WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama addressed Congress shortly after 9 p.m.  Tuesday, but a casual viewer might have believed it was actually morning in America. President Obama takes a page from Ronald Reagan's playbook in his speech to Congress. "Morning in America" was the theme of Ronald Reagan's 1984 re-election campaign, and it was front and center in Obama's most critical event since Inauguration Day. The president who has pledged to reverse much of Reagan's economic revolution took a page from the 40th president's playbook in his 52-minute speech, striking a defiantly optimistic tone that belied the nation's sour mood and rebutted critics who have accused him of intentionally talking down the economy for short-term political gain.
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Like Reagan, Obama takes a defiantly optimistic tone in speech to Congress
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Obama employs some of Reagan's favorite rhetorical tools
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But Obama rejects Reagan view that government has no role in prosperity
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It was, in many ways, the mirror image of 1981, when a newly inaugurated @placeholder used the combination of stagnating economic growth and skyrocketing inflation to promote an equally ambitious, simple agenda: cut taxes, shrink government and build up the defense budget.