By Gerald Seib at The Wall Street Journal
Most presidential elections turn on the economy, but that figures to be especially true this time. Recent weeks have brought a few, tentative signs that the nation's bleak jobs picture may be improving, which would certainly help the president. Still, the unemployment rate stands at an unhealthy 8.6%, and few analysts think it will drop fast enough to reach the 7.4% rate that prevailed when Ronald Reagan won re-election in 1984, or even the 7.5% when Jimmy Carter lost his re-election bid in 1980. Not since Franklin Roosevelt won re-election in 1936 has a president faced a worse jobless situation.
More broadly, Mr. Reagan set the modern standard for gauging the economic mood of voters in an election year in that 1980 race, when he unseated Mr. Carter in large measure by asking voters simply: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" If the coming election is determined by that maxim, or by most traditional measures, President Obama would seem to face bleak prospects.
Read more...
Monday, December 26, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Romney: Obama's 8 percent jobless rate falls short
By Steve Holland at The Chicago Tribune
"He now seems to think that 8 percent unemployment would be a great achievement. I'm sorry, 8 percent is an excessive number for unemployment in this country and returning to 8 percent does not suggest a highly successful presidency," Romney told Reuters in an interview aboard his campaign bus as it rolled through New Hampshire.
"This has been the longest recovery from recession that we've seen since (Depression-era President Herbert) Hoover and he has failed to get Americans back to work," he said.
Read more...
"He now seems to think that 8 percent unemployment would be a great achievement. I'm sorry, 8 percent is an excessive number for unemployment in this country and returning to 8 percent does not suggest a highly successful presidency," Romney told Reuters in an interview aboard his campaign bus as it rolled through New Hampshire.
"This has been the longest recovery from recession that we've seen since (Depression-era President Herbert) Hoover and he has failed to get Americans back to work," he said.
Read more...
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Tehran and Obama’s Reelection
By Daniel Pipes via The Algemeiner
First a look back: Iran’s mullahs already has one opportunity to affect American politics, in 1980. Their seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days haunted President Jimmy Carter’s reelection campaign and – thanks to such developments as yellow ribbons, a “Rose Garden” strategy, a failed rescue operation, and ABC’s America Held Hostage program – contributed to his defeat. Ayatollah Khomeini rebuffed Carter’s hopes for an “October surprise” release of the hostages and twisted the knife one final time by freeing them exactly as Ronald Reagan took the presidential oath.
Today, Iran has two potential roles in Obama’s reelection campaign, as disrupter in Iraq or as target of U.S. attacks. Let’s look at each of them:
Read more...
First a look back: Iran’s mullahs already has one opportunity to affect American politics, in 1980. Their seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days haunted President Jimmy Carter’s reelection campaign and – thanks to such developments as yellow ribbons, a “Rose Garden” strategy, a failed rescue operation, and ABC’s America Held Hostage program – contributed to his defeat. Ayatollah Khomeini rebuffed Carter’s hopes for an “October surprise” release of the hostages and twisted the knife one final time by freeing them exactly as Ronald Reagan took the presidential oath.
Today, Iran has two potential roles in Obama’s reelection campaign, as disrupter in Iraq or as target of U.S. attacks. Let’s look at each of them:
Read more...
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
A Very Beatable President
By Jay Cost at The Weekly Standard
Team Obama will basically make the same case: The Republican program is at its core radical and anti-American. Will it work for them? The best way to answer this question is with another question: Did it work for Hoover?
The Obama strategy as it has developed is insufficient to produce reelection. The president is going to need assistance, either from more robust growth or a fumble by the Republicans. Bad demographic math, phony activism, and Hooveresque demagoguery is not enough to win.
Read more...
Team Obama will basically make the same case: The Republican program is at its core radical and anti-American. Will it work for them? The best way to answer this question is with another question: Did it work for Hoover?
The Obama strategy as it has developed is insufficient to produce reelection. The president is going to need assistance, either from more robust growth or a fumble by the Republicans. Bad demographic math, phony activism, and Hooveresque demagoguery is not enough to win.
Read more...
Monday, December 19, 2011
On second thought...
By Jay Evensen at The Deseret News
Memo to military scientists: Next time you design a drone, how about including a self-destruct mechanism? If the old Mission Impossible gang could do it 40 years ago, so can you.
