'.
Reagan was great, not a god and no one worships him.

Obama, however, wants to be worshiped.

Jack Daniels| 2.9.11 @ 11:27AM

At least Reagan loved his country. Barry can't stand it and is in the process of "fundamentally changing it".
The Huffpo is calling Alan. Run along now.

W| 2.9.11 @ 11:34AM

The media worships Obama, remember chris matthews?

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 12:42PM

If instead of insulting the Confederacy I had insulted Mussolini's or Ho Chi Minh's (or any leftist) regimes bywriting that they are bleeding in Hell, you wouldn't mind; it's only when your ox is gored- no pun intended.

w| 2.9.11 @ 2:31PM

You cannot explain in any rational way why you feel good about Americans bleeding in the Civil War, you try to depersonalize it by using the word confederacy. It was Americans who bled. I have no ox in the confederacy, you are doing a poor job of deflecting from you stupid, moronic comments. Nobody cares about Ho Chi Minh or Mussolini, but normal people do not feel good about the Vietnamese or Italian conscripts who were killed and mutiliated in war.

canuckistani| 2.9.11 @ 12:47PM

I'm with Alan.
The revisionism around RR is astonishing, like holocaust deniers or Junior amnesiacs or birthers.

He raised taxes, ran inflation through the roof - interest rates to usury levels, cut and ran from Lebanon, did deals with Tehran and broke the law with the Contra fiasco. S&L was his as well, as was the cult of deregulation that led to our current predicament (WJC was also complicit whilst triangulating).

Poverty rates increased, education standards declined and the war on drugs is now seen as spectacular folly.

He was however, a pragmatist. Did deal with a dem congress, jumped on the bandwagon driven by Gorbachev and Walesa, and seized an opportunity to end the cold war. The firing of the ATCs was amusing but irrelevant.

Curtis Rasmussen| 2.9.11 @ 3:47PM

If I had to guess, you are Alan. Stop talking to yourself.

I could see the socialist Obama from a mile away. His presidency will be successful only if Obama the man-child fails.

vtwin| 2.9.11 @ 10:13AM

The Reagan Myth: Reduced taxes and cut federal spending.

The Reagan Truth: Reduced taxes on the wealthiest Americans but raised taxes eleven times while in office that disproportionately burdened the poor and middle classes. And, Reagan increased federal spending, an average of 2.5% per year during his eight years in office. This resulted in a threefold increase of the national debt.

old white guy| 2.9.11 @ 10:17AM

and the most successful economy in the history of the u.s.

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 10:34AM

All Reagan did was help facilitate the end of the Cold War. You write as if the Gipper divided the loaves and fishes for all the multitudes.
So why don't you take down the images of Jesus at your church, and put up Reagan's likeness instead?

Jack Daniels| 2.9.11 @ 11:29AM

"ALL Reagan did was help facilitate the end of the cold war" What a marooooon..........

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 11:55AM

Sure Reagan's administration helped boost the economy, it was the latter stages of the Cold War. Do you give FDR credit for the economy of 1940- '45?
Admire him, naturally; but why simper about Reagan like Justin Beiber fans ALL the time?

V8| 2.9.11 @ 11:53AM

OK Alan, if Regan was so bad then why is Obama and the left trying so hard to liken Obama to Reagan?

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 11:59AM

"OK Alan, if Regan was so bad then why is Obama and the left trying so hard to liken Obama to Reagan?"

I didn't say Reagan was bad, but Reagan isn't to be fanboy-worshipped. Reagan isn't the Father Son and Holy Ghost.

V8| 2.9.11 @ 12:06PM

I agree. He was a man, a great man, but still just a man. It's not like anyone refers to him as "The one" as someone else is known now is it?

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 12:19PM

Dems don't worship Clinton, and it doesn't look as if they will worship Obama, either.

V8| 2.9.11 @ 12:22PM

HAHAHHAHA, Sorry we must know different Dems.

richard ryan| 2.9.11 @ 12:21PM

Alan,
Go produce your own loaves. Do your own fishing. You will be a much happier person.

