While President Barack Obama has been praised for his oratory skills, Rep. Bob Goodlatte said they can’t compare to those of the Great Communicator.
“I think that [Ronald Reagan’s] combination of having the right ideas with his ability to communicate them is very different the President Obama, who has a very different set of ideas,” the Republican from Virginia told The Daily Caller. “And he seems to pull them off a teleprompter”
Goodlatte was participating on multi-panel discussion on Reagan’s “vision and policies [and] how they can guide America today.”
Just after the 100th anniversary of Reagan’s birth, conservatives are turning away from Obama’s call to “win the future,” and are instead looking back, wondering how to win a Reagan future.
The discussion, hosted by several tax reform groups, including Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, featured former Reaganites and economic experts. The speakers were such old hands of D.C. politics they even spent an hour focused on “Comparing the [fiscal and regulation policy] challenges of 1981 to 2011.”
“Obama is going in the opposite direction on [Reagan’s fiscal] plan,” said Ed Meese, a former chief of staff and attorney general under Reagan. “If you compare to the [economic] situation then and compare the situation now, the result is a very slow recovery.”
Meese said the weak American economy of 1981 is quite similar to 2011. The only way get the country back on top, said Meese, was to “go back to Ronald Reagan’s solutions.”
Others at the multi-panel discussion who were fondly and expertly remembering Reagan’s time in office included Lewis K. Uhler, who served as assistant secretary of the Health & Welfare Agency under Reagan, and Steve Entin, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of the Treasury under Reagan.
Most of the audience members not only shared the panelists’ enthusiasm for Reagan but also appeared to be nearing celebratory milestones similar to that of The Gipper’s.
While it was a truly exciting discussion, perhaps the best way to win a Reagan future could be focus on those who could build it. As it so happens, the Young Conservative Coalition will be doing just that. On Saturday, they will be honoring the 40th President’s birthday with the 7th annual Reaganpalooza!. The dress code is “chic” and it’s “21+ (no exceptions).”
Alex Brown contributed to this story