THE PRESIDENT'S ILLUSION – AT 8:11 A.M. ET:  Mr. Obama took, as he said, a "shellacking" in the November election.  And, while that says nothing about his own prospects for 2012, he clearly is worried that the shellac could spread over that year as well, sticky and gooey.  So, what does Obama do?  He channels the Gipper himself, as The Australian notes:

STUNG by criticism he is aloof and out of touch, Barack Obama has turned to the great communicator for inspiration.

He has used his Christmas holiday in Hawaii to read a biography of Ronald Reagan.

The icon of the Republicans and the Tea Party may seem an unusual choice of subject matter for the Democratic President, who spent the first day of 2011 with wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha at Pyramid Rock, a secluded beach at Marine Corps Base Hawaii...

...Like Mr Obama, Reagan suffered a huge drop in popularity and heavy losses in mid-term elections, yet managed to bounce back to win a second term.

Reagan, like Mr Obama, endured what was until then the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s and saw unemployment rise to more than 10 per cent.

Voter disenchantment led to a large swing to the Democrats in the 1982 mid-term elections.

As the economy recovered, however, he went on to trounce Walter Mondale, his Democratic challenger, in the 1984 presidential election, winning almost every state.

And...

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs revealed the President's holiday reading included Lou Cannon's account of Reagan's administration, "President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime."

"Like Obama, Reagan greatly valued his privacy and was not naturally gregarious," noted Bradley Bloch on The Huffington Post, adding Reagan was a master of "the personal relationship".

"Reagan knew that at the end of the day politics -- even (and perhaps especially) at the global level -- is ultimately about people," Bloch wrote. "As Obama looks to get his groove back, Reagan may be his most accessible role model."

COMMENT:  Earth to Obama:  Learn it right.  With President Reagan, it was far more than an engaging personality.  He personified, to many, the spirit of America.  His greatest gift was not a tax program, or a renewed economy, but a renewal of American morale, shattered by the dreary Jimmah Carter.

Like Carter, Obama is an international appeaser and an arrogant, self-absorbed man. He thinks little of his countrymen, a fact made evident by his off-the-record comment during the 2008 campaign about Americans who "cling to their guns and their religion."  That alone should have gotten him defeated.

Reagan loved America, thought it special, and it showed.

My wife and I sat three rows behind Ronald and Nancy Reagan at a performance of the Gershwin musical, "Crazy for You," in the early nineties.  During intermission, the former president was surrounded by well-wishers in the audience, and he greeted each one.  To watch him interact with ordinary people was a remarkable experience.  But behind that charm lay a man whose values meshed with those of his nation.  He was an American, not a "citizen of the world."

Listening, Mr. President?

January 3, 2011