RR

Occam's Tool| 2.9.11 @ 12:33PM

A war that we were losing, thanks to Carter...all he did was win a war thought unwinnable by Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Kennedy, LBJ, Ford, Carter...

canuckistani| 2.9.11 @ 12:53PM

Bush 41, as CIA director, already knew the USSR was cracking up by the mid-seventies.
Walesa and JP2 had more to do with the real end of the cold war than SDI or Pershing2's in the ardenne.

There was intense debate amongst cons (you know the dad's of the neo-cons) whether RR could be trusted to preserve the detente long enough to enable the huge military build-up.

His offer in Iceland probably gave some of them pause to re-read the 25th to see if they could spirit his senile carcas into a undisclosed location.

Charles Martel| 2.9.11 @ 5:51PM

The CIA was laughably wrong on the sustainability of the USSR. Reagan and others saw that an arms race was one that the Soviets could neither resist nor win.

And it was at Reykjavik that the Soviets came to realize that Reagan was serious in negotiations. SDI was not a bargaining chip. We were spending 6% of our GDP on Defense; to even try to keep up, the Soviets had to spend more than 40% of theirs. Reagan sealed their doom.

Yes, the deficit soared, but with Reagan denouncing at every step how the Democrats in control of the House reneged on their commitment to reduce spending by $2 for every projected $1 cut in taxes. It turned out, as predicted by the Laffer Curve, that government revenue *rose* despite lower rates, which calls to mind Milton Friedman's retort to Laffer: "if lowering tax rates raises revenue, you haven't lowered rates enough."

Unlike Obama, Reagan is not purported to be a god. Reagan was just a great president, one about whom we can all still be proud. No one will ever be able to say that about Obama, not without drawing derisive laughter, both at home and abroad -- sort of like Carter, only worse.

+++

W| 2.9.11 @ 11:36AM

vtwin, who cares what an anti-semite, anti-israel thinks, no more comments about israelis killing palestinian children? go away to you lefty sites

Occam's Tool| 2.9.11 @ 12:33PM

Thank you, W.

Timothy L. Pennell| 2.9.11 @ 6:53AM

It's called: The Dreams From My Father.
Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Soetoro/Abu Hussain is trying to implement the "Dreams" of his Father. READ THE BOOK. It is his Template. His Fa the HATED this Country, and our European Allies. It wasn't by accident, that he revealed Nuclear SECRETS about Great Britain's Nuclear Arsenal to Russia. His Father HATED England, and LOVED the Soviet Union. (Just like Barry) It's not a coincidence that Hussein only likes to visit NON WHITE/NON CHRISTIAN Countries. He, long ago, murdered his White Half.
Now, he's daddy's Boy. And he's gonna see his Father's Dream of an America DESTROYED. Whatever it takes.
Everything he does, is to fulfill the sick dreams of a man who Abandoned him and his Mother. (Typical Black Man) A Muslim Marxist, who DIED DRUNK in a Kenyan gutter.
THAT is our Leader's GUIDE POST.
GOD help us all.

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 9:44AM

Judging by the comment immediately above, the South is worse than one could imagine!

canuckistani| 2.9.11 @ 12:55PM

I pity you, now back into your momma's basement, gimp.

Curtis Rasmussen| 2.9.11 @ 4:36PM

'Everything he does, is to fulfill the sick dreams of a man who Abandoned him and his Mother. (Typical Black Man) A Muslim....' Stereotype!

Careful, you gave the troll an invite to pollute the thread with a straw man.

Patrick| 2.9.11 @ 7:44AM

In trying to get in touch with the past, President Obama overshot Reagan by a couple years.

Policy-wise, he's trying to outdo the Peanut-Picker in every way.

