Oh No, Not Him Again
May 21, 2007 on 12:22 pm | In National, Race for Prez |
Update: 3:30 p.m.: Now Jimmy is backpedaling.
Update on two threads ago: The war of words continues over Jimmy Carter’s recent comments that the Bush admin is “the worst ever” and that Tony Blair was essentially Bush’s poodle.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. I can only think of one president in the last century who actually did a worse job than Bush. Carter was a disaster: double-digit inflation and interest rates, high unemployment, dreadful economic growth (stagflation, I believe they called it).
And of course, there were hostages, a tripling of oil prices, gas lines and Carter blaming us in his infamous malaise speech for the state of the nation, when in fact it was his own failed leadership that left us in a wreck.
And I don’t care if he was a nice man who meant well. Good intentions are not enough. I want results in a prez. Actually, as Scott Ott points out, you could make a case that Carter was the greatest ex-prez in history simply because things improved so much after he left office.
Carter is a bitter old man who couldn’t get himself re-elected and expects people to respect him as an elder statesman. Jimmy, take a lesson from Bill Clinton and Bush 41 in how to conduct yourself after leaving office. Then go away, please.
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Our own governor shares a byline today with the Governator on the Washington Post op-ed page. They are complaing about the feds’ resusal to allow individual states to set their own emmission standards in their effort to combat global warming. Will Jodi follow up on her lawsuit against the US Ed Department over NCLB and go after the EPA as well? Stay tuned …
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Now Rev. James Dobson says he won’t vote for Rudy if he wins the nomination. This comes after saying he wouldn’t vote for McCain “under any circumstances.” Who does that leave him with? The Mormon Mitt? Maybe Dobon’s comments presage a stay-at-home mentality among conservative Christians. Not good news for the GOP.
P.S. Speaking of ex-presidents, a bunch of medical experts have concluded that Abe Lincoln could have survived his gunshot wounds if he had been shot today.
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oi vey. I wish the people in this country would stop listening to the likes of Dobson and the late Jery Falwell.
I was raised a Christian,and still find them to be completley detestable…. why did people even continue to listen to Falwell when he said that 9/11 happened because of the homosexuals? why did people continue to listen to dobson when he told his followers (more or less) to “nevermind global warming, that is just a democrat trying to divert attention from abortion and gay mirrage”?
Those are words of crazy people.
And yet he has millions of people at his fingertips.. who hang on every word he has to say.
Comment by fred — May 21, 2007 #
Terry….
I do believe that Jimmy CArter “lusts after you, in his heart”…
I still say, George W is worse than Jumpin Jummy…and he still has a couple years left to get worse!!!
We will all be living in Sabo’s by the time “W” finishes with us!
Comment by Marshall Miles — May 21, 2007 #
Terry, I am beginning to think you’re not a Carter fan! While I agree that his presidency was largely a failure, it is wrong to dismiss his opinions on that basis. Kind of like only taking stock tips from rich guys. His views on GWB should be judged on their merits, and there is no doubt that he is well informed. In a related way, I have noticed you, and many other bloggers as well, refute someone’s opinions on the basis of his/her hypocrisy. Like invalidating Al Gore’s views on global warming because he drives an SUV. Gotta dig deeper.
Comment by Peter Halle — May 21, 2007 #
Didn’t Carter inherit high inflation from Gerald Ford? Remember the WIN (Whip Inflation Now) button that Ford wore for his speech about the economy in Ocotber 1974? He also encouraged Americans to plant WIN Gardens and grow their own food. They sound like Carter gimmicks but they were actually the work of the relatively sane President Ford.
Comment by William — May 21, 2007 #
Taking Scott Ott’s view, Clinton is a pretty good ex-president, too. Under Bush the economy has done better than under Clinton - average annual GDP growth is higher, inflation is lower, unemployment is lower, stock market indices are as good, if not better, depending on how you count.
Oh, wait a minute. That doesn’t fit the media meme that the Clinton economy was the best in history. I guess Clinton isn’t that good an ex-president.