President Obama responded to the Iranian drone capture by politely asking for it back. Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is wondering, "Why didn't I think of that?"
Hey, it never hurts to ask, right? Next up, President Obama asks North Korea for the USS Pueblo back. Pretty please?
Read more...
Memo to military scientists: Next time you design a drone, how about including a self-destruct mechanism? If the old Mission Impossible gang could do it 40 years ago, so can you.
President Obama responded to the Iranian drone capture by politely asking for it back. Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is wondering, "Why didn't I think of that?"
Hey, it never hurts to ask, right? Next up, President Obama asks North Korea for the USS Pueblo back. Pretty please?
Read more...
Friday, December 16, 2011
Candidates Stake Iowa Debate on Electability, Leadership
By FoxNews.com
But if electability had been the question for primary candidates in 1979, Ronald Reagan would have never become president, Newt Gingrich argued Thursday, saying that his debating skills against President Obama will outshine any earlier fouls he has made.
Reagan beat Jimmy Carter by a larger margin than Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover in 1932, Gingrich, a longtime history professor, said, completing his comparison.
Read more...
But if electability had been the question for primary candidates in 1979, Ronald Reagan would have never become president, Newt Gingrich argued Thursday, saying that his debating skills against President Obama will outshine any earlier fouls he has made.
Reagan beat Jimmy Carter by a larger margin than Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover in 1932, Gingrich, a longtime history professor, said, completing his comparison.
Read more...
Thursday, December 15, 2011
President Gingrich?
By Al Checchi at The Huffington Post
Newt Gingrich appears no more unelectable today than Ronald Reagan at a similar point in 1980. Similarly Barack Obama appears no more re-electable than did President Carter. History teaches that desperate times often give rise to desperate measures. Barring a significant third party spoiler, contrary to much Democratic opinion, in troubled times like this, the sharper the philosophical contrast drawn between the challenger and the incumbent, the more likely people may opt for the "unthinkable."
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Newt Gingrich appears no more unelectable today than Ronald Reagan at a similar point in 1980. Similarly Barack Obama appears no more re-electable than did President Carter. History teaches that desperate times often give rise to desperate measures. Barring a significant third party spoiler, contrary to much Democratic opinion, in troubled times like this, the sharper the philosophical contrast drawn between the challenger and the incumbent, the more likely people may opt for the "unthinkable."
Read more...
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Pollsters Check Obama: Can He Get to 50 Percent Approval?
By Matt Negrin at ABCNews.com
Since the middle of July, the weekly average of Obama’s approval rating has been between 40 and 43 percent, according to Gallup, which organized the panel for the media. The pollsters pointed to two recent presidents who didn’t earn a second term to make the case for the importance of a 50-percent threshold: Just before Election Day, George H.W. Bush had a 34 percent rating, and Jimmy Carter was at 37 percent.
Read more...
Since the middle of July, the weekly average of Obama’s approval rating has been between 40 and 43 percent, according to Gallup, which organized the panel for the media. The pollsters pointed to two recent presidents who didn’t earn a second term to make the case for the importance of a 50-percent threshold: Just before Election Day, George H.W. Bush had a 34 percent rating, and Jimmy Carter was at 37 percent.
Read more...
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Romney Out in Front
By Carl Thomas at The Chicago Tribune
"The president has been in office three years and his record is entirely fair game. I think the American people know his record is the worst we've seen since (Herbert) Hoover. I will be relentless in reminding Americans that (Obama) promised to hold unemployment below 8 percent, if we let him borrow $1 trillion. He did the borrowing, but unemployment has not been below 8 percent."
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"The president has been in office three years and his record is entirely fair game. I think the American people know his record is the worst we've seen since (Herbert) Hoover. I will be relentless in reminding Americans that (Obama) promised to hold unemployment below 8 percent, if we let him borrow $1 trillion. He did the borrowing, but unemployment has not been below 8 percent."
Read more...
Monday, December 12, 2011
Craving Another Great Depression
By Ralph R. Reiland at The American Spectator
"From 1929 to 1940, from Hoover to Roosevelt, government intervention helped make the Depression Great," writes Amity Shlaes in The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. "The trouble, however, was not merely the new policies that were implemented but also the threat of additional, unknown, policies. Fear froze the economy, but that uncertainty itself might have a cost was something the young experimenters simply did not consider."