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 12:11PM

Carter was just about the worst, 2nd only to LBJ, but there is nothing wrong with picking peanuts, anymore than being an actor was a disgrace for Reagan. I'll say this twice:
You write nothing about Timothy L. Pennell's comment?? Read it again, it makes my posts appear as greeting cards, or lines from Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

martin j smith| 2.9.11 @ 7:54AM

I am not a worshiper of Ronald Raegan, but compared Obama he is a God--well maybe a lesser one.
Obama is not an American President . Raegan was. Obama hates this country and despises anyone who disagrees with him. Obama is "ruling". Raegan in comparison governed. Obama is playing to his base and the crony capitalist crowd. Raegan had a good majority of Americans in his camp. When Raegan was president there were policies he put in place at that time that I did not appreciate. Now, even with his faults-I would take a "Raegan" over Obama without blinking and eyelash. In short, any attempt to even try to show Obama as Reaganesque or JFKesque is such Bull .
Obama is a criminal, a thief,a thug,an even more chronic liar than most Presidents we have had and I cannot stand him. I have not yet reached the point of saying I hate him but it could get to that point.

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 9:51AM

Just remember, the Confederacy the whore lost the Civil War:
Bleed Confederacy, bleed,
bleed in Hell forevermore;
bleed Confederacy, bleed
You're a dirty little whore.

Paevo| 2.9.11 @ 10:24AM

You should take your sophomoric commentary to a more suitable website; you only make yourself look like a moron here...

Stephanie| 2.9.11 @ 11:37AM

I wish whoever is in charge of the posts on American Spectator would block Alan Brooks from posting here. His posts are offensive.

W| 2.9.11 @ 11:39AM

Why do you enjoy writing about Americans bleeding and dying? the "confederacy" did not bleed, it was Americans who bled. Sick.

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 12:06PM

I was reacting to Timothy L. Pennell.

You write nothing about Timothy L. Pennell's comment?? Read it again, it makes my posts appear as greeting cards, or lines from Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

W| 2.9.11 @ 12:36PM

explain how what you wrote about americans bleeding is a reaction to pennell. you are not clear.

hardcard| 2.9.11 @ 8:17AM

Please use spell-check !!!

Alan Brooks| 2.9.11 @ 12:16PM

"Everything he does, is to fulfill the sick dreams of a man who Abandoned him and his Mother. (Typical Black Man)"

Pennell can write that at Stormfront's site.

davelnaf| 2.9.11 @ 8:21AM

Good article. The country is going through something like another Civil War. But this time it is political. The people that see Obama as correct in everything—or most everything—cannot be reasoned with by anyone who values knowledge and experience over ideology—the gulf is that big. They are a minority, but that’s still a lot of people. Obama and his ideological soul mates come out some closed-minded liberal environment, such as a university, where just about everyone agrees with their worldview or is largely sympathetic to it. For as long as Obama has been out of this closed world it is a wonder that he has learned absolutely nothing about the real one. As we saw in O’Reilly interview he is a slick, glib ideologue that impresses only fellow dem liberals or university hothouse types. It was further proof that Obama’s overall grasp of reality borders on the delusional. Perhaps this is a good thing because a normal president would be doing everything he could to ensure his reelection, which Obama is very demonstratively not.

But as with the end of any war there will be the pieces to pick up after this one is over. One of the pieces will be Obama’s almost inevitable narcissistic rage over being rejected for reelection. Are Democrats really thinking about this or are they, as with just about everything else in their professional lives, kicking this can down the road? They have gotten away with this mode of operation for a long time—as have all politicians for that matter. In this particular instance, though, their failure to plan ahead, as in planning now to position themselves for a post-Obama Democratic Party, will be absolutely crucial for the long term health of their party. They can fool themselves about what happened to them last year but those same voters that did it are not fooled and will be back in 2012.

Kevin| 2.9.11 @ 8:30AM

The truth is simple and brutal: Reagan was as patriot; Obama is not.

canuckistani| 2.9.11 @ 1:03PM

He helped make new enemies that made use of anti-U.S. terror (Libya and al-Qaeda), retreated in the face of terrorists (Hezbollah in Lebanon), aided a state sponsor of terrorism (Iraq), and appeased a state sponsor of terrorism by trying the bribe of illegal weapons sales (Iran). In the last case, the profits from violating a criminal statute were transferred secretly, illegally, and unconstitutionally to the Nicaraguan Contra guerrillas in defiance of congressional prohibition.
This Iran-Contra scandal was the most serious in U.S. history, even eclipsing the obstruction of justice during Watergate, because the scheme circumvented Congress’s primary function under the Constitution – the power to decide funding for U.S. government activities.

