I recently read Eisenhower's 1956 RNC acceptance speech and I really feel that Obama should deliver whole swaths of that speech to show Republicans just how far their party has drifted.

Let's use Eisenhower's endorsement!

Should Obama frame his position in terms "like Eisenhower, I believe...", GOP partisans would be forced to stop and think.    Or be forced to say - I disagree with Eisenhower...

note:

"Our Party detests the technique of pitting group against group for cheap political advantage. Republicans view as a central principle of conduct-not just as a phrase on nickels and dimes that old motto of ours: "E pluribus Unum"-"Out of many one. "

It would call the Republican bluff  from a position of strength, not whining weakness.  It's not really a party that honors even its own traditions.

There are many great great Eisenhower quotes that are absolutely apropos - and would serve as fine retorts in a debate (courtesy Steve Clemons)

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking. . . is freedom.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

More Ike Quotes at Steve's Site

There are parts of Ike's acceptance speech I disagree with of course, but the solid focus on health, infrastructure, education, equal rights, smart military investment and cooperation both at home and abroad are resounding themes in both Obama and Eisenhower's talks.

"The present and the future are bringing new kinds of challenge to federal and local governments: water supply, highways, health, housing, power development, and peaceful uses of atomic energy. With two-thirds of us living in, big cities, questions of urban organization and redevelopment must be given high priority. Highest of all, perhaps, will be the priority of first class education to meet the demands of our swiftly growing school-age population.

The Party of the young and of all ages says: Let us quit fighting the battles of the past, and let us all turn our attention to these problems of the present and future, on which the long term well-being of our people so urgently depends.

<snip/>

Now, in all existing kinds of discrimination there is much to do. We must insure a fair chance to such people as mature workers who have trouble getting jobs, older citizens with problems of health, housing, security and recreation, migratory farm laborers and physically-handicapped workers. We have with us, also, problems involving American Indians, low-income farmers and laborers, women who sometimes do not get equal pay for equal work, small businessmen, and employers and workers in areas which need special assistance for redevelopment.

<snip/>

Again, the strength I speak of is not military strength alone. The heart of the collective security principle is the idea of helping other nations to realize their own potentialities-political, economic and military. The strength of the free world lies not in cementing the free world into a second monolithic mass to compete with that of the communists. It lies rather in the unity that comes of the voluntary association of nations which, however diverse, are developing their own capacities and asserting their own national destinies in a world of freedom and of mutual respect.

http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/speeches/19560823%20Address%20at%20the%20Cow%20Palace%20on%20Accepting%20the%20Nomination%20of%20the%20Republican%20National%20Convention.htm