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"From 1929 to 1940, from Hoover to Roosevelt, government intervention helped make the Depression Great," writes Amity Shlaes in The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. "The trouble, however, was not merely the new policies that were implemented but also the threat of additional, unknown, policies. Fear froze the economy, but that uncertainty itself might have a cost was something the young experimenters simply did not consider."
Read more...
Friday, December 9, 2011
The President Who Never Was
By Victor Davis Hanson at Pajamas Media
How odd that Obama has tried on every mask except one that naturally fits him, that of Jimmy Carter. Carter, remember, railed about luxury boats and three-martini lunches, as if that kind of indulgence had sent the economy into 8% unemployment, 12% inflation, and 15% interest rates. Our problem was always Nixon of old, never Carter of the present. Beneath the utopian Christian caring was the mean streak and petulance; Carter, you see, loved humanity but not humans.
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How odd that Obama has tried on every mask except one that naturally fits him, that of Jimmy Carter. Carter, remember, railed about luxury boats and three-martini lunches, as if that kind of indulgence had sent the economy into 8% unemployment, 12% inflation, and 15% interest rates. Our problem was always Nixon of old, never Carter of the present. Beneath the utopian Christian caring was the mean streak and petulance; Carter, you see, loved humanity but not humans.
Read more...
Reince Priebus: Roosevelt’s words for Obama
Op-Ed By Reince Priebus via The Wichita Eagle
Plagued by near-daily comparisons to Jimmy Carter, President Obama decided it’s time to try emulating a more popular president. So the White House dug up Teddy Roosevelt’s 101-year-old "New Nationalism" speech and threw together a trip to the town where he delivered it in August 1910 — Osawatomie.
In their attempt to find a new campaign theme, Team Obama unsurprisingly ignored these all-too-relevant words from 1910: "A broken promise is bad enough in private life. It is worse in the field of politics."
...But today, where there was to be "hope" there is hopelessness. And where there was to be "change" we are left longing for a change in direction. In short, the foundational promise of the Obama presidency has been broken.
Read more...
Plagued by near-daily comparisons to Jimmy Carter, President Obama decided it’s time to try emulating a more popular president. So the White House dug up Teddy Roosevelt’s 101-year-old "New Nationalism" speech and threw together a trip to the town where he delivered it in August 1910 — Osawatomie.
In their attempt to find a new campaign theme, Team Obama unsurprisingly ignored these all-too-relevant words from 1910: "A broken promise is bad enough in private life. It is worse in the field of politics."
...But today, where there was to be "hope" there is hopelessness. And where there was to be "change" we are left longing for a change in direction. In short, the foundational promise of the Obama presidency has been broken.
Read more...
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Christie: Obama 'has made America smaller in the eyes of the world'
By Matt Friedman at The New Jersey Star-Ledger
Still, Christie didn’t target Gingrich or any other Republican rivals. Instead, he aimed squarely at Obama, whom in recent days he has likened to former President Jimmy Carter and called a "bystander in the Oval Office."
"For the last three years, we’ve had a president who doesn’t know how to lead, doesn’t know who he is, won’t fight for what he believes in and will not — will not — make America greater," Christie said. "In fact, has made America smaller in the eyes of the rest of the world."
Read more...
Still, Christie didn’t target Gingrich or any other Republican rivals. Instead, he aimed squarely at Obama, whom in recent days he has likened to former President Jimmy Carter and called a "bystander in the Oval Office."
"For the last three years, we’ve had a president who doesn’t know how to lead, doesn’t know who he is, won’t fight for what he believes in and will not — will not — make America greater," Christie said. "In fact, has made America smaller in the eyes of the rest of the world."
Read more...
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Organizing the Takers Against the Makers
By Peter Ferrara at The American Spectator
The brilliant Chavistas at the Center for American Progress have revealed the reelection strategy for President Jimmy Carter II. This time they are going to get the 1980 election right. Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin enlighten us with their publication, "The Path to 270: Demographics versus Economics in the 2012 Presidential Election."