The only foreign policy accomplishment that Reagan had was the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty, which eliminated nuclear missiles in Europe.

Thus, Reagan’s vaunted foreign policy collapses under close scrutiny, and his profligate spending and illegal and unconstitutional behavior in the Iran-Contra scandal should raise enormous questions about his iconic presidency.

vtwin| 2.9.11 @ 1:47PM

You forgot to mention Reagan’s great (only) military triumph of his presidency over the island (tiny) nation of Grenada. True, Grenada wasn’t a threat (to anyone) but it did get American’s mind off of Reagan’s disastrous killing of 241 Marines Beirut.

skip| 2.9.11 @ 3:38PM

My compassion for you takes a serious hit when you spout nonsense like Reagan is responsible for the murder of the Americans in Beirut in 1983. Are you not smarter and more truthful than this?

The democrats controlled the house and the senate when Reagan was in office, refused to rein in spending, and this is all Reagan's fault? Are you really standing by this nonsense?

Reagan forced the soviets to bankrupt themselves, and you cannot give Reagan any credit for this? How can I take you seriously?

Alan Brooks is probably mentally imbalanced, and Canuckistani is too often just plain delusional, aren't you above those clowns?

Throw me a bone here. Show me some intelligence and honesty dude.

w| 2.9.11 @ 4:29PM

vtwin, the opinion of an anti-semite, anti-israel, anti-american, like you are not relevant. nothing about the palestinians today?

W| 2.9.11 @ 6:19PM

Canukistani is Vtwin is Jharp, all lefty trolls, same person, here only to distract.

Skippy| 2.9.11 @ 7:17PM

Iran/Contra was insignificant compared to Iran/Carter.
Reagan did the right thing in combatting Communism in the Western Hemisphere.
The Boland Amendment was either willful blindness or treason, depending on your viewpoint.
Today no nation fears America, making us the richest prize in play worldwide.
The barbarians are once again at the gate.
Perfect POTUS? No.
The best of the 20th century? No contest.

Harry Flashman| 2.9.11 @ 8:52AM

American voters of all political persuasions can recall the Obama 2008 campaign repeatedly promising that their administration would uphold the highest ethical standards with a particular emphasis on transparency.

A vast majority of these voters believe that the process of running for President of the United States should be the toughest public job interview on the planet.

The sad fact remains that the current president, according to longstanding government clearance protocols, could not be hired as a janitor in a federal building with the amount of verifiable personal background information that he has provided.

Barack Obama's original typewritten long form birth certificate, school records, SAT and LSAT scores, college and law school admission records and grade transcripts and thesis papers, medical records, passport history, Illinois state senate tenure records, presidential campaign foreign donor lists, complete White House visitor logs and other relevant records and documents have all never been released or allowed to be subjected to any sort of scrutiny, despite several years of repeated requests for disclosure by numerous individuals and non-traditional media organizations.

The Obama 2008 campaign and subsequent administration have to date spent a considerable sum on legal fees, estimated in the millions of dollars, to fight Freedom of Information Act filings and other requests to examine this material. The powerful international law firm Perkins Coie LLP has been their primary provider of these services.

A computer generated laser printed short form version of a birth certificate that a child could have forged was posted on the Obama 2008 campaign website, but it only served to intensify the filings and requests to see the original typewritten long form document, which has never been released or allowed to be scrutinized, if in fact it does indeed exist.

They also produced a one page letter from a physician attesting that Barack Obama was in excellent health for a man of his age.

This constitutes the complete extent of any release or disclosure of any records or documents from Obama's past.

Virtually the entire paper trail of the current president's existence, from birth to the White House, continues to remain deeply hidden away in a tight shroud of secrecy.

In fact, astute observers in corridors of power around the world and other quarters consider that the infamous original typewritten long form birth certificate, the most widely mentioned item from Obama's hidden paper trail, is actually the least relevant of all of his concealed records and documents, again, if in fact it does indeed exist.

They understand that the truth about Barack Obama's place of birth and the identity of both of his parents is far less important to the future of the United States than the truth about what makes him tick and who is pulling his strings, so to speak.