Comment by Jake — May 21, 2007 #
Peter,
Hypocrisy breeds cynicism. If the leaders of a movement don’t take their own warnings seriously, then people are tempted to dismiss it.
As for Carter, I don’t think his criticisms of the Bush admin are hypocritical, but if you were bad at something and you sanctimoniously accuse someone else of being bad at the same thing, it comes across as self-serving and therefore far less credible.
I have listed the failings of both Jimmy and GWB. How much deeper is there to dig? Give me a shovel.
Marshall,
I’m not sure after whom Jimmy “lusted in his heart” during that Playboy interview. Maybe he just wanted to “eat mor chken.”
Comment by Terry — May 21, 2007 #
Update: 3:30 p.m.: Now Jimmy is backpedaling.
Comment by Terry — May 21, 2007 #
Sure Terry, we can dig this grave together! National debt is now about $9 trillion. Under Carter we never saw a trillion, and even inflation adjusted it’s less than a quarter today’s. That’s alot of inlays. Again, I am not a Carter fan, but Egypt and Israel have been at peace since Camp David. Bush the peacemaker? And while it was horrible seeing the 50 hostages on TV, can we seriously compare that to the untelevised caskets?
Comment by Peter Halle — May 21, 2007 #
Terry, Its not clear to me what affect Carter’s policies had on oil prices. The price soared before he took office and actually dropped during his first two years. The spike came after the Iranian Revolution, fueled by manufactured OPEC shortages and the buildup to the Iran/Iraq War. Between 1972 and 1974 the price of oil quadrupled. There were three recessions during the Eisenhower years. Carter worse than Hover? Hmmmm!
Jake, In 2005 the inflation rate was 3.4%. The Clinton rate never went above 3%. Clinton inherited a high unemployment rate (about 8%) from Bush I. While he was president it fell steadily to about 4%. During the early Bush years it climed to 6.3% and started back down. It is now about 4.5% What would Bush’s numbers be like without massive deficit spending?
Comment by Tom Cowgill — May 21, 2007 #
Jake…
In the Clinton years we were paying OFF the debt, not lowering taxes for the rich and increasing the debt at historic levels!
If you really think the Bush economy is better, reserve your space for a FEMA trailer….your gonna need it!!
Comment by Marshall Miles — May 21, 2007 #
You’re right. I forgot Hoover. God, this is depressing and it’s all my fault.
This is kind of like Patrick Sullivan’s post about the most annoying song of all time. We wind up splitting hairs to see who gets the biggest display in the Hall of Shame.
I don’t know about you, Marshall, but I got a pretty good tax cut, too, and I am far from rich. In fact, I can’t even afford to shop at LaBonne’s.
Comment by Terry — May 21, 2007 #
http://inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Annual_Inflation/annual_inflation_chart.htm
Comment by Jake — May 21, 2007 #
Re Carter. The shrinks might call what he said ” Projective Identification. ” As Casey Stengel said, ” Ya could look it up. ” Well, of course, a Yankee association slips in. Given what’s happening in the Bronx tonight.
One more thing about Carter. His presidential gig wasn’t great. But his encore hasn’t been bad. Ford golfed. Carter built houses, and won a big prize. Not that golfing’s a bad way to spend your retirement.
Comment by Terrence McCarthy — May 21, 2007 #
I’ll take both you and Jake to Labonnes for lunch one day!!
Its on me!
Comment by Barney Beaver — May 21, 2007 #
Barney,
Great. Will you pay to fly Jake up from South Carolina, too? He loves the NWC.
Comment by Terry — May 21, 2007 #
Jake,
I looked at your chart. It seems to confirm what I said. By the way, when Clinton took office the Dow was between $3K and $4K and when he left, it was between $11K and $12K. The Clinton stock market boom allowed me to retire early, so it is dear to my heart.
Terry,
From 2001 to 2006, the typical middle-income American recieved a tax cut totaling $1,855 per family member (over the 6 years). But that family’s share of the added national debt burden was $8,936 per person.