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The brilliant Chavistas at the Center for American Progress have revealed the reelection strategy for President Jimmy Carter II. This time they are going to get the 1980 election right. Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin enlighten us with their publication, "The Path to 270: Demographics versus Economics in the 2012 Presidential Election."
Read more...
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The true costs of Keynes
By Martin Hutchinson at Asia Times Online
Those costs are considerable. In the 1930s, US president Herbert Hoover's reckless expansion of government spending, including loans to cronies through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, caused further slowdown in the economy, which was exacerbated by his dreadful early 1932 increase in the top marginal rate of tax from 25% to 63%.
In the recent unpleasantness, fiscal stimulus worldwide initially appeared merely ineffective. By diverting resources from the productive private sector to unproductive public sector boondoggles it reduced long-term output. In the US case, the Barack Obama stimulus converted a vigorous recovery into an anemic one; only in the third quarter of 2011, after the effects of stimulus had begun to wear off, did output begin to accelerate and unemployment trend down (in this case we should celebrate public sector job losses and declines in public sector output, since they free up resources for healthy private sector growth!).
However, with the euro crisis it has become clear that fiscal stimulus, if excessive, has an exponentially adverse effect. By increasing deficits to unsustainable levels, it precipitates bond market fears about the state's credit risk. Naturally, that strangles credit availability to almost all entities domiciled in the country concerned.
Read more...
Those costs are considerable. In the 1930s, US president Herbert Hoover's reckless expansion of government spending, including loans to cronies through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, caused further slowdown in the economy, which was exacerbated by his dreadful early 1932 increase in the top marginal rate of tax from 25% to 63%.
In the recent unpleasantness, fiscal stimulus worldwide initially appeared merely ineffective. By diverting resources from the productive private sector to unproductive public sector boondoggles it reduced long-term output. In the US case, the Barack Obama stimulus converted a vigorous recovery into an anemic one; only in the third quarter of 2011, after the effects of stimulus had begun to wear off, did output begin to accelerate and unemployment trend down (in this case we should celebrate public sector job losses and declines in public sector output, since they free up resources for healthy private sector growth!).
However, with the euro crisis it has become clear that fiscal stimulus, if excessive, has an exponentially adverse effect. By increasing deficits to unsustainable levels, it precipitates bond market fears about the state's credit risk. Naturally, that strangles credit availability to almost all entities domiciled in the country concerned.
Read more...
Monday, December 5, 2011
‘Carter’ is new GOP epithet for Obama
By Dave Boyer at The Washington Times
Perhaps it’s a risk for any incumbent Democratic president running for re-election, but President Obama now finds himself being compared by Republicans to former President Jimmy Carter.
“Obama’s America - Malazy,” trumpets a new ad by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, combining Mr. Carter’s “malaise” speech with Mr. Obama’s recent characterization of America as “lazy” in the pursuit of foreign investors. The ad is titled “Two presidents, one excuse.”
Read more...
Perhaps it’s a risk for any incumbent Democratic president running for re-election, but President Obama now finds himself being compared by Republicans to former President Jimmy Carter.
“Obama’s America - Malazy,” trumpets a new ad by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, combining Mr. Carter’s “malaise” speech with Mr. Obama’s recent characterization of America as “lazy” in the pursuit of foreign investors. The ad is titled “Two presidents, one excuse.”
Read more...
Friday, December 2, 2011
The GOP’s Jimmy Carter fixation
By Aaron Blake at the Washington Post
Don’t look now, but all of a sudden, Republicans are running against Jimmy Carter again. Or at least trying to.
To wit:
* The GOP gleefully pointed to a Gallup poll earlier this week that showed President Obama’s numbers dipping below Carter’s at the same point in their respective terms.
* The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a web video Wednesday titled “Malazy” – a hybrid of Carter’s “malaise” and Obama’s “lazy” quotes.
Read more...
Don’t look now, but all of a sudden, Republicans are running against Jimmy Carter again. Or at least trying to.
To wit:
* The GOP gleefully pointed to a Gallup poll earlier this week that showed President Obama’s numbers dipping below Carter’s at the same point in their respective terms.
* The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a web video Wednesday titled “Malazy” – a hybrid of Carter’s “malaise” and Obama’s “lazy” quotes.
Read more...