Whether the current president's biological father was the late Kenyan Barack Obama "Sr." or the late CPUSA member Frank Marshall Davis or the late "grandfather" Stanley Armour Dunham (arguably the likeliest candidate - see cashill.com among many other sources) or some other man is rather insignificant relative to the truth about his past associations and ideological convictions and behavioral influences and ongoing relationships.

This is the sort of information about their presidential candidates that modern postwar era American voters had become accustomed to having the mainstream media provide for them, up until 2008 when Barack Obama received an astonishing special exception from the traditional expectation that such candidates should allow for the release and scrutiny of the substantive body of their personal records and credentials.

In their eagerness to "make history" by covering the campaign of the man whom they were clearly very interested in helping to become the first black president, the mainstream media failed in their essential national responsibility, namely to report on significant events with thoroughness and impartial objectivity. They ignored their duty to search for the truth and should be regarded with disdain by all people who value information in a free society.

It is certainly true that there have been a few occasions when presidential candidates have been evasive or less than completely forthcoming in following this important unofficial practice.

The medical records of JFK were allegedly sanitized to delete his diagnosis of Addison's disease and history of treatments for STD related maladies. The financial records of LBJ were allegedly altered to conceal the extent of his business ownerships and investment holdings. The national guard service records of W were allegedly missing or incomplete regarding his attendance and compliance with certain standard regulations.

All of these instances pale in comparison to the astounding unprecedented totality of secrecy that conceals practically every original record and document from the entire life of Barack Obama.

Democratic incumbents at all levels of government, as well as rank and file voters, might well demand to know exactly how Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and the rest of their party leadership allowed a person who was obviously given only the most cursory sort of vetting to become their presidential nominee.

Barack Obama and his handlers were able to conceal his past and explain away and minimize his associations with highly controversial individuals and groups during their 2008 campaign.

Will they be able to effectively repeat this deception between now and 6 November 2012?

Only if you let them.

Richard Baker| 2.9.11 @ 8:58AM

The Kenyan couldn't carry Reagan's jock.

vtwin| 2.9.11 @ 11:08AM

So you don’t think “the Kenyan couldn't carry Reagan's jock.”
Do you think Reagan could carry the Kenyan’s jock?
Of course not, Reagan dead so he can’t carry anyone’s jock.
But you’re not dead, so could you carry the Kenyan’s jock?
Of course not, the Kenyan not going to let you carry his jock.
Will anyone let you carry their jock?
I won’t, but don’t give up hope I’m sure you’ll find someone who’ll let you carry their jock.

DonDuke| 2.9.11 @ 12:19PM

vtwin.... put away the crack pipe, you're such an idiot!

Occam's Tool| 2.9.11 @ 12:34PM

vtwin: My argument against Legalization of Marijuana.

Anthony| 2.9.11 @ 12:47PM

vtwin, I didn't know you and your fellow Frisco biker boys wore jocks, or had any need for one.
Learn something new every day.

w| 2.9.11 @ 2:34PM

obsessed with jocks?

Richard Baker| 2.9.11 @ 8:58AM

The Kenyan couldn't carry Reagan's jock.

Clint| 2.9.11 @ 9:01AM

Obama ain't Ronald Reagan, But he is Reagan's Toe Dancin' Little Boy, Ronny Reagan.

Steve A| 2.9.11 @ 9:30AM

Peter, You miss the point. If Obama had attempted to govern like Reagan he would have been treated like Clarence Thomas.

Mimi| 2.9.11 @ 9:54AM

Peter : Another great article ! Amazing contrast between two Presidents.
Looks like we are stuck with an anomely right now. Our country has never been at this much risk for the the destructive actions of a leader! Now its AMATURE HOUR in foriegn policy. For most PATRIOTS it is heart-breaking to WATCH!
Hopefully, in the coming primary election of a Republican candidate a new person will emerge whom we will have the confidence that the " SHIP" will be turned. History will not be kind to the Democrats or their 2008 candidate....eventually all will be revealed... the motive and extent of the HARM and DESTRUCTION done to this NATION in such a short time.

canuckistani| 2.9.11 @ 1:06PM

RR helped make new enemies that made use of anti-U.S. terror (Libya and al-Qaeda), retreated in the face of terrorists (Hezbollah in Lebanon), aided a state sponsor of terrorism (Iraq), and appeased a state sponsor of terrorism by trying the bribe of illegal weapons sales (Iran). In the last case, the profits from violating a criminal statute were transferred secretly, illegally, and unconstitutionally to the Nicaraguan Contra guerrillas in defiance of congressional prohibition. This Iran-Contra scandal was the most serious in U.S. history, even eclipsing the obstruction of justice during Watergate, because the scheme circumvented Congress’s primary function under the Constitution – the power to decide funding for U.S. government activities.

