The Obama-Carter analogy only extends so far
Bookworm on Jun 17 2011 at 8:35 am | Filed under: Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter
To many of us, the Carter-Obama analogy is a no-brainer. Whether one looks to failing economies, rising oil prices, despair, Iranian troubles, arrogance, etc., the two are joined at the hip. Conservatives hope that the similarities extend to Obama’s being a one-term president. Jay Cost warns, though, that while their governing styles are similar (with Obama managing to be Carter on steroids), Obama has something Carter lacked — a strong base. The inevitability of a one-term Carter-esque presidency may be more elusive than we wish.
Related posts:
- Is Obama Jimmy Carter or is Huckabee?
- Just a little bit more about Jimmy Carter
- Jimmy Carter, I still think you’re a bad man
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12 Responses to “The Obama-Carter analogy only extends so far”
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Actually, Obama may be Bush on steroids—he could generate the same amount of fatigue in one term that it took Bush to create in two.
The One is going to be very vulnerable to the “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” question, and the array of uncomplimentary visual images, such as lunging toward the Saudi king’s package, is building up.
I think if the election were right now he loses in a landslide. To, practically, almost anybody. I don’t really see any good reason for him to be a viable candidate at all – what’s he done? Everything that Bush did on the wars that he campaigned against he’s continued – so his base is mad at him and feels betrayed. Economically he’s a joke and everybody knows it; if his stimulus crap was passed – instantly! - unemployment wouldn’t go above 8% and of course it’s been above 9% for the last two years – which really translates to about 17% in the real world. He drove through his witless health care mess in the dark of night with 60% of the American people opposed to it – what happened to putting it on the internet? What happened to streaming debate? Where’s all the ‘openness?’
He’s an inept and arrogant liar.
Now, as P.T. Barnum pointed out on more than one occasion, there is no overestimating the gullibility and stupidly of the American people. Often things that are obvious to the thoughtful turn out to be far less so to the not-so-much, which has always been – and remains – the majority. So you never know. But Obama benefited greatly from the fact that nobody knew who the hell he was – and everybody knew exactly who McCain was/is - the last time. This time he has a record tied around his neck like Marley’s ghost, and he’ll have to defend it. He’s now a known quantity, and he can get away with a lot less. His speechwriters are going to have to be awfully glib to get him through the inevitable questions, they can’t operate on the idiot level Jay Carney generally does. And if Muffin catches him walking down a hall out of reach of the teleprompter, he’s in trouble. (Well – that won’t happen, Muffin’s gone now, to an ABC talk show.) But you get the idea – if anybody catches him alone and unarmed, away from the prompter,he’ll be a deer in the headlights.
I think he’s easy to beat, and beat badly.
Greetings:
At the risk of, once again, going somewhat off your point, I found last week’s Obamas goings on of interest.
First, the Mrs. stepped up to announce the “hard work” (his girly arms and hands aside) that the President has been doing, of late or since the beginning of his reign, I’m unsure. Now, in the part of the Bronx where I grew up it was thought much worse than unseemly to have to send the old lady out to tell the world how wonderful you are/were.
I suppose it could have been worse; President Obama could have sent his taxpayer supported mother-in-law.
Second, were the reports of the President, and, of course, his accepting family (and probably but not definitely his mother-in-law who might just miss the wait-staff) being okay with the idea of his “serving” just one presidential term. I don’t know about the rest of you folks, but I got a very Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, take this cup from Me” kind of vibe. Not a great sign leadership-wise, when your implicit message to your subjects and especially your supporters is that they have failed you grievously. All that he has done for them and yet where is the public acclimation for both the joy and the necessity of his second term. It’s nothing short of a virtual martyrdom, although he did seem to perk back up a bit when he had a chance to throw Representative Weiner under his magically ever-expanding bus.
Self-doubt is its own reward.
Remember that Obama also controls the Dept. of Justice and I would not be surprised to see a lot of judicial misbehavior to try to sway the outcome(s) of the next election.
During Clinton’s second term election, Gore was able to work with the INS and Justice Dept. to accelerate the naturalization of more-than 1 million applicants, waiving citizenship qualification requirements, in order to pump up the voting rolls in select areas.
From the way the current “gunwalker” investigation is going, Eric Holder and the Obama Justice department will have even more incentive to stay in power in order to protect their hindquarters.
Another unknown is the potential effect of the Libyan adventure and Obama’s failure to get Congressional approval. It appears to me that the Obama administration really isn’t all that worried about Congress and balance of powers -they just do what they want to do. Why? What makes them so confident?
It will be a very ugly election.
Yes, Danny, but what about Vitters?
Martel, Z is hiding him in his house because I’m about to put him on this scaffold one way or another. Z can’t approve of that.
Martel, the fatigue was generated by propaganda arms blaring propaganda 24/7. It wasn’t generated by Bush’s actions. Ignorance is bliss.
Ymarsakar, but the beauty of this situation is that even though the mass media are Obama’s whores, large numbers of people are waking up to it. So even though the propaganda is relentlessly upbeat—”housing sales dropped unexpectedly” and “new job creation was unexpectedly low”—people know that they are being lied to.
Direct experience, in the form of plummeting equity, hard-to-find work, kids returning home at 25, trumps propaganda almost every time.
charles martel #5 – lol
Proverbs 31:6 (New International Version)
As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.
Sadie,
Do yo know what it’s like to have Grape Nuts come out of your nose? Well, I do, now, :0)
According to Z, grape nuts are endangered fruit and must be secured to prevent unsustainable development and Anthropomorphic (not anthropocentric and not anthromophism) Climate change.
Z also says he doesn’t remember when he edits other people’s quotes to include his “full” name.
8, people can become aware of the problem but they still don’t know the answer. Often wise the very act of feeling more agitated over a problem makes people more vulnerable to the fearmongering of the propagandist, who can promise easy answers in return for servitude.
It isn’t until people understand the full nature of propaganda, that they can then become resistant to it. Otherwise people are just fooling themselves. They recognize Con 1, yes, they did. They’ll fall for Con 2 even faster than they fell for Con 1, however, because they haven’t figured out how a “con” is setup to begin with.