Thursday, December 1, 2011
'They Don't Need Our Votes'
By James Taranto at The Wall Street Journal
We're not saying any of these eventualities are likely, or that they would necessarily help Obama. (Jimmy Carter had an international crisis, an "extreme" challenger, and a third-party GOP candidate, and he lost badly anyway.) But a necessary condition for an Obama victory is that his own party not throw in the towel months before the election.
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We're not saying any of these eventualities are likely, or that they would necessarily help Obama. (Jimmy Carter had an international crisis, an "extreme" challenger, and a third-party GOP candidate, and he lost badly anyway.) But a necessary condition for an Obama victory is that his own party not throw in the towel months before the election.
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Carter-Obama parallels
By Michael Francis at Examiner.com
The Obama presidency now has another unfortunate comparison to Jimmy Carter. Barack Obama's approval rating continues to stagnate in the low 40's, coming in at 43 percent in the latest Gallup polling.
The President's approval rating has not topped 50 percent since May, and now falls below Jimmy Carter's approval rating at the same point in their presidencies.
Read more...
The Obama presidency now has another unfortunate comparison to Jimmy Carter. Barack Obama's approval rating continues to stagnate in the low 40's, coming in at 43 percent in the latest Gallup polling.
The President's approval rating has not topped 50 percent since May, and now falls below Jimmy Carter's approval rating at the same point in their presidencies.
Read more...
Does Obama Think It's Beneath Him to Be President?
By Michael Goodwin at Fox News
He’s so bad at the job that the frequent comparisons to Jimmy Carter are unfair to Carter. The former peanut farmer was a terrible president, but he was at least sincere in his starchy disdain for the country.
Obama professes to really, really like America. He just wants to change everything about it.
And when the country says no thanks, he goes off script and the smears come out. We’re “soft” and “lazy” and “bitter” and “cling” to God and guns.
Read more...
He’s so bad at the job that the frequent comparisons to Jimmy Carter are unfair to Carter. The former peanut farmer was a terrible president, but he was at least sincere in his starchy disdain for the country.
Obama professes to really, really like America. He just wants to change everything about it.
And when the country says no thanks, he goes off script and the smears come out. We’re “soft” and “lazy” and “bitter” and “cling” to God and guns.
Read more...
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Congratulations, Jimmy Carter! You’re Not the Most Unpopular President Any More!
Via John Hayward at Human Events
President Obama's slow ride down Gallup's daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.
Since March, Obama's job approval rating has hovered above Carter's, considered among the 20th century's worst presidents, but today Obama's punctured Carter's dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama's job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter's 51 percent.
Read more...
President Obama's slow ride down Gallup's daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.
Since March, Obama's job approval rating has hovered above Carter's, considered among the 20th century's worst presidents, but today Obama's punctured Carter's dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama's job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter's 51 percent.
Read more...
Tim Pawlenty: 'Barack Obama is the Barney Fife of presidents,' like Jimmy Carter
By Marc Caputo at The Miami Herald
Romney's campaign co-chair and former rival, former Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, said President Obama and the Democrats are doing all they can to avoid talking about jobs.
"Barack Obama is the Barney Fife of presidents," Pawlenty said, calling Obama's performance "stumbling, bumbling, ineffective" and reminiscent of Jimmy Carter.
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Romney's campaign co-chair and former rival, former Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, said President Obama and the Democrats are doing all they can to avoid talking about jobs.
"Barack Obama is the Barney Fife of presidents," Pawlenty said, calling Obama's performance "stumbling, bumbling, ineffective" and reminiscent of Jimmy Carter.
Read more...
Monday, November 28, 2011
Obama and Liberal Intelligentsia Shed Dignity Ahead of 2012 Election
By Russ Smith at Splice
Barack Obama has yet to add a “killer rabbit” incident in his growing list of parallels to Jimmy Carter’s failed presidency, and his quiver of good luck arrows isn’t so depleted that he’s attracted a principled Democrat to mount a challenge for the Party’s nomination, but as 2011 dwindles away into holiday distraction, the erstwhile political magician is running out of gas. That’s Obama’s car in America’s ditch right now, and the owner shows little interest in repairing the damage. At least the hapless Carter, when Teddy Kennedy announced his primary bid in late-1979, had the gumption and competitive spirit to tell anyone who’d listen that he’d “whip [Kennedy’s] ass. Obama, on the other hand, appears listless and bored, and is apparently counting on winning a second term as the lesser of two evils.
