CNN Claims Obama The New Ronald Reagan, Reassigns ‘Morning in America’ to The One
-By Warner Todd Huston
Once again CNN goes over the top in its gobsmacked praise of its Obammessiah. This time appropriating Ronald Reagan’s famous “morning in America” theme and assigning it to President Obama as a result of his not-the-state-of-the-union speech last night. In reality, Obama’s speech was more like a moaning in America as opposed to that bright new morning that Reagan invoked.
Worse, Reagan’s main theme for his “morning in America” ideal was to provoke Americans into a renewal of the American way of self-reliance, one removed from sucking at the teat of government. On the other hand, Barack Obama’s main point was that without government, without The One and all his fixes, we are all doomed.
It was obvious to anyone’s ears that Obama’s theme was as far removed as Reagan’s as can be.
CNN tries hard to shoehorn Reagan’s always sunny optimism into Obama’s big government puffing prescription for what ails the U.S. And CNN seems to think that Obama was very successful in the attempt.
President Barack Obama addressed Congress shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, but a casual viewer might have believed it was actually morning in America.
Perhaps CNN is right if that “casual viewer” has no clue what Ronald Reagan was all about!
Writing for CNN, Alan Silverleib goes on:
“Morning in America” was the theme of Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign, and it was front and center in Obama’s most critical event since Inauguration Day.
The president who has pledged to reverse much of Reagan’s economic revolution took a page from the 40th president’s playbook in his 52-minute speech, striking a defiantly optimistic tone that belied the nation’s sour mood and rebutted critics who have accused him of intentionally talking down the economy for short-term political gain.
Layering a soup of Reaganisms over the top of Carter policies, however, does not find Obama in emulation of Ronald Reagan, despite what CNN tries to promulgate.
Naturally, CNN is bowled over at Obama’s amazingness and coolosity, calling the speech a “political tour de force.” But, even while pretending that Obama is the new Ronald Reagan, CNN reveals that about every single idea that Barack Obama has makes him rather the direct opposite of Reagan as opposed to his heir.
CNN analyzes the Obama and Reagan agendas thus:
The president’s agenda as defined in his address to Congress may have been the most ambitious in a generation or even two, but it was also easily boiled down to a few bullet points: restore financial stability, strengthen education and promote energy independence and health care reform.
It was, in many ways, the mirror image of 1981, when a newly inaugurated Reagan used the combination of stagnating economic growth and skyrocketing inflation to promote an equally ambitious, simple agenda: cut taxes, shrink government and build up the defense budget.
The differences are striking showing that Obama is NO Ronald Reagan. Where Reagan encouraged Americans to take responsibility and stride forward into a re-dawning of American exuberance, Obama wants America to curl up in a ball and allow big daddy government to take the reins. Obama certainly tried to steal some of Reagan’s rhetoric, but it is a far more cynical usage of it than was Reagan’s.
Reagan’s rhetoric from his mouth was sincere. It was heart felt. It was emboldening, inspiring, soaring. On the other hand, Obama’s use of that Reaganesque sunny optimism is a dodge, a shuck and jive used to mask the doom saying that without government we have nothing. Obama’s sunny rhetoric is merely a mask, not the sincere belief in the American people that Ronald Reagan held as a guiding principle.
As CNN itself even admits, when Reagan took office he famously said that “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
And here is the key difference. Look at what Obama said:
“I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves, that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.”
Obama rejects that you, the American people, have the capacity to make your own lives better. He rejects that you are smart enough to lead your own lives without Big Government leading you by the nose.
Despite that CNN tries to abscond with Reagan’s legacy and give it as a gift to President Obama, Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan.
One other thing about this CNN report stinks. Before the speech on Tuesday, Obama’s staffers were telling everyone that his speech would be “Reaganesque” and that talking point was a central theme in the way they were hyping the event. And what do we get from CNN after the speech? The dutiful Obama spin of how “Reaganesque” the speech was by the compliant folks at CNN. What a coincidence, eh?
(Photo credit: cnn.com)
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Posted by Warner Todd Huston on February 25, 2009 10:14 am
» Filed Under Democrats, Economy, Journalistic Malpractice, Liberal Media/Bias, Nanny State, News, bailouts, liberalism
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13 Responses to “CNN Claims Obama The New Ronald Reagan, Reassigns ‘Morning in America’ to The One”
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Syndicate Me
Once again, liberals trying to co-opt Conservatism. Ironic. Those hopeless case bastards have no original ideas.
Obama is JFK! Obama is FDR! Obama is Lincoln! Now, he’s REAGAN!? He’s everyone but Obama.
I wonder why. Can anyone say, “Empty Suit?”
