What is the difference between obama and reagan

But the Republican Party still is. In office, Obama found himself opposed at every turn by powerful forces of conservative politics.

The Reagan regime, although greatly weakened by time, proved strong enough to check his reconstructive ambitions. And the more Obama succeeded, the more he galvanized opposition. Rather, like Nixon and Clinton, he enraged them. Obama accommodated himself to these forces as best he could. He presented himself as moderate and bipartisan, always willing to listen. He borrowed ideas from his political opponents and recast them in liberal terms.

But after the Tea Party revolt and the elections, further legislative reforms were foreclosed. Obama was forced to make a humiliating accommodation in the debt ceiling crisis of , when Republicans threatened to refuse to raise the federal debt ceiling — which would have led to world-wide economic disaster — unless Obama agreed to huge cuts in programs.

Bush, Obama consolidated and continued them. He tried but failed to disentangle the country from Bush's misadventures in the Middle East, in many ways expanding and perpetuating American commitments there. Like many preemptive presidents, Obama had a number of significant accomplishments; indeed, despite the fierce opposition he faced, he is probably the most successful domestic president of the past half century.

Obama also began to form a new coalition that someday may become dominant. Even so, Obama failed to fundamentally change the condition and direction of American politics. We saw the proof in the election. To be sure, if Hillary Clinton had succeeded Obama, his prospects as a reconstructive leader would look far brighter.

Conversely, there are no cases of reconstructive presidencies Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, FDR, Reagan in which the other party regained the White House after two terms. Clinton lost several key states by the closest of margins, and if only a few things had been different, the result could easily have gone the other way. Instead, Republicans will control the White House and both houses of Congress; they will have four years to push their programs, issue new regulations, and appoint scores of life-tenured federal judges.

All is not lost for Democrats, however. Obama may not have dismantled the Republican fortress, but he put serious cracks in it. History suggests that Donald Trump, for all his bluster, heads a seriously weakened coalition and a deeply fractious party. But he still can't give a speech like Reagan, says O'Connell, the political science professor at Dickinson College. Obama's two greatest speeches are the speeches he gave at the Democratic National Convention and the race speech he gave in about his former pastor, O'Connell says.

It's hard to see Reagan turning in similar performances. Transformational presidents poach followers from the enemy's camp:. A lot has been made about Reagan and Obama's ability to negotiate with the nation's enemies. Reagan supporters say he helped end the Cold War by ramping up defense spending and negotiating with the country he once called the "evil empire," the Soviet Union.

Obama defenders point to Obama's ability to reach a deal to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program. But transformational presidents are also able to poach followers from domestic enemies or the opposing political party. Reagan was a master at persuading people who didn't normally vote Republican to vote for him in such great numbers that a new term was invented: Reagan Democrats.

The law is an attempt to end the Age of Reagan, one writer says. There is no such thing as an Obama Republican, Walsh and others say. Most of Obama's accomplishments came when he had sizable Democratic majorities in Congress during his first years in office, or through executive and administrative power. Perhaps that's the result of today's political environment: How could any President poach followers from the opposing party when there are so few moderates left?

When Reagan came into office, he encountered a Democratic Party that was divided and demoralized, says Joseph White, a public policy professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Republican elites and voters united in opposition to him -- if anything they got more extreme.

Transformational presidents become beloved figures:. Reagan also had another nickname, the "Teflon" president. Nothing bad seemed to stick to him, historians say. He became one of the nation's most beloved presidents because people simply liked him. Even his enemies responded to Reagan's geniality. See Obama's best unscripted moments. Obama "doesn't project that kind of warmth to a lot of people. It's just not his nature. He's not a retail politics kind of guy.

Tips To find reference information about the words used in this article, double-click on any word, phrase or name. A new window will open with a dictionary definition or encyclopedia entry. Home World U. Yet Obama is also defying some of the paralyzing pitfalls of a second term — at least so far. As recently as a year ago, he was shunned by members of his own party going into the midterm elections.

He was considered a radioactive presence on the campaign trail, and pundits were calling him one of the weakest presidents in the postwar era. While many people virulently oppose most of these initiatives, no one can accuse him of succumbing to lame-duck status.

Even though Republicans control both houses of Congress, Obama has put them on the defensive, forcing them to try to muster veto-proof majorities and go to court to block his initiatives. All of which raises the deeper question of whether Obama will go down in history as a transformational, Reaganesque leader who has changed the overall direction of the nation. For now, it might be premature to anoint him into the kingdom of Gipper-Dem.

But it so depends on what comes next. Just as Reagan was succeeded by a member of his own party — his vice president, George H. Start with the fact that the next president is likely to nominate one or more Supreme Court justices. It has allowed him to defer deportation for some undocumented immigrants, enact sweeping new climate-change rules, and go bold on foreign policy. Obama took office amid a full-blown economic crisis, passed the biggest stimulus bill in history, and has presided over a slow but steady recovery.

Unemployment has been cut nearly in half — from 10 percent in late to 5. The stock market has roughly doubled under Obama, even with the recent drop. How much credit Obama deserves is a matter of great debate.

But for Obama and his team, winning a second term meant owning the bragging rights of an improved economy — and a chance to change the paradigm from the Reagan-era economic policies of less government and lower taxes. Pfeiffer said in December. He called for free community college tuition, tax cuts for working families, guaranteed paid sick leave and maternity leave, and higher taxes on the wealthy and large financial institutions.

Imagine if candidate Obama had praised Reagan in a debate with Sen. And, he says, the verification regime the Soviets agreed to was substantially stricter than the Iran deal. That analysis addresses a specific policy matter. Obama would have to embody what it means to be a Democrat and help define and shape Democratic politics for a generation, says Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta.

One issue is how Obama positioned himself within the Democratic Party from the beginning. Elizabeth Warren D of Massachusetts. In the presidential race, Sen. Bernie Sanders I of Vermont, a self-described social democrat, is the liberal darling.

If Mrs. And has he created a language and a philosophy about government that represents a transformation from the conservative era? In presidential election years, at least, Obama has forged a majority coalition.