Obama: Says Who?

I have to admit it: I feel more than a little uncomfortable reading (seemingly) kind words about Barack Obama from--ready for it?--Peggy Noonan. Okay, I'm sure she'd be just as uncomfortable to find herself keeping company with me (well he-llo, pretty lady!). But although I still count myself an Obamaphile, I think I still find myself more at home with straightforward critics like Glenn Greenwald or Paul Krugman than I do with the lady who gave us "read my lips" and "a thousand points of light."

It's really not just stuffiness or snobbery. The truth is, I just keep looking for the catch, nervously watching my backside to make sure she doesn't put a knife in it. So needless to say I find myself reassured when I get to the end and find that what she really likes about Barack Obama is how much he reminds her of--ready for it?--Ronald Reagan:

I end with a story told to me by an old Reagan hand who, with another former Reagan administration official, was being given a private tour of the White House by Michelle Obama. This was last summer. Mrs. Obama led the two through the halls, and then they stopped by the Lincoln bedroom. They stood in the doorway, and then took a step inside, but went no deeper. Everything looked the same, but something was different. "We don't allow guests to stay in this room anymore," Mrs. Obama explained. She spoke of it as a place of reverence. They keep it apart, it's not for overnights.

Unspoken, but clearly understood by the Reagan hands, was: This is where he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. A true copy of it is here, on the desk. He signed it: "Abraham Lincoln." The Reagan hands were impressed and moved. It is fitting and right that the Lincoln bedroom be held apart. It always should have been. Good, they thought. Good.

Read that quickly and you'd think that it was Reagan who signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Obama in the same breath as the guy who presided over the Nicaraguan death squads. Oh dear, maybe Greenwald is onto something after all.