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Pick Obama’s Brain
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Happy Earth Day… and Lenin Day
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Bill Casey’s Centennial
April 5, 2013 | 69 comments
The Obama Watch
A Tale of Two Dealmakers
Obama is no Reagan when it comes to negotiating.
Presidential scholars write on all sorts of aspects of the American presidency. Among the most interesting have been several important works on so-called presidential character and temperament. And when it comes to the temperament of our current president, we’ve learned quite a bit during the recent debate over the debt ceiling.
The most illuminating report I’ve read was a Politico piece entitled, “Obama abruptly walks out of talks.” The article described President Obama’s bitter negotiations with nemesis Eric Cantor, the Republican House Majority leader. Obama “abruptly walked out of a stormy debt-limit meeting,” Politico reported, “a dramatic setback to the already shaky negotiations.” Eric Cantor said of the president’s behavior: “He shoved back and said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ and walked out.”
The Politico piece continued: “the White House talks blew up amid a new round of sniping between Obama and Cantor, who are fast becoming bitter enemies.” When Cantor told the president that they were too far apart to get a deal done by the fateful August 2 deadline, Obama, according to Politico, “began to lecture him.” Obama indignantly told Cantor that no other president — including Ronald Reagan — would condescend to sit through such negotiations.
Alas, it was Obama’s Reagan reference that nags at me.
In truth, Ronald Reagan was a remarkable negotiator, both incredibly patient and principled. Negotiating was one of Reagan’s greatest but most underappreciated attributes.
When we think of Reagan as a negotiator, we remember his crucial walk-out of the Reykjavik Summit in October 1986. Some Obama supporters want to invoke that example here, which is short-sighted at best. Reykjavik was just one of five separate, extended Reagan one-on-ones with Mikhail Gorbachev: Geneva (November 1985), Reykjavik (October 1986), Washington (December 1987), Moscow (May-June 1988), and New York (December 1988).
One example of Reagan’s negotiating power seems especially applicable to Obama’s current dealings with Congressional Republicans. In 1971, Governor Reagan squared off with the speaker of the California legislature, a tough Democratic foe named Robert “Macho Bob” Moretti. California was on the verge of a major policy success: a historic welfare-reform package. But first, Moretti and Reagan had to sit down together, side by side, and hammer out specifics. Moretti made his way to Reagan’s office, walked in by himself, and announced: “Governor, I don’t like you. And I know you don’t like me, but we don’t have to be in love to work together.” Reagan replied simply, “Okay.” He committed to a good-faith effort to work with Moretti.
The two endured grinding binary and plenary sessions for six weeks (almost exactly the time since Obama walked out of his talks with Cantor). Moretti himself calculated that he sparred with Reagan for “seventeen days and nights,” “line by line, statistic by statistic,” and obscenity by obscenity. At times, Reagan burned with frustration — “that’s it, I’m through with this” — but never gave up.
Grudgingly, Moretti came to respect Reagan, who he saw as hard on his principles but flexible in the details — an observation of Reagan shared by numerous aides over the decades. The governor surprised Moretti by yielding to fair and rational arguments, once even agreeing to renegotiate a point that the speaker had regretted conceding.
As Edmund Morris shows in his personality-based biography
Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, Moretti was most
impressed with Reagan’s honesty as a deal maker. He admired the
fact that the governor never lied and honored every commitment he
made.
In the end, on August 13, 1971, the California Welfare Reform Act became law. Reagan rightly called it “probably the most comprehensive” such welfare initiative in U.S. history. It was way ahead of its time, predating all of the bipartisan welfare-reform accomplishments of the 1990s.
The negotiations between Reagan and Moretti were somewhat of a microcosm of the Reagan-Gorbachev talks. Then, too, the two men spent many intense hours exchanging heated words and a few obscenities. For Reagan, there were non-negotiables then as well, of which SDI (at Reykjavik) was the most dramatic. There were items that Reagan insisted upon, such as addressing the USSR’s persecution of its own citizens (especially Russian Jews), and giving no quarter in his belief in the superiority of the American system. He and Gorbachev likewise were locked horn to horn. The results were historic changes in arms control. Like Moretti, Gorbachev learned to like and respect Reagan.
I’m not privy to the records on all of President Obama’s negotiations with House Republicans like Eric Cantor and John Boehner. From what I’m reading, however, we’re seeing a very different kind of chief executive. Barack Obama is not only no Ronald Reagan on economic policy. He’s also no Reagan when it comes to negotiating skills. Obama doesn’t understand Reagan at all, and that’s a loss for this nation.