Read more...
Barack Obama has yet to add a “killer rabbit” incident in his growing list of parallels to Jimmy Carter’s failed presidency, and his quiver of good luck arrows isn’t so depleted that he’s attracted a principled Democrat to mount a challenge for the Party’s nomination, but as 2011 dwindles away into holiday distraction, the erstwhile political magician is running out of gas. That’s Obama’s car in America’s ditch right now, and the owner shows little interest in repairing the damage. At least the hapless Carter, when Teddy Kennedy announced his primary bid in late-1979, had the gumption and competitive spirit to tell anyone who’d listen that he’d “whip [Kennedy’s] ass. Obama, on the other hand, appears listless and bored, and is apparently counting on winning a second term as the lesser of two evils.
Read more...
Friday, November 25, 2011
Dow, S&P Log Worst Thanksgiving Week Since 1932
By JeeYeon Park at CNBC.com
Stocks closed in negative territory in thin, shortened trading Friday as investors were reluctant to go long ahead of the weekend and amid ongoing worries over the euro zone.
The Dow and S&P posted their worst Thanksgiving week since the Great Depression on a percentage basis.
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Stocks closed in negative territory in thin, shortened trading Friday as investors were reluctant to go long ahead of the weekend and amid ongoing worries over the euro zone.
The Dow and S&P posted their worst Thanksgiving week since the Great Depression on a percentage basis.
Read more...
Letter: Obama should quit scolding Americans
Letter to the editor from Chico Enterprise-Record
I'm sick to death of this guy's penchant for purposely making disparaging remarks about our country and its people. Nearly every president (except Jimmy Carter) understood the dynamics of the social psyche enough to know not to cast aspersions on the citizenry —especially during tough economic times. If Reagan had followed Carter with this "woe is me, our country stinks and the people are a bunch of losers" nonsense, we'd still be in the Carter recession.
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I'm sick to death of this guy's penchant for purposely making disparaging remarks about our country and its people. Nearly every president (except Jimmy Carter) understood the dynamics of the social psyche enough to know not to cast aspersions on the citizenry —especially during tough economic times. If Reagan had followed Carter with this "woe is me, our country stinks and the people are a bunch of losers" nonsense, we'd still be in the Carter recession.
Read more...
Thursday, November 24, 2011
If Only Obama Had Been This Guy
By Holman Jenkins at The Wall Street Journal
Let us suggest a counterintuitive historical parallel. Jimmy Carter also came to the presidency as a "progressive" Democrat, amid a failing economy. He also had considerable freedom to define his own agenda, riding a wave of Watergate revulsion rather than an ideological mandate.
But Mr. Carter had served aboard Navy submarines. He ran a peanut plantation. He served one term as Georgia governor—real jobs that produce real effects. Mr. Carter saw himself in some realistic relation to the world.
Read More...
Let us suggest a counterintuitive historical parallel. Jimmy Carter also came to the presidency as a "progressive" Democrat, amid a failing economy. He also had considerable freedom to define his own agenda, riding a wave of Watergate revulsion rather than an ideological mandate.
But Mr. Carter had served aboard Navy submarines. He ran a peanut plantation. He served one term as Georgia governor—real jobs that produce real effects. Mr. Carter saw himself in some realistic relation to the world.
Read More...
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Obama Peddles Myths About the Great Depression: No, Hoover Didn’t Cut Taxes or Spending
By Hans Bader at OpenMarket.org
Herbert Hoover increased marginal tax rates on the wealthy to 63 percent, and more than doubled government spending as a percentage of the economy. But in his political speeches, President Obama continues to falsely claim that Hoover gave “tax cuts” to the rich and slashed the government to promote “trickle-down economics.”
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Herbert Hoover increased marginal tax rates on the wealthy to 63 percent, and more than doubled government spending as a percentage of the economy. But in his political speeches, President Obama continues to falsely claim that Hoover gave “tax cuts” to the rich and slashed the government to promote “trickle-down economics.”
Read more...
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Obama = Carter?