The only foreign policy accomplishment that Reagan had was the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty, which eliminated nuclear missiles in Europe.

Thus, Reagan’s vaunted foreign policy collapses under close scrutiny, and his profligate spending and illegal and unconstitutional behavior in the Iran-Contra scandal should raise enormous questions about his iconic presidency.

V8| 2.9.11 @ 2:26PM

Canuck,

It is apparent you dislike Regan. I will post the same question to you that I posted to Alan. If Regan is so awful why is it Obama and his team are trying to favorably compare him to Regan? To many skeletons in the Kennedy Closet?

Anthony| 2.9.11 @ 10:20AM

A true giant of a man, Ronald Reagan, spoke at the Brandenburg Gate demanding freedom for oppressed people behind the Iron Curtain. Soon thereafter, the wall came down and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
The pretender-in-chief Obama, with more hubris than brains, attempts a campaign speech at the Brandenburg Gate, only to be gently reminded that he's not yet earned the right to stand where giants have stood.
Undeterred, this colossal empty suit of an unaccomplished man, instead, insists on giving a speech at the Victory Column in which he declares that just by his very existence," we are the ones we've been waiting for".
Reagan changed the world. Obozo gets credit for change simply by showing up.
I think that sums up the difference between them.

Jeff Perren | 2.9.11 @ 10:28AM

"But what we have learned from experience with President Obama is that he doesn't learn from experience."

How could he? Progressivism is based on philosophical Pragmatism, which explicitly denies that we can know the future will be like the past. It denies that there are any general truths, that certain causes always lead to certain effects. It holds, by contrast, that all we can do is experiment and find out - over and over and over again with no clue whatever what the outcome will be.

Sadly, far too many Americans of all political persuasions believe this philosophy implicitly. Otherwise, why would we be having this public debate at all? The evidence and sound theory about how prosperity is achieved, and its link to individual freedom, was more than ample 50 years ago.

Larry| 2.9.11 @ 11:40AM

The anti-Reagan indeed. You forgot "anti-American".

Who Knows?| 2.9.11 @ 12:30PM

Woulda coulda!

There are three things that can happen.

Either personally or collectively, they can get better, stay the same, or get worse.

No matter what arises, however, one can---and MUST---understand, and transcend every situation with Enlightened Wisdom.

Truth number one---BO STINKS!

That’s Barrack Obama, dummy!

So, it is essential to stay in transcending understanding of this FACT, and expect his influence to tend to pull things into a worsening condition.

There are three aspects to Reality, expressed in Christianity by God, Jesus and the Devil, and in Hinduism by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

There is the creator, the sustainer, and the destroyer.

Obama is playing the Devil = Shiva = destroyer role, in our dour time.

Get used to it!

wodiej| 2.9.11 @ 12:44PM

No wonder no jobs are being created. Tax increase piled on top of other tax increase on business. With the looming healthcare bill and Obama diverging congress to pass his cap and tax plans, and he still thinks it will work. Clueless.

Ken (Old Texican)| 2.9.11 @ 1:42PM

Peter,
I am truly not your groupie (grin). Nevertheless, another home run. Mr. Obama was given the opportunity to do something grand for our history.

Instead, he has done everything politically possible to drag down our light-house to the world.

Once again I want to thank the editors here for having the totally open forum. We get to see first hand the absolute craziness and abject lies from the communists, (pardon the shorthand), and their dupes and useful idiots.

Thank you again for your personal insights.

Yosemeti Sam| 2.9.11 @ 2:23PM

" ... President Obama and his media allies are peddling the line that he is just like Reagan ...."

