Obama’s New Role Model: Ronald Reagan?

What could Ronald Reagan possibly have in common with Barack Obama, except, say, a certain demonstrable allegiance to Wall Street? Time’s Michael Scherer and Michael Duffy tease out some ways in which The Gipper’s legacy may be informing Obama’s own leadership style, despite their apparent differences. A stretch? Perhaps, but then, Obama himself and some of his close allies have invoked Reagan’s name themselves. –KA

Time:

At a glance, it’s hard to imagine a President who had less in common with Reagan than the Ivy League lawyer from Hawaii who seeks larger federal investments, a bigger social safety net and new regulations for Wall Street and Big Oil. But under the surface, there is no mistaking Obama’s increasing reliance on his predecessor’s career as a helpful template for his own. Since the November elections, Obama has brought corporate executives into the White House, reached out to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and made compromise his new watchword. He signed a surprise $858 billion tax cut that would have made Reagan weep with joy and huddled with Reagan’s former White House chief of staff Ken Duberstein for lessons learned when the Gipper governed amid economic troubles. Over the Christmas break, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted that Obama was reading a Reagan biography, and just to confirm the bond, Obama recently wrote an homage to Reagan for USA Today. “Reagan recognized the American people’s hunger for accountability and change,” Obama wrote, conferring on Reagan two of his most cherished political slogans.

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