About the Author
Paul Kengor is professor of political science and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College. He is author of the new book The Communist: Frank Marshall Davis, The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mentor. His other books include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism and Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (36) | Leave a comment
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.1.11 @ 6:27AM
Our top elected officials no longer "fight" for anything except ever more growth in government.
They are all statists now.
USSAlabama| 8.1.11 @ 9:55AM
Bigger government (as you say) and staying in office.
One only has to follow the Twitter accounts of a few DC insiders (NOT pol's) to see that Obama was not only disengaged, but stalling.
The Staller in Chief will now try and claim he has brought both sides together.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.1.11 @ 12:58PM
I can see it now.
The Captain of the Titanic bragging that he bought the iceberg together with the Titanic.
Gretchen| 8.6.11 @ 6:56PM
OUCH!
massmile | 8.2.11 @ 11:41PM
I disagree with your assertion that Obama does not understand Reagan. you a fool!!I am a 28 years old doctor, mature and beautiful.and now I am seeking a good man who can give me real love , so i got a username sammyshine2002 on--a'ge'l'ov'e'r.c óm--.it is the first and best club for y'ounger women and old'er men, or older women and y'ounger men,to int'eract with each other. Maybe you wanna ch'eck 'it out or tell your friends!
Alan Brooks| 8.1.11 @ 10:05PM
This worship of Reagan by conservative men is almost homo-erotic.
Vance Frickey| 12.19.11 @ 10:09PM
As opposed to the hard crush of the media on Obama - Chris Matthews' infamous sub-inguinal tingle when he saw Obama bloviating before a crowd?
The mash notes to Obama in the editorial pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, and the public pronouncements of Laurence O'Donnell and Chris Matthews are the real instances of sublimated eroticism. They sure aren't based on any objective evidence of character or intellectual acuity on Obama's part. These guys are all just suckers for a well-dressed man (pardon the ZZ Top homage).
Stormzeye| 8.1.11 @ 6:48AM
Obama seems as unyielding as Reagan when it comes to "core values". Sadly, Obama's values are not conducive to the continued health, happiness and survival of the United States. Redistribution of wealth is a policy based upon materialism. The advancement of individual freedom and personal responsibility is a policy based upon spiritual values. It's like the difference between "life, liberty and the protection of property" (the original construct for the Declaration of Independence) and "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" which of course was the final formulation. The prior is based upon material values, the second, spiritual values. In my opinion, Obama does not have a spiritual bone in his body. His values, like those of his mentors and followers are solely material and therefore doomed to failure.
Mike D.| 8.1.11 @ 7:42AM
And his values are also doomed to take us down with them.
PCC| 8.2.11 @ 12:41AM
For the record, the change from "property" to "pursuit of happiness" was made to avoid the impression that the colonies' rebellion was caused by a desire to preserve slavery (slaves were termed "property" by slaveholders).
bennyhavens| 8.1.11 @ 7:52AM
You failed to mention the raw deal Reagan got from House Speaker Tip O’Neil. Please permit me to reiterate.
When Ronald Reagan was elected, the Feds were collecting $600 billion in revenue. When he left office they were taking in $1.2 trillion.
Reagan compromised with Tip O’Neil and what happened? O’Neill and the rest of the progressives spent $1.25 for every dollar that they took in.
Today’s compromise is no different. This is all smoke and mirrors. There will be no spending cuts and the debt will continue to rise.
When 50% of the population (and it is growing) is dependent on the government, nothing will change until the system totally collapses.
You can only be successful in compromise, when the person you are compromising with is honest.
Larry| 8.1.11 @ 8:04AM
Obama as an America hating lib-scum socialist. His name should never be mentioned in the same sentence as the Ronald Reagan's.
I disagree with your assertion that Obama does not understand Reagan. You make the same mistake that too many people have made since this regime took power- that is Obama doesn't know what he's doingis stupid and incompetent.
True, he's not a particularly smart person, but he knows exactly what he's doing. Don't allow his intended destruction of this once great country be taken for incompetence. He is dangerous and destructive person.
LarryK| 8.1.11 @ 10:17AM
Hey Larry,
Why don't you tell us what you really think of Obama? :)
Larry| 8.1.11 @ 10:52AM
This is a family oriented website and I'd probably be banned if I did. :-)
Brian Mc| 8.1.11 @ 8:27AM
Liberalism, (read, the Federal Government) is as a pitbull at our collective throat. Every once in a while we are able to encourage it to relax his bite, all the while our lifeblood streams away. Our lap dogs meanwhile yap incessently while they lick at the pools congealing at their master's prone and weakened form that can't quite reach its gun. There is no saviour; the "Fall of Democracy" is a reality...and we are so tired. We never asked for a democracy, but somehow our Republic metamorphosed into one...the cute puppy is all grown up and having its day.
winterhawk| 8.1.11 @ 9:10AM
obama is no reagan when it comes to anything. He is a loser and a failure. He can only goven in a communist way.
