myerstownherald.com

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has compared President Obama to Richard Nixon. This statement is an outrageous insult.
To President Nixon.
Alexander compared Obama to Nixon because Obama is targeting media that are unfriendly to him and is thought to be making an enemies list. The similarities, however, end here. Nixon was a far more capable president, and he would not have made the myriad public relations and other gaffes that Obama already has committed.
When it comes to making policy, Nixon is better than Obama. Upon taking office, Nixon already had strategies to solve many of the country’s foreign policy problems. He implemented these strategies to improve relations with China and the Soviet Union. Even though the country was in a position of weakness because of the Vietnam War, Nixon actually turned the situation to his advantage. He appeared strong and decisive.
Obama, on the other hand, has appeared weak when conducting foreign policy. He has had trouble making a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, and he has made his wavering public. Nixon never would have allowed such weakness to be projected to the rest of the world. Nixon stood up for America and praised the country’s greatness. Obama goes abroad and apologizes for the United States.
On domestic policy, Nixon actually achieved far-reaching environmental policies and got the economy turned around in his first term. Obama has yet to grasp the economic situation or articulate an economic policy that makes sense. Instead of letting the economy recover, Obama is still trying to pursue health-care legislation that only will drive up the deficit and weigh down job-creating businesses.
In public relations, Obama ran a great presidential campaign. Nixon ran three, and he won two of them. Once in office, though, Nixon has the upper hand in getting his message out. Obama overdoes it. He seemingly appears on every show, and is on television all of the time. People are tuning him out.
Nixon, on the other hand, realized that it is best to speak only when you have something to say. The most dramatic example was Nixon’s summit with the Chinese. He did not reveal his plans for a summit with China until this breakthrough had been achieved. As a result, Nixon received decisive momentum in the polls. The summit announcement would not have had the same impact if Nixon went on television every night and gabbed about it.
Getting to the substance of the current debate, Nixon and his administration, like Obama, did attack unfriendly media outlets. But Nixon’s attacks at least made sense. The mood in the country when Nixon was in office was hostile, and he felt that most of the media were against him. When he would make a speech, a news commentator would immediately criticize him. Nixon’s wariness of the media also was fed by the fact that he felt the media overwhelmingly favored John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election.
Criticizing the media made sense to Nixon. There were far fewer media outlets then, and people trusted the media more. Nixon had to point out that there was another side to the stories being written and broadcast.
Now, however, there are many media outlets, most of which are friendly to Obama. Obama’s own officials even acknowledge that most media run favorable stories about the president. Yet Obama is going after the one media outlet, Fox News, that is criticizing him consistently.
The Obama administration may have a point that Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck are not going to report favorably on the president. But who cares? These shows are opinion shows, and the opinion of the hosts is that Obama’s policies are harming America. The opinions of Hannity and Beck are legitimate. Not only that, many other shows favorable to Obama exist. It is not like people do not understand Obama’s point of view. They just do not agree with him on health-care reform.
When Nixon attacked the media, he was facing a near monopoly that was highly skeptical of him. When Obama has attacked the media, the monopoly no longer exists, although many powerful voices in the media appear to support him. Attacking the one outlet that is tough on Obama looks like weakness.
In surveying Nixon’s accomplishments, without taking into account Watergate, Nixon clearly was better than Obama. He better understood how the government works and how his policies would affect the country. Obama may be Nixon’s equal in campaigning, but when it comes to running the country, Nixon has the decisive edge.
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For more on President Nixon, check out “Balancing Act: How Nixon Went to China and Remained a Conservative,” on amazon.com.