Worse than Carter? How about Bush II, Bush I, Reagan, Ford, Nixon.
Comment by Tom Cowgill — May 21, 2007 #
Carter was inept.
Bush is evil.
You pays your money and you takes your choice.
Comment by Doug Richardson — May 21, 2007 #
HAve Jake pay for the tickets with the boatload of cash he has from GWB!!!!
Comment by Marshall Miles — May 22, 2007 #
One of the great consequences of the Bush 43 presidency is that so many on the left have become deficit hawks. See, even GWB has some redeeming value.
Comment by Terry — May 22, 2007 #
I have not become a deficit hawk. I feel the same way about deficits that I always have. I am basically a Keynsian. Sometimes deficits are needed and sometimes not. Running massive deficits the way the GOP has done in the last 25 years is fiscally irresponsible and totally unacceptable.
Comment by Tom Cowgill — May 22, 2007 #
Hmm … I think there was a Democratic Congress in there that passed a lot of those budgets, too, like from 1950s until 1993. It takes two of the branches to balance a budget or create a deficit.
Comment by Terry — May 22, 2007 #
There is some truth to that, but it is hardly 50/50. The President gets credit in history for keeping the financial house in order, or not. Who, besides academics, remembers the budgetwork of the Congress years later? The deep hole we are in now (remember that shovel analogy!) is the handiwork of GWB, and not some pork project in West Virginia.
Comment by Peter Halle — May 22, 2007 #
Peter,
I don’t know what the percentage of culpability is. I do know a president cannot pass a budget. Congress alone does that. The executive branch does have the bully pulpit, however.
If, for example Reagan had been serious about balancing the budget when he came on board in 1981, he could have shown some leadership in that regard. He could have forced a showdown with Congress and shut down the government to make a point that deficits do matter.
But alas, the Gipper had other priorities such as defeating the Soviet empire. I suppose if it had to be one or the other I would take the defeat of communism.
And Bush and the GOP Congress have spent (to borrow a phrase from Mike Huckabee) like John Edwards in barber shop. But the executive and legislative were of the same party riding a pretty good economy.
So what’s their excuse for deficit spending? I’m not convinced it’s the tax cuts, fashionable though that assumption may be. I don’t have the numbers in front of me but I know spending has increased during Bush’s first six years at a rate much higher than it did in the Clinton/GOP congress years.
Simply put: It’s the spending, stupid.
Comment by Terry — May 22, 2007 #
Simply put…
the proof is in the pudding
Bush…….no surplus in 6 years
Clinton 4 surplus budgets in 8 years (the last 4 in a row)
point, game, set and match!
Comment by Marshall Miles — May 22, 2007 #
Marshall, No credit to the GOP Congress in those years? I think they and Clinton complemented each other quite nicely.
Comment by Terry — May 22, 2007 #
The Fed Budget ends up in the Congress, but the process begins in the White House with the president. He proposes a budget and Congress passes it or amends it. In the 1980’s, the Dem congress passed every balanced budget that Reagan sent them. That would be none. Every budget passed was at about the same level of spending as the budgets he proposed. There was no need for any histrionics. All he had to do was submit a balanced budget to begin with.
To suggest that we had to choose between a balanced budget and defeating communism is a false dilemma. We have no way of knowing that we could not do both.
Since when is a “pretty good†economy an excuse for massive deficits. Sound economics says that that is the time to pay down the debt, not expand it.
The tax cuts were certainly a big factor in the deficits.
Comment by Tom Cowgill — May 22, 2007 #
Let me get this straight:
Who was the worse president, Carter or Bush?
Who are the bigger spendthrifts, Democrats or Republicans?
Isn’t this like arguing over who’s the bigger fathead, Rosie O’Donnell or Donald Trump?
Comment by Steve Barlow — May 22, 2007 #
[…] what the DNC wants to do? Remind us the Carter years? By almost any objective measure, he was a lousy president. Worse, perhaps, than […]
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