Howard Fineman uses his latest Newsweek column to compare President Obama?s political strategy to that of our 40th president.
At one point, Fineman contends that Obama would like to mirror the political path Reagan followed in his first term.
Obama fully expects Democrats to get clobbered in 2010, and then, he hopes, a revived economy will validate his decisions and win him reelection in 2012.
But following Reagan’s script is harder than it looks. It requires an obstinate clarity of message that the current president has not always achieved, and an outsider’s agitating stance that does not fit Obama’s equable insider mentality.
There?s another important element that would help Obama follow Reagan?s script: policies that work.