Clint| 8.1.11 @ 9:33AM
Barky Obama Appears To Be Just One More Shuck & Jive " Let's Fool Em Again" Political Hack Wrapped In An Alinskyite Affirmative Action Socialist Blanket.
Bob Grant| 8.1.11 @ 9:35AM
The obama-Reagan comparisons are absurd. I didn't bother reading the article.
obama's obsession with President Ronald Reagan smacks of an inferiority complex.
BD57| 8.1.11 @ 5:07PM
Is it still a "complex" if you're actually inferior?
Bob Grant| 8.1.11 @ 7:03PM
That question is beyond my pay grade.
POST American| 8.1.11 @ 9:43AM
--Tavistock Necromancy and DIS-traction ALERT!--
Even the most devoted of NEO-Con rectum worshippers
MUST admit most, if not all, of Reagan's
'dynamic breakthroughs' were carefully
scripted, engineered and worked out long in
advance, esp. with CFR/RIIA fronts such as Bush Sr.
at his side.
And even Harvard 'innie' and fmr Kissinger
aide, 'wildcard radical' Obama can console
himself by considering it was 'daring conservative'
Reagan who presided during the KEY decade
of the RED China sellout and TREASON op.
(BTW --for those who missed it, have a blast
from the past with the now declassified 1975
State Dept. MEMO 200 and Bush Sr's frontline
role in all this)
"Understand, at the top there are
NO politics because everyone's 'on board'.
There's no debate. There is ONLY 'the agenda'."
-ALAN WATT
(awesome online coverage)
----------------UNDENIABLE--------------------
PS -We're still betting that steak dinner that
in a decade or two we'll learn officially his
paternity's a phoney, and/or that he's related
to some establishment bloodline thru Ann Dunham
--probably that of the original RED China sellout artist ---Averill Harriman.
Compare those photos and expressions
for yourself sometime. --You may even jump off your rectum.
George True| 8.1.11 @ 10:46AM
Huh???
Larry| 8.1.11 @ 9:45AM
Comrade Golfer personifies and epitomizes everything that is wrong and evil in the world. I'm tired of hearing commentators, even conservative ones say words to that effect that "He's not a good president, but he's a good man."
Well, how the hell does anyone know that he's a good man? I don't think that he's a good man. His childish behavior leads me to think that he's more a spoiled infant than any kind of a man.
If we judge him by his actions he cannot be considered a good man. His policies have hurt and destroyed millions of lives in this country. He is evil incarnate.
jackc| 8.1.11 @ 10:22AM
Politicians and charlatans, clinging on to power, elected or otherwise are never the sole proprietors of effective leadership.
Obama and his cohorts, are incubating a welfare society afflicted with the disease of laziness, handouts and entitlements. A growing number of welfare recipients, like a viral infection is a prescription to destroy the healthier, self-sustaining segments of society, through increasing welfare programs that in turn impose unsustainable tax burdens and regulations - a direction towards depression.
The existing government models, are irrelevant in a global economy.
The human spirit, enabling opportunities - not handouts - and free markets, must be unleashed to return America, back to the promised land.
Al Adab| 8.1.11 @ 11:25AM
One President knew where he wanted the nation to go, the other is a charlatan without a vision or goal beyond self-agrandizment. We rightly fear for our contry.
That said, please allow me, on this first day of Ramadan, to note that many who post here a Christian and ask that you lift up fellow Christians in Muslim lands in prayer. Ramadan is a dangerous time as it exposes the Christians as such and places them and their businesses and families in danger from the Muslims all around them. With the rebellions all across Dar-al-Islam it is a particularly unsettled year. Ask G*D for His protection of them.
PolishKnight| 8.1.11 @ 11:46AM
I'm not certain of this, but it's my understanding that Reagan's welfare reform act was an unintended gift to the left in that it required the married fathers of welfare mothers to work in order to continue benefits. The left certainly didn't mind this since it meant that the government would reward women for becoming unwed mothers. Same thing with successive welfare reform acts that chased after fathers (many of whom were incorrectly identified) to pay child-support for children they never wanted and had little if any legal access to. This reduced children to chattel for women which has now become almost complete since women can legally abandon babies at fire and police stations.
In theory, of course, men would all become responsible fathers and then the taxpayer would be off the hook. The problem is that this relies upon the premise that the fathers would be stupid enough to have a child out of wedlock but smart enough to become a reliable breadwinner and taxpayer.
It's now obvious that the result of this policy has been to create armies of fatherless children both physically and even financially while society continues to turn up the heat on "deadbeat dads" and discourages men from marrying with continued anti-male divorce, domestic violence, and employment policies.
