This press release from HillaryClinton.com provides a helpful list of Hillary Clinton's favorite presidents.
"But no president can do it alone. She must break recent tradition, cast cronyism aside and fill her cabinet with the best people, not only the best Democrats, but the best Republicans as well.. We’re confident she will do that. Her list of favorite presidents - Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Truman, George H.W. Bush and Reagan - demonstrates how she thinks. As expected, Bill Clinton was also included on the aforementioned list."
Please note that's her own Web campaign site.
Even if you think Obama praised Reagan -- I don't agree -- at least he didn't call Reagan a favorite president.
UPDATE: I noticed a few people arguing this isn't a diary because it's too short. Sorry, it's been a while since I posted a diary here -- nearly four years -- and I hadn't realized how the guidelines for posting had changed. Allow me to elaborate a bit. Obama's assertion that Reagan changed the country in a profound way by moving it to the right is entirely value-neutral; he never says this was a "good" change, merely that it was a big change. This strikes me as inarguable. The majority Reagan created remains in control of the country to this day, including many people who considered themselves crossover voters, "Reagan Democrats."
The Reagan Revolution put the Democratic party on defense for the next twenty-five years. Many of the bigwigs in our party are still on defense now, frightened and scared of Republicans and what they might say about us.
There are no Clinton Republicans. Bill Clinton didn't create this sort of realignment. Whether it's fair or not, whether the Clintons have been treated justly or not by the media, is beside the point -- there are just too many people out there who will never support a Clinton under any circumstances.
But there might well be Obama Republicans, if he is our nominee. He inspires a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in people and he has perfected the art of advancing progressive interests in a language that conservatives can understand and agree with. He could well be our Reagan, effecting a partisan realignment of the same type that Reagan did, only to our benefit. I'm convinced Hillary Clinton can't do this; I think Obama might.
So that's what he actually said about Reagan, and why the twisting of his words into an assertion that Reagan was a great president or a better president than Bill Clinton is so perverse.
Putting all that aside, I just find it funny that the Clintons managed to falsely accuse Obama of saying something that she herself has actually said.
UPDATE 2: People below have asked that some clarifying context be added to the diary so that people don't get the impression that this is a statement that was released directly by the campaign. It is not; as you will find if you click through the link, it is a paraphrase of remarks Clinton gave in an interview with the editorial board of the Salmon Press newspaper group in New Hampshire in the process of receiving their endorsement, which was then uploaded by the campaign to the Media section of HillaryClinton.com. (In more than one place the press release makes clear that she talked to the Salmon Press group directly.)
The press released is dated December 12, 2007, which means she listed Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush among her list of favorite presidents just one month ago.
UPDATE 4: Via kos's front-page post on this, the Clinton team has posted a response. Here it is in full:
Bad Oppo Alert! Hillary Did Not List Ronald Reagan As Favorite President
1/18/2008 8:55:40 PM
In an effort to divert attention from Senator Obama’s comments about President Reagan and his assertion that the GOP has been the "party of ideas," the Obama campaign circulated an item this evening from the Salmon Press in New Hampshire that asserts that Senator Clinton listed the former President as one of her favorite presidents. In fact, Senator Clinton only complimented President Reagan’s communications skills – an attribute of his that has been widely praised by Americans of all ideological stripes – and did not list him as one of her favorite presidents. She also noted that she respected George H.W. Bush.
David Cutler, the co-owner of Salmon Press Newspapers, released the following statement:
The question posed was originally what portraits would you hang in the White House if you were President and as the dialogue progressed, who are the presidents you admire most?
She [Sen. Clinton] listed several presidents that she admired and mentioned she liked Reagan’s communication skills. She did not say Reagan was her favorite President. She didn’t say anything close to that.