Obama may have gained the support of a few Republicans in Nevada with his praise of Reagan and his "Be a Democrat for One Day" campaign, but Obama's support among liberals declined dramatically.
What matters most in this election is that we get a president who will listen to and respect the growing progressive movement. Time and time again, Obama
In what Orwellian world does a progressive candidate offer praise to Ronnie Reagan and put Bill Clinton over there in the column with Richard Nixon?
Obama, In Praise of Ronald Reagan:
"I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing."
Ah, yes, "the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s."
I remember them well. Ronnie Reagan was indeed the leader of the backlash against all those nasty 'excesses.' There was the excess of the civil rights movement, the excess of the feminist movement, the excess of the gay rights movement, the anti-war movement, the War on Poverty, the environmental movement, the consumer rights movement, the expanded social safety net -- all told it was indeed an excess of liberalism!
Only in Ronnie Reagan's Republican world of 'compassionate conservatism,' can the expansion of human and civil rights be deemed excessive.
As Matt Stoller notes, the 'excesses of the 1960s' is a well-established conservative meme.
Even Obama's good buddy, John Edwards was offended:
"Ronald Reagan, the man who busted unions, the man who did everything in his power to destroy the organized labor movement, the man who created a tax structure that favored the richest Americans against middle class and working families, ... we know that Ronald Reagan is not an example of change for a presidential candidate running in the Democratic Party. . I would never use Ronald Reagan as an example of change."
For a discussion of Obama's declining support among liberals, see Matt Stoller's post at Open Left: Did Obama Lose Nevada Because of his Reagan Remarks?:
"We have been fighting Ronald Reagan's psychologically diseased followers and predecessors since, well, since they called themselves the Confederacy and fought for slavery. And we will keep fighting them if we are to retain a republic. That's why the self-identified very liberal Democrats swung away from Obama and took Nevada from him. Because he very self-consciously explained that he is not part of that fight, and they want a leader who is."
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