Posted on 02/03/2008 5:13:20 AM PST by Kaslin
ST. LOUIS - Barack Obama speaks in a clear style that almost always leaves his audience with a sense that he stands for something – which explains those comparisons with the last “Great Communicator,” Ronald Reagan.
Some of the comparisons have been used in opposition research against Obama, though largely in vain. Nothing detrimental stuck because Reagan successfully bridged the divide between Republicans and Democrats by building a remarkable coalition known as Reagan Democrats.
If one great communicator -- the eloquent Ronald Reagan -- could build a coalition of disaffected Democrats that swung both of his presidential elections his way, can an almost-great communicator -- the fiery Barack Obama -- build a coalition of disaffected Republicans to swing the Democrat primary election his way?
It's possible, says Brian F. Schaffner, an assistant professor of political science at American University in Washington, D.C. "Obama definitely has the potential to win over some Republicans in the same way that Reagan won over some Democrats,” says Brian F. Schaffner, an assistant professor of political science at American University in Washington, D.C.
Even though Obama probably takes more liberal positions on many issues than does Hillary Clinton, Schaffner says the perception among Republicans is that he is more moderate.
“This is a matter of style over substance,” Schaffner notes. “Obama speaks so often of bringing the parties together and working with Republicans, he seems less polarizing to Republicans than Clinton, who has long been demonized by that party.”
The Pew Research Center corroborates Schaffner's inkling. It recently produced a report showing that Obama is perceived as more liberal than Clinton among Democrats, yet is seen as more moderate than Clinton among Republicans.
One Republican who isn't afraid of Obama's liberalism is John Martin, who directs the grassroots Web organization “Republicans for Obama.”
A Bronx, N.Y., native who was very active in the Young Republicans in college, Martin, 29, is in law school but serving on active duty in Afghanistan as a U.S. Navy reservist. E-mailing from Afghanistan, Martin said his group has more than 400 members since he last checked and that the Web site’s server received so many clicks the day Obama won Iowa that it crashed.
Lisa Kinzer, 30, is another rock-ribbed Republican who's gone Obama. The Norman, Okla., native has been a registered Republican for 12 years. She has nothing against President Bush. But she does have a problem with the GOP's 2008 candidates.
Their bickering over the morality of using torture while interrogating terrorist suspects in an early debate was her turning point, she says, so she went to shop on the Democrats' side and picked Obama -- who she believes stands the best chance of uniting the nation of bringing the country back together “of by "reminding us of what we all have in common, our love of this country and our hope for its future.”
Towson University science professor Antonio Campbell is a lifelong Republican -- he even ran as one in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District 10 years ago. Yet if Obama wins the Democrats' nomination, Campbell says he will become an “Obama Republican.”
“Obama’s message reads like Reagan’s playbook -- individual strength, faith and behaving in a fiscally competent way,” Campbell says.
Obama is the only Democrat he would vote for, Campbell adds. His second choice is John McCain.
“The opportunity does seem to be out there for Obama to build an 'Obama Republican' coalition,” says Cal Jillson, political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
While Obama clearly will not replicate Reagan’s policies, Jillson says, he might replicate Reagan’s larger theme of America as a land of opportunity. He might even persuade some Republicans “that government can effectively help families meeting their most serious challenges, like steady jobs at good pay, health care and college tuition at affordable prices.
Obama won in the more conservative states of South Carolina and Iowa. Now, heading into Super Tuesday, he is knocking on doors in more-conservative, ruby-red states such as those he's knocking on here in Missouri and Kansas.
His tactics build on Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy that, coupled with promising candidates, won Democrats the 2006 mid-term election.
“Reagan represented a fundamental shift in politics -- he created a majority coalition, and the voting population changed,” says Jillson, as the primaries head into Super Tuesday.
If Obama can do to Republicans what Reagan did to Democrats, then Obama really will be 2008’s “candidate of change.”
Obama will either turn out to be a great President or he will be a Jimmy Carter type disaster, and Mitt Romney will win in 2012. Either way we are finally rid of John McNasty. Mitch McConnell will hold down the fort in the Senate until 2012.
I’m 25 and still a Republican, for now anyway. Obama isn’t as bad as Hillary but he has no appeal to me.
Most Americans do very little research. They choose candidates based on looks, style, and HOW they sound, and of course what the MSM tells them to think.
They don’t deserve good candidates, but the rest of us are stuck with what these nitwits pick (thank you to John Valentine for the perfect term for them).
susie
It’s funny because last week he was the New Kennedy, and this week he’s the New Reagan?
susie
Well, Mexico might be the place to go. It should soon be empty...
susie
IMO if we see McCain/Obama (a septagenarian, prototypical Angry White Male vs. a charismatic, YOUNG, 'new', blended, cool American) then we will see a series of debates that will make the 1960 JFK/RMN disaster look like a prom date.
Stay strong and talk sense to your peers...
Yes, just an empty suit, but if McPain is the Republican
candidate, I will not bother to vote.
Either way, we are dead meat.
There’s a BIG...HUGE...difference here. Reagan won “disaffected democrats” to his side with IDEAS. With Obama, it isn’t ideas, it’s personality and cadenced preaching. And it isn’t “republicans” he’s “winning over”. This is a lie. The “republicans” following Obama are demonRATs in sheep’s clothing. Their single purpose is to vote in our primaries and sabotage our choices. They bleat to the media how “unhappy” they are with the party, how much more they like Obama, Hillary, etc. than their “own” candidates. They work long and hard to defeat us emotionally and intellectually, to make us wonder if we are wrong, to doubt ourselves. And BOY! are they good at it.
I am going to have to concede a point here: these leftists are incredibly good at what they have been doing to us for so long now- wearing us down like water on rock. They have managed to convince too many of us that we are antiquated, have old ideas, it’s time to move forward, blah blah blah...
How many republicans truly believe that we NEED government- to take care of the needy? to educate our kids? to respond to disasters? to manage “public lands” and keep the environment “healthy? to grant money for R&D? to build anything outside an Interstate? to assure our retirement and health? How many republicans believe that certain moral absolutes, like honor, honesty, fairness and faith, are no longer absolute?
Why do we believe it?
Actually, I found some information recently to the effect that a number of retired Americans are moving to select areas in Mexico to live because the dollar buys so much more there.
And you are against big government?
Public employee retirement systems are insolvent. Congressmen retire as millionaires.
Keep flooding those illegals in for more public housing.
The check is in the mail. Yeah, right...
In fact, I am. But you can be damned straight that when I volunteered to serve the Marine Corps for ten years, I do so on condition I received a government check for my efforts.
So, I answered your question now answer mine. Are you going to forgo the social security checks when you are eligible; you know, to keep your principled view on this matter?
I want the money returned with interest. I was robbed at gunpoint.
If that jerk McCain rolls on Super-Tuesday I cross over in Ohio in March and vote for Obama as my effort to de-rail Hillary.
Probably so. I think Costa Rica is also having that, and my son lived there for 6 months a couple of years ago and LOVED it. It is apparently pretty safe and they like Americans. He said their govt is patterned on ours (I cannot attest to the truth of that but he’s a double major poly sci/history so I take his word for it).
It’s a thought. It’s a beautiful place.
susie
BTW there is nothing wrong with some people receiving a govt check, and the military comes to mind. Thanks for your service and God bless you.
susie
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