It's called DIRE LYING!

Anthony| 2.9.11 @ 2:49PM

The leftist media excoriated Reagan and Bush, when these men relied on supurb advisors to make difficult decisions.
When things did not go the way the media and the left expected them to go, the rant from the left was their failure to "connect the dots".
So where are these same media folks when this clown of a president changes his mind on Egypt every other day? One day Mubarak has to go, the next day, he's too valuable to leave. Say What?
Who's in charge here?? Why is not his most brilliant Sec. of State, Madam Hillary, not hung out to dry for her and her department's failure to "connecting the dots" on what has happened in Egypt?.
The hyprocrisy of the left makes me sick!!!
And it will destroy this country as a result of their tendentiousness, if we don't get these people out of power.

Cato| 2.9.11 @ 2:38PM

Peter,

Take heart and please remember: The flak gets heaviest when you are directly over the target.

Dan| 2.9.11 @ 5:25PM

What is happening to our country is the result of the election to the presidency of a man whose previous job was as a no show senator and before that as a rabble rousing socialist Chicago sign hanger. Hopefully by 2012 we will have learned our lesson and not repeat our mistake

star | 2.9.11 @ 6:11PM

vtwin, I didn't know you and your fellow Frisco biker boys wore jocks, or had any need for one.
Learn something new every day.

zinka milanov| 2.10.11 @ 2:29AM

Who brought down the Soviet Union? It was brought down by Mattias Rust, the German kid who flew his Cessna to Red Square, and the whole Soviet military was not on guard to even notice he was on the way. It was like LBJ pulling his dog's ears and the liberals instantly turned on him. Rust suddenly exposed the hollowness of Soviet power, and the system went downhill from there.

Ken (Old Texican)| 2.10.11 @ 10:17AM

Hi Zinka,
Rust was a ballsy guy, and I got a lot of chuckles from his exploit.
The cause and effect of his efforts just might be over stated a tad.
Hey, we had three airliners catch us flat footed on 9-11. We rebounded pretty nicely because Mr. Bush had the balls to tell us to go back to work. He carried the load...and fear... on his own shoulders.

zinka milanov| 2.10.11 @ 12:47PM

Hi Ken. Maybe I was a little overdoing it on the historical oomph of Herr Rust's flight, but whichever old man was ruling in Moscow at the time did do a housecleaning of the Soviet military leadership. There is an almost cliche that the Russians decided Ronnie was really tough when he fired the airtraffic controlers, but no one has mentioned his sending up of the Air Force to divert down the Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro hijackers to Libya. That was Ballsy. But you could tell Ronnie had a pair when he went out on that ledge and talked Bonzo back into the lab. ( I know; I'm being witty on that one.)

Ken (Old Texican)| 2.10.11 @ 1:38PM

Zinka,
bye the way, welcome to the conversations.
Are you Russian by roots, or are you an immigrant yourself?

zinka milanov| 2.10.11 @ 7:15PM

No, I'm USA all the way. I'm just using the name of Zinka the great diva. I'm a fan of her singing. Interest in Russia comes from living through the Russia Cold War. I suppose the one now is the China Cold War. Or the Muslim Cold War.

Rick| 2.10.11 @ 8:54PM

Your a rasist!

Bee Free| 2.10.11 @ 9:35PM

-REALITY CHECK----from the heyday of the
Reagan era.

"America better watch it or in a couple of
decades we're going to be a minstrel show
for Asia."
-Gore Vidal
1985

AGAIN ---BEWARE THE HYPE

Bee Free| 2.10.11 @ 9:35PM

-REALITY CHECK----from the heyday of the
Reagan era.

"America better watch it or in a couple of
decades we're going to be a minstrel show
for Asia."
-Gore Vidal
1985

AGAIN ---BEWARE THE HYPE

Reebok | 8.11.11 @ 4:00AM

is good

العاب | 4.11.12 @ 4:34PM

Unlike Obama, Reagan is not purported to be a god. Reagan was just a great president, one about whom we can all still be proud. No one will ever be able to say that about Obama, not without drawing derisive laughter, both at home and abroad -- sort of like Carter, only worse

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