Why Obama is the new Reagan

My father was a huge fan of Winston Churchill, and instead of listening to music at home, we sometimes listened to recordings of the British prime minister's speeches. After the humiliating Dunkirk evacuation in June 1940, Churchill told his countrymen: "We shall go on to the end; we shall fight in France; we shall fight on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air; we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on the beaches; we shall fight on the landing grounds; we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!"

Those were powerful words that galvanized the island nation. And likewise did Reagan, for all his faults, lift the spirits of Americans and Europeans during the Cold War. In one of his most beautiful and well-delivered speeches, delivered at Pointe du Hoc, France, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1984, Reagan recalled the sacrifices made by American, French and British soldiers to save the continent from fascism.

In a speech penned by Peggy Noonan, Reagan said: "Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love. . . .

"You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you."

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Forgetting the politics of left and right, red and blue, this is the leadership tradition that I think Obama inherits, and he does so at a time that might well be considered the financial equivalent of a new world war.

Doing the right thing

The global battle to fight the scourges of deleveraging, disinflation and defeatism will be long and hard, and we will all suffer many setbacks. Bad things happen in bear markets as the public mood sours. Over the next four years we can expect a lot of tensions among countries to erupt, flaming into battles worse than the recent one between Russia and Georgia, as natural resources grow thin, nerves fray and nationalism swells.

Because no one really knows how to fight the coming battle -- or what weapons to deploy as the financial markets unwind trillions of dollars of leveraged debt -- we can count on a lot more volatility ahead as disappointments mount and government intervention efforts score occasional success before meeting inevitable roadblocks. A first-term stock market decline similar to the one Reagan met while battling the last severe recession would put the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) at 7,500 by August 2010.

In these circumstances, the world will need a leader in Washington who can meld his people by sheer force of personality and oratory to confront these dragons as a common task and sacrifice, much like Churchill and Reagan did, and give hope that better days will lie ahead. Fortunately, it seems like we have that guy, and now it's up to him to execute. He'll have a short window in which to gain the markets' confidence, so let's hope he can lead a nation to defeat a culture of debt as well as he led his campaign to defeat the old political establishment.

It's fitting to allow Churchill the benediction. "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing," he said. "After they've tried everything else."

Meet Jon Markman at The Money Show

MSN Money's Jon Markman will be among more than 50 investing experts gathered in the nation's capital today through Saturday for the fourth annual Money Show Washington, D.C. This elite group will present more than 170 free workshops to help you prepare for changes in the political landscape as Obama prepares for office.

To register, call 1-800-970-4355 and mention priority code 009554, or visit the Money Show Washington, D.C., Web site.

Can't make the show? Markman's presentation, "Worst to first," will be webcast live at 10:30 a.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 8. He'll also appear with fellow MSN Money experts Jim Jubak and Tim Middleton on a panel discussion immediately following at 11:45 a.m. Click here to register, then return to see the events.

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