By Mark Binker at the Greensboro News-Record
The most recent High Point University poll tries to draws an interesting historical parallel between President Barack Obama and former President Jimmy Carter, both Democrats. Carter was a one-term president who was defeated by Ronald Reagan during sour economic times.
The HPU poll asked the same question that the UNC Carolina Poll in the fall of 1979: on the whole, do you think the president has been doing a good job.
Read more...
The most recent High Point University poll tries to draws an interesting historical parallel between President Barack Obama and former President Jimmy Carter, both Democrats. Carter was a one-term president who was defeated by Ronald Reagan during sour economic times.
The HPU poll asked the same question that the UNC Carolina Poll in the fall of 1979: on the whole, do you think the president has been doing a good job.
Read more...
Monday, November 21, 2011
CURL: Obama’s growing disdain for American worker
By Joseph Curl at The Washington Times
Fast-forward 32 years to the New Jimmy Carter. Mr. Obama has decided to travel the country on his taxpayer-funded 747 to tell the taxpayers that they’re doing a terrible job, that they just have to do more - and do it better. Sure, he blames Congress for the continuing gridlock over the economy (for him, there is no such thing as the bully pulpit), but he wants it to be known far and wide that it is the American worker who has so heinously let down his nation.
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Fast-forward 32 years to the New Jimmy Carter. Mr. Obama has decided to travel the country on his taxpayer-funded 747 to tell the taxpayers that they’re doing a terrible job, that they just have to do more - and do it better. Sure, he blames Congress for the continuing gridlock over the economy (for him, there is no such thing as the bully pulpit), but he wants it to be known far and wide that it is the American worker who has so heinously let down his nation.
Read more...
State lawmakers need to deal with grim budget realities
Editorial from the Lower Columbia Daily News
Herbert Hoover, the only U.S. President with any real credentials as an "economist," was looking for a theme for his 1932 re-election campaign and made the notably unwise choice of "Prosperity is just around the corner."
It was quite some time before that corner was turned and the country turned it without Hoover, who was crushed at the polls by Franklin Roosevelt in November. It would be 20 more years before voters put another Republican in the White House.
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Herbert Hoover, the only U.S. President with any real credentials as an "economist," was looking for a theme for his 1932 re-election campaign and made the notably unwise choice of "Prosperity is just around the corner."
It was quite some time before that corner was turned and the country turned it without Hoover, who was crushed at the polls by Franklin Roosevelt in November. It would be 20 more years before voters put another Republican in the White House.
Read more...
Friday, November 18, 2011
Don't like the presidential candidates? Nominate your own online
By Luke Shuffield at CNN.com
With respect to the two political parties, the dissatisfaction has reached its boiling point. None of the individual Republican candidates have been able to generate any kind of significant positive intensity. The situation for the Democrats isn’t much better. President Obama’s approval rating hit its lowest point in his administration at 41% in his 11th quarter. The only commander-in-chief since Dwight Eisenhower to sink that low this late in the game was Jimmy Carter.
Read more...
With respect to the two political parties, the dissatisfaction has reached its boiling point. None of the individual Republican candidates have been able to generate any kind of significant positive intensity. The situation for the Democrats isn’t much better. President Obama’s approval rating hit its lowest point in his administration at 41% in his 11th quarter. The only commander-in-chief since Dwight Eisenhower to sink that low this late in the game was Jimmy Carter.
Read more...
Rage and remediation no way to run a country
By Chris Powell at The Journal-Inquirer
With President Obama rehabilitating Herbert Hoover, all the Republican Party has to do to win the next presidential election is nominate someone halfway sane. But most candidates for the Republican nomination seem to be wooing people mad with rage.
Distress about the country's decline is certainly the prerequisite for change. But while rage may win a party primary, an election is something else, and many distressed voters may be only more distressed the more they see of the Republican candidates.
Read more...
With President Obama rehabilitating Herbert Hoover, all the Republican Party has to do to win the next presidential election is nominate someone halfway sane. But most candidates for the Republican nomination seem to be wooing people mad with rage.
Distress about the country's decline is certainly the prerequisite for change. But while rage may win a party primary, an election is something else, and many distressed voters may be only more distressed the more they see of the Republican candidates.
Read more...
