Amid Reagan tributes, Obama seeks his magic

WASHINGTON — As the United States prepares to mark 100 years since the birth of conservative icon Ronald Reagan, embattled President Barack Obama is aiming to tap into his late predecessor's political magic.Shortly after what Obama has described as his November elections "shellacking," the White House trumpeted that he was reading a biography of Reagan, who held the White House from 1981 to 1989 and died in 2004.Like Reagan, Obama swept into office on a euphoric political wave, vowing to restore US optimism and revive a sputtering economy -- then suffered a mid-term elections rout two years later fueled by high joblessness.But Reagan roared back to a landslide reelection romp in 1984 thanks to an economic surge that led voters to agree with him that they were better off than they had been four years earlier and that it was "morning in America."The actor-turned-political-prophet's supporters credit him with bringing down the Soviet Union, reining in an out-of-control US government, and rekindling Americans' enterprise and sense of global purpose.His critics portray him as an out-of-touch bumbler whose policies widened the gap between America's richest and its shrinking middle class, and dug the nation deep into debt while embracing repressive dictators and unsavory rebels in his consuming anti-Communist quest.Rather than re-fight battles over Reagan's record, Obama has claimed kinship to his famously sunny view of the United States, even as some observers see the current president emulating the "Great Communicator" in his appeals to voters."No matter what political disagreements you may have had with President Reagan -- and I certainly had my share -- there is no denying his leadership in the world, or his gift for communicating his vision for America," Obama said in a late January column in the USA Today newspaper."It was this positive outlook, this sense of pride, that the American people needed more than anything," the president said in a brief essay about Reagan ahead of the anniversary of his birth on

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