Just be sure to set your car alarm folks.
Louis Jenkins| 8.1.11 @ 11:55AM
Reagan had his faults, but he was above the standard carried by Obama. Perhaps it would have been better if you had compared Obama to Reagan's predeccesor. Oh I forgot, Saint Carter is still around.
John II| 8.1.11 @ 6:31PM
From FDR to the Professor, among the thirteen presidents in my lifetime so far, Our Ron was the only one I could ever feel any abiding admiration for, although I can still work up some fondness for Truman and Eisenhower, during whose administrations some truly great movies were made--and the younger Bush, however foolish some of his domestic policies, showed character throughout a difficult time of political and personal trial and a well-nigh unprecedented barrage of calumny and contumely ceaselessly hurled by such lefty gerbils as our current president.
But Our Ron really was different. I mean, I actually took my family to one of his pep rallies during the '84 election campaign--the closest I've ever come to feeling unvarnished pride in anyone or anything political. I recall some Hispanic guy in his fifties sitting with his family on the bench in front of us, nodding at Our Ron and explaining the situation to one of his kids: "Es un buen hombre."
Whoa, I thought. Of course! That's it in a nutshell. He's a good man. So that any comparisons with the corrupt and scheming Professor seem ridiculous.
And now back to "Desperate Journey" (1942), a WWII thriller in which Our Ron, as usual, plays himself: a cheerfully serious, good-hearted, shrewd, honest one-hundred-percent Americano POW in Nazi Germany, who escapes with Errol Flynn and Alan Hale and foils the Hun (played in particular by liberal Democrat Raymond Massey) at every turn of the, well, desperate journey to freedom from the clutches of the Nazi renegade. An obvious political allegory anticipating rough waters ahead in the future of the Americano experiment.
Chrisiv| 8.1.11 @ 6:38PM
Obama is a clown; he is not Reagan. Obama does the comparison, not out of respect for Reagan, but to be loved by Republicans. Obama is just a regular Chicago Con-Man - Lying, conniving, misleading, demamgogue. Just as a base point, Obama does not have a plan for the budget, for health care, for jobs, for stimulus. All Obama is, is cheap talk. He gathered a bunch of port-projetcs and add it to a stimulus bill. He incorporated all the give aways for anyone he thought was exploited and placed it in Pelosi/Reid healthcare budget and then went out and sold it as his own. His goal was not healthcare success or job creation, it was big statist gov't. What then can he negotiate. All he wants is power to implement his statist policies. Both Obama and Michelle like the good life; they believe it's their turn and they are taking the spoils for all the non-whites who were mistreated in earlier generations. They are not the humble servants the Bushes were. In addition, Reagan was an American Patriot; Obama is not. Obama feels that the USA and Western Europe have exploited other countries and the White Elite in the US have exploited minorities; and that Christians were aggressive in converting adherents of other religion. He does not see any goodness in American society, in her history or traditions or even in the constitution. Obama wants to make the US into any other country around the world. He believes that anything Americans have achieved was at the expense of other countries. This guy is not Reagan, he is not Patriot. We need to get rid of him. His goal is to make America ordinary.
size| 8.1.11 @ 10:30PM
I disagree with your assertion that Obama does not understand Reagan.
http://www.summer-products.com
scorfield| 8.1.11 @ 10:32PM
His childish behavior leads me to think that he's more a spoiled infant than any kind of a man.
http://www.ainibag.com
http://www.jerseys-hats-store.com
POST American| 8.2.11 @ 12:12AM
-----------------BOTTOM LINE--------------------
--------------BLAST from the PAST--------------------
DECLASSIFIED State Department Memo 200
1975
Then US Ambassador to RED China, Bush SR.
lays out 'the plan' for that regime.
RED China to be massively funded and enabled
by US taxpayer money to be 'brought in and
brought up' as world industrial center, and
eventual TOP of the NWO.
The US to be systematically brought down
to third world status via de-industrialization,
debt, and a worthless, empty 'service economy'
(ie Wal-Mart/ franchise slums/ wampum).
ALL this contingent on the RED Chinese regime,
already the undisputed leaders in world genocide,
zealously embracing aggressive EUGENICS,
along with selective extermination of select
elements within their population.
-"Did you just hear me? ----this is TREASON."
-ALEX JONES
--------------HUAC meets NUREMBERG-------------
-------------------the Second Chapter-------------------
-------------------------------IS COMING...
Hcg Activator | 8.2.11 @ 1:14AM
hi i read this blog today i agree with this.
hperfuse 2011 | 8.2.11 @ 2:58AM
I disagree with your assertion that Obama does not understand Reagan. you a fool!!