Thursday, November 17, 2011
S.E. Cupp Likens Obama’s ‘Lazy’ Comment To Jimmy Carter Malaise Speech
Via James Crugnale at Mediaite
On MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, conservative political analyst SE Cupp slammed Barack Obama‘s alleged comment that Americans were being “a little bit lazy.” Alleged, because that’s not what he acutally said. Nonetheless, Cupp said “I won’t go so far as to make the argument this means he’s un-American,” Cupp said. “But we know how badly Jimmy Carter‘s malaise speech went over — when you indict the American public for the societal ills and bad economy, they don’t take kindly.”
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On MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, conservative political analyst SE Cupp slammed Barack Obama‘s alleged comment that Americans were being “a little bit lazy.” Alleged, because that’s not what he acutally said. Nonetheless, Cupp said “I won’t go so far as to make the argument this means he’s un-American,” Cupp said. “But we know how badly Jimmy Carter‘s malaise speech went over — when you indict the American public for the societal ills and bad economy, they don’t take kindly.”
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Protests That Worked
By Michael Lind at The New York Times
On July 28, 1932, at the command of President Herbert Hoover, police and soldiers led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur attacked and destroyed the camp of the Bonus Army, a group of thousands of World War I veterans and their families and allies who had spent the spring and summer protesting the unemployment created by the Great Depression. The violence, in which two veterans were killed and dozens of people were injured, shocked the American public and helped to ensure the victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt over Hoover in that fall’s presidential election.
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On July 28, 1932, at the command of President Herbert Hoover, police and soldiers led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur attacked and destroyed the camp of the Bonus Army, a group of thousands of World War I veterans and their families and allies who had spent the spring and summer protesting the unemployment created by the Great Depression. The violence, in which two veterans were killed and dozens of people were injured, shocked the American public and helped to ensure the victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt over Hoover in that fall’s presidential election.
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This Week in the Great Depression: Echoes
By Philip Scranton at Bloomberg
President Herbert Hoover, meanwhile, was trying to "step in at the eleventh hour to avert disaster," this time a renewed decline in stock values. As the attached graphic shows, the Dow charted a ragged slide -- peaks and valleys that slumped from 381 to 86 by late 1931, and to less than half that by mid-1932. Hoover called for an international agreement to defer payments on war debts and reparations, which he hoped would stop the downward momentum.
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President Herbert Hoover, meanwhile, was trying to "step in at the eleventh hour to avert disaster," this time a renewed decline in stock values. As the attached graphic shows, the Dow charted a ragged slide -- peaks and valleys that slumped from 381 to 86 by late 1931, and to less than half that by mid-1932. Hoover called for an international agreement to defer payments on war debts and reparations, which he hoped would stop the downward momentum.
Read more...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Carterization of Barack Obama
By Charles Pierce at Esquire:
In a bright autumn thirty-one years ago, as Jimmy Carter was running for reelection, his presidency was dying in a thousand different places. It was dying in South Dakota, where voters were preparing to vote out George McGovern. It was dying in Idaho, where voters were preparing to roast Frank Church on the same spit. It was dying in Indiana, where Birch Bayh was about to become a former senator as well. And another one of those places was a union hall in Youngstown, Ohio, where nobody famous was working at all.
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In a bright autumn thirty-one years ago, as Jimmy Carter was running for reelection, his presidency was dying in a thousand different places. It was dying in South Dakota, where voters were preparing to vote out George McGovern. It was dying in Idaho, where voters were preparing to roast Frank Church on the same spit. It was dying in Indiana, where Birch Bayh was about to become a former senator as well. And another one of those places was a union hall in Youngstown, Ohio, where nobody famous was working at all.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Occupy WS = Hoovervilles?
Via Aaron Goldstein at the American Spectator
The Los Angeles Times makes the case that Occupy Wall Street and its sister movements around the country are modern day Hoovervilles:
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The Los Angeles Times makes the case that Occupy Wall Street and its sister movements around the country are modern day Hoovervilles:
The Occupy sites that sprouted up in recent months in response to the poor economy resemble the Great Depression's so-called Hoovervilles, shanty villages inhabited by a newly created class of poor people.
Named for Republican President Herbert Hoover, who was thrown out of office after one term because of his failed policies in dealing with the Depression, the Hoovervilles ultimately helped shape the New Deal and the vision of a liberal state that would provide an economic safety net.
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