It has become conventional wisdom that President Reagan “restored America’s confidence,” an achievement that became forever encapsulated in political lore by the famous “It’s morning again in America” television commercial that preceded his landslide re-election in 1984. But the reality is that Reagan didn’t restore something that had been lost, he simply reminded Washington that it had been there all the time. Americans never lost faith in themselves or their capacity to shape better futures for themselves and their children. It was professional politicians inside the Beltway and fuzzy-minded thinkers at places like Harvard and the New York Times who lost sight of the country’s boundless possibilities. President Obama’s recent comments about America having lost its “competitive edge” and going “soft” in recent decades — and the support those remarks have drawn in the precincts of elite opinion — show it’s time for another Reaganesque refresher course on American self-confidence. Consider the energy issue and the growing prospects of American energy independence being achieved within a decade.

Oklahoma oilman Harold Hamm recently recounted to the Wall Street Journal of his disappointing encounter with Obama at the White House. “I told him of the revolution in the oil and gas industry and how we have the capacity to produce enough oil to enable America to replace OPEC. I wanted to make sure he knew about this.” The president’s reaction to Hamm’s statement? “He turned to me and said, ‘Oil and gas will be important for the next few years. But we need to go on to green and alternative energy,’ ” Hamm said.