Obama's Recipe: Two Parts FDR, Dash Of Reagan

From wsj.com:

Abraham Lincoln may be President Barack Obama's favorite predecessor, but in his early White House days his recipe has been two parts Franklin D. Roosevelt with a dash of Ronald Reagan. As time goes on, it appears he's even more likely to follow the FDR model.

That's only partially because Messrs. Obama and Roosevelt share the Democratic label and its accompanying philosophy, even though the dominant party mindset is very different today than it was in the 1930s and 1940s.

Read the whole story from wsj.com

Comments

[spartanmom]

"FDR and Mr. Reagan guided the U.S. through those especially difficult years and were the two best presidents of the 20th century, most historians agree,"

Horsepocky! I'm not reading any more of the article

Yes FDR is the best of the 20th c but T. Roosevelt, Wilson, Truman and Eisenhower all rate above Reagan.

R. is about on par with Kennedy but JFK is rising in the rankings and Ronnie is slipping.

Bias, anyone?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_United_States_Presidents#Notable_scholar_surveys

[spartanmom]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_United_States_Presidents#Scholar_survey_results

This one takes you straight to a really great chart

[spartanmom]

since I am unemployed and have plenty of time on my hands, I copied the chart into a spreadsheet and took the averages of all the surveys.

If you do that, then historians agree that Johnson and Kennedy were also better than Reagan. the idol of the right was only middling when compared with other 20th century Presidents

[Damaven]

How about One Whole Obama! No matter what goes on in this country, sports, acting, clothes washing, ya gotta come up with a comparison. Everybody's an individual, this is ObamaTime, Period!

[harpen1]

No No No, Reagan's administration was the being of end. He ushered in the greed is good mindset. I remember the 80s, they were hard on working people. The amount of people that became homeless was startling. He broke unions, he cut funding to schools ,and the poorest in this country. He presided over the largest tax increase in history on the middle class. He turned back the policy that were established to encourage conservation and green technologies. But most of all he constantly fed the mistrust and dissent that Watergate had began.

[FR]

Two thirds plus one dash do not add up to a whole. It's a ridiculous headline.
And I for one could really really do without the dash of Reagan.

[jdw1981]

During the 8 years of the Reagan administration unemployment averaged 7.5 %, a whole new social class (the homeless) was created, and the White House was involved in a major criminal scandal (Iran Contra). Trickle-down Reaganomics is also the root cause of the economic mess we're now in.

Reagan was NOT a good President, and Obama is just wasting his time again by paying him lip-service and trying to appease the non-appeasable GOP.

[pupbayer]

Perhaps that is what I am uncomfortable with...tha­t "dash" of Reagan.

[greatlardini]

Reagan is Coolidge to Dubya's Hoover.

[Mikeeee]

I don't get why this reagan myth continues to hang on. He was like custer, an egomaniac who led people to destruction.

[thirtyninesteps]

Reagan inherited an economy that was already in recovery --

'Herbert Stein, chief economic adviser during the Nixon years, has written that when Reagan asked Americans in the 1980 campaign whether they were better off than they had been four years before, he could count on a negative response. But, Stein writes, "despite the inflation, and despite the slowdown in productivity growth, real per capita income after tax, probably the best simple measure of economic welfare, increased between 1976 and 1980. Indeed it increased just about as much in that period as in the four preceding years." It could also be pointed out that the number of new civilian jobs created per year was greater during the Carter administration than for other presidents immediately before or after."

Reagan's tax cuts threw the economy instantly into a steep and massive recession, so bad that in 1982 he had to institute the largest tax increase in US History. And then he raised taxes every year for the rest of his tenure -- but not on the rich, only the middle and working class.

Aside from the impeachment-worthy Iran/Contra scandal, Reagan deserves to be among the WORST presidents in US HIstory just for his destructive domestic/economic policies that jump-started the current complete financial catastrophe.

It all begins with Reagan. That's why it is disturbing that Obama regards him so highly.

[spartanmom]

I think he admires his skill, not his policies or intellect.

Remember Bill Clinton took some very important lessons from RR

[kotexbarbie]

It's morning in America.

[clearthinker2008]

Regan was not a great president, that's b*s.

[Mikeeee]

Agreed. The author of this article lost all credibility right at that point. He also says "The part of the Obama stimulus package consisting of tax cuts was the part he borrowed from Mr. Reagan." Obama had no choice on those because between the repubs and the blue dogs he could not have gotten any stimulus without tax cuts (even though they've been shown to be the least effective) which only aggravate the debt issue.

[thirtyninesteps]

Donald Regan was Treasury Secretary. Ronald Reagan was the President, and he was second only to Bush as the WORST of all time. (In fact, because he began almost all the policies that created the current total collapse of our economy, maybe he IS the worst.)

[greatlardini]

Reagan and his policies "dashed" the hopes of many Americans and "dashed" the ship of state upon the rocks of ineptitude. Ad.miral Dubya completed the job, and now it's up to President Obama to get us afloat again. He will.

[VivaZapata]

the year he cut taxes on the wealthy, i went from getting money back (tax returns) to paying $5,000 more in April (with only a minor incremental salary increase, from which withholding taxes had been taken from my check). My standard of living has been lower ever since. Bush deserves most of the blame but Reagan should take a share too.

[greatlardini]

Preachin' to the choir, brother!

[spartanmom]

'nother one here.

[kotexbarbie]

Oops, I think Obama bumped the table and spilled the Reagan all over his meal.

[boogiewoman]

BAHAHAhA! Thats all the repugs have to look up to is Reagan. I remember the same greed from his followers in the not so long ago 80's.

[VivaZapata]

me too (see above illustration).

[clearthinker2008]

Greed and all the coke snortin'.

[kotexbarbie]

The Yuppies had the best coke.

[3fingerbrown]

It troubles me that there are still people calling Reagan one of the two greatest presidents of the 20th century. If they need a conservative Republican in the equation to balance FDR's liberalism, they should at least go with Eisenhower. He was a better human being, a better American, a more mature and reliable leader than Reagan ever was. As for his presidency, he did some good and little harm, which is more than you could ever say about Reagan. We're living now with the results of his disastrous disdain for government, and federal regulation of business and financial institutions. Worse, a generation later we're saddled with ambitious fools like Rep. Cantor, who, with all the evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, still think Reagan was right.

[VivaZapata]

reagan did exactly what W did. he cut taxes significantly on the rich, so they could throw it around recklessly, which they did. then it all came crashing down on Bush I's head. Bush II had hoped to create the same formula, but the crash came before he could get out of washington. still, people have short memories and it won't be long before they start to say, "It was bad under bush but obama has made it worse." will people be so gullible or will they finally wake up to the shell game that's been played on them for decades? dash of reagan. what a laugh!

[leeman79]

Forget the dash of Reagan and substitute with a tablespoon of Eisenhower.

[spartanmom]

I'm reading Jon Meacham's {American Lion} which came out in 2008. Every now and then, I come across a description of Jackson that could be about Obama