Joe Klein: Obama No Reagan
12/04/2009 by Peter HartTime columnist Joe Klein (12/3/09)was not altogether impressed by Obama's announcement of a 30,000 troop escalation in Afghanistan (an "iffy proposition," as Klein put it). But Klein's main point was that Obama should have justified the war differently: "Once you have made the decision to go, or to redouble your efforts, you must lead the charge--passionately and, yes, with a touch of anger."
Then he describes the better way:
Ronald Reagan would have done it differently. He would have told a story. It might not have been a true story, but it would have had resonance. He might have found, or created, a grieving spouse--a young investment banker whose wife had died in the World Trade Center--who enlisted immediately after the attacks ... and then gave his life, heroically, defending a school for girls in Kandahar. Reagan would have inspired tears, outrage, passion, a rush to recruiting centers across the nation.
It's hard to know what's creepier: suggesting that a president should lie to drum up support for a war, or suggesting he should do so to fight a war you're not so sure about in the first place.
Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Joe Klein, Ronald Reagan, Time
Posted in Barack Obama, War/Military | Permalink | Trackback | Share
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December 4th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Peter Hart you are so right on. What a strange thing for a Time columnist to say!
December 4th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
[...] Joe Klein: Obama No Reagan [...]
December 4th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
It's called "propaganda", isn't it – and Obama's preferred style is just a little less Hollywood than The Great Communicator's ™, and a little more Berkeley, don't you think?
But it amounts to the same goddamn thing …
Lying through your teeth – or out your ass – to justify empire.
And folks like Klein are their enablers, and get paid many pretty pennies to do so, don't they?
Welcome to Corporate Journalism 101.
Leave your scruples at the door.
December 4th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Obama is simply doing what he's told. He could not have been elected otherwise. We are the ones who have the options to do OTE: Other Than Empire…
December 4th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Reagan would have thrown in a Bushism and mentioned the "crusades" and how we are inspired on to victory over the people that just can't accept our invasion and eight year occupation of their country!
December 4th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
[...] and Accuracy in Reporting highlights a really extraordinary piece of commentary: Time columnist Joe Klein (12/3/09)was not altogether impressed by Obama's announcement of a [...]
December 5th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Ronald Reagan was mearly the Great Articulator of Conservatives. Obama is a real communicator. But as long as we are without meaningful Campaign Reform, communicative efforts will constantly be stymied by money/propaganda and bought legislators. Jean Clelland-Morin
December 5th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Thank god he is not Reagan!
December 8th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Amen! Thank God Obama is not a Reagan or a Bush. Because of Reagan's terrorism in Central America the US was found guilty of international terrorism by the World Court. If we had not withdrawn from the International Court of Justice, Reagan would have been tried and likely have died in jail. We have not rejoined the Court because H.W. Bush and others would be tried and probably sent to jail. We are a criminal and scofflaw nation but there are some Reagan apologists who believe our terror is good.
December 8th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
[...] Time columnist Joe Klein told Obama that he should, like former President Ronald Reagan, create a narrative to support ongoing wars in the Middle East, even if the chosen stories were untrue. [...]
December 10th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
I agree with Robert Flynn. I couldn't be happier that President Obama is not even close to being like the conservative president that Reagan was. Reagan only cared about his cronies and his rich republican donors just like Bush. We would never want our Democratic President Obama to be like any of the corrupt republicans who have brought our country down with their greed and their crooked policies that were always for the richest top 2% only.