You folks are insane. No other way to describe your hatred of your own country. You dearly wish for a king (Bush) but instead you live in a democracy. Make up your minds: Do you want your country to fail (as limbaugh instructed you) or do you want your children to have a healthy and prosperous future? Which is it, cause you cannot have both.
Franko, over the past eight years, did you support President Bush? Did you want HIM to succeed? Did you love your country THEN?
We have ALWAYS loved our country; moreso now than ever.
I, for one, DO NOT want Obama to succeed in implementing his socialist agenda. Why would you? You purport to love this country, yet you side with the very same bastards who have caused the financial debacle.
If anyone is inconsistent, it is you. Do you want a Constitutional Representative Republic, or not?
You can’t have it both ways.
Must be very painful for some of you, watching an erudite, articulate, concise President who can form complete sentences without inventing words that don’t exist. Sticks in your collective craws, I suppose. You be very excited about Bobby Jindal, who spoke to the American people in his response as though he was talking to a group of children. As I watched him, I worried that he would abruptly lapse into baby-talk– goo-goo, ga-ga, Obama-ca-ca-poo-poo… or something to that effect. I’ve never heard a Republican response to a single one of the President’s policies that didn’t resort to talking points and pure ideology. Last night, Jindal’s mantra was “We believe in you”. What are we? Unicorns and mermaids? And I’ve yet to hear a single credible economist say that the government didn’t need to intervene in this financial crisis. The longer the GOP whines and speaks in platitudes to the voters, the sooner it will cease to exist as a meaningful political movement in the United States. And, if Bobby Jindal is the best you got, it may be over already for you.
Yes, well CNN has been working hard to earn the title “Official News Channel of the Obama Administration” however, they have plenty of competition.
JohnRJ08:
I love the principals on which this country was founded. I love the good sense of the American people. When we forsake our ideals and common sense, I no longer have attachment to this land.
The left and its sympathetic media are grasping at straws to try and make Obama something great, as if he has some preordained place as one of the greatest visionary presidents in America. Notice how everything Obama does is “historic”? Based on what he has demonstrated with his agenda and (lack of) leadership thus far, this guy is going to be remembered as superlative and “historic” for all the wrong reasons.
JohnRJ08 -
…and Obama’s mantras of “change we need”, “change we can believe in”, “yes we can”, etc., are more meaningful? Yes, we (Democrats) can make things worse. The change to which he seems to be referring
is nothing more than a far left Democratic party platform — hardly “change we can believe in” for the country as a whole.
“I’ve yet to hear a single credible economist say that the government didn’t need to intervene in this financial crisis”
The government needed to intervene in a rational, responsible manner. What we got was a trillion dollar “stimulus” bill riddled with vaguely defined, obscure, low priority, low economic impact projects and programs designed to further Democratic party agenda. Nothing more.
JOHN: The right needs to talk down to the level of those on the left – speaking with them as equals has obviously gotten nowhere.
As for “articulate” and “concise,” “uh uh” must be the definition in audio versions of the dictionary? I can’t seem to locate “uh uh” under those terms in my printed ones.
FRANKO: We don’t live in a democracy. Look it up in the Constitution (you’ll find that we live in a REPUBLIC, somewhere between or beneath the feces Democratic leaders have smeared all over it the last half-century).
I love to watch great actors work a crowd. They all possess that certain something that makes everyone scream out phrases like “I Love You!”, “You’re The One!”, “I’ll Buy Your Sperm!” … I especially love the entourages that follow our great actors: the handlers, the personal assistants, the press agents, the secretaries, the body guards, the fans, etc. And then there’s the flashes as every digital camera goes off simultaneously as they pass to light The Way for The One. It is truly uplifting to be able to have the entourage lift me up as they pass like I’m a surfer who caught The Big One, The Big Wave. Of course, after they pass, the let down as the crowd pushes me down and steps all over me is not so good, but to have been in the presence of The One and to have caught The Wave…Ohhhh, it’s like passing the biggest fart I ever had while simultaneously burping the biggest belch I ever had — I literally lost 6 inches off my waist as he sucked all the hot air out me as he passed by to replenish the hot air that continually escapes him. It was a terrific read, you who call yourself “The President Formerly Known as The One, The Only, The Obama”. Could someone hand me a snot rag, I got to blow?
Isn’t it ironic. For years the Damn O Freakin Craps said Regan was not that good of a Pres. Now “O” Dumbo ears is just like him. LOL
Hope/Change the “O” Dumbo way.
Hope we can change the laws to cover our [edited] before we get caught.
I can see him as another Lincoln. Civil Was, Indian war, 33 hung at one time. 620,000 soldiers killed plus no telling how may others. 10’s of thousands dying and staving in prison. But, I have never been drunk enough to see him as Reagan. I miss Bush. At least I felt safe.