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The rise of Barack Obama and the historic challenges facing his presidency have prompted comparisons to past presidents including Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. But in these very early days, there are also parallels drawn between Mr. Obama and a more recent occupant of the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.
DON GONYEA: First, let's state one very basic truth right off the bat, President Obama and former President Reagan are very different ideologically. Obama, a Democrat on the liberal side, Reagan, a Republican and an iconic conservative. Having said that...
Representative MICKEY EDWARDS (Republican, Oklahoma): There's a lot more similarity between Reagan and Obama in their approach to government than people give credit for.
GONYEA: That's Mickey Edwards, a conservative Republican who represented Oklahoma in Congress during Mr. Reagan's years in the White House. Edwards says it starts with tone, and he hears echoes of Mr. Reagan's first inaugural address in Mr. Obama's. Most people who remember the Reagan speech remember him saying government is not the solution. But Edwards remembers he also said this.
Former President RONALD REAGAN: Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work. Work with us, not over us - to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it.
GONYEA: Compare that to President Obama's address, where he said the question is not whether the government is too big or too small.
President BARACK OBAMA: But whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account.
GONYEA: Lou Cannon has written five books on Ronald Reagan and he is struck by one common element in the two presidencies.
Mr. LOU CANNON (Reagan Biographer): In 1981, when Reagan was in office, it was as bad in unemployment as Obama faces, much worse in some areas. He had 15 plus prime interest rate, 12 plus inflation. We're talking about the two worst economic situations in Reagan's and Obama's that have been inherited since the Depression.
GONYEA: Cannon says the President Obama he's been watching for the past week and a half seemed to take on the role of president effortlessly, and that you have to go all the way back to 1981 to find a new president who seemed as instantly comfortable in the job.
Mr. CANNON: You've got presidents who are comfortable in their own skin.
GONYEA: The similarity of style also struck former Congressman Mickey Edwards.
Representative EDWARDS: The sense of, we're going to provide you with competent leadership that is not full of certitude. We have ideas, we're going to try the ideas. If they don't work, you know, we'll try something else and we'll keep at it until we get it done.
GONYEA: Edwards says that approach tends to reassure the public, and polls seem to bear that out. Both Mr. Obama and Ronald Reagan saw their poll numbers jump dramatically between election day and the day they took office. Edwards is one of a number of prominent Republicans who say they voted for Mr. Obama. The list includes several of Ronald Reagan's top advisers, such as General Colin Powell and former Reagan Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein. Edwards goes so far as to wonder whether the former president himself, if he were still alive, might have thought about voting Democratic in 2008. Reagan biographer Lou Cannon declined to speculate on that theory but he did offer this.
Mr. CANNON: I don't know whether he would have ever voted for Obama. But what I think he would have been doing now is silently cheering for him.
GONYEA: It is clear that Obama has studied the Reagan presidency closely. During the Democratic primaries, he even got heat for admiring remarks he made about the Reagan leadership style and commitment to ideas. Now he's got the job, though, no one seems to mind if the 44th president emulates those particular qualities of the 40th. Don Gonyea, NPR News, Washington.