Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Its not Bush's fault any longer....its ours!
"People out there are still hurting very badly, and they are still scared. And so part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared," Obama said at a Democratic fundraiser Saturday in Boston. "And the country is scared, and they have good reason to be."
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4 comments:
I think Jim makes an important observation. Obama thinks the problem is with the people of America. So did a former president. Obama is beginning to channel Jimmy Carter.
Here is an article from last summer that gives, in my view, an insightful analysis of then Carter and now Obama. Surprisingly relevant even though written 15 months ago.
"Remembering Malaise: The 30th Anniversary of President Carter's Crisis of Confidence Speech
Ronald Bailey | July 15, 2009
Thirty years ago today, President Jimmy Carter broke ten days of isolation at the presidential retreat at Camp David to give a nationally televised speech telling Americans that they were the problem. In a fascinating effort to rewrite history, former Carter speechwriter Gordon Stewart offers a defense of Carter's infamous "malaise speech" in today's New York Times. Stewart notes that Carter believed that...
...Americans had become inward-looking, obsessed with consumption, fragmented, incapable of collective action and suffering a “crisis of confidence.”
In his speech Carter told Americans:
It's clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession....
Carter said that he'd earnestly listened to scores of people from all walks of life and that he had concluded:
This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: "Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis."...
I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.... It is a crisis of confidence...
... we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose."
"But why might Americans have really been "suffering a crisis of confidence"? Maybe it had more to do with a 13 percent annual inflation rate, than trying to fill up their empty lives with material goods. Average prices increased 40 percent between 1979 and 1981. The prime interest rate peaked at 21.5 percent in December 1980. The unemployment rate fluctuated between 6 and 8 percent for Carter's entire term. Earlier in the decade Americans had suffered under price controls and gasoline rationing imposed by Presidents Nixon and Ford. The 1979 Iranian Revolution caused a spike in oil prices and gasoline rationing was being considered by the Carter administration.
Could we be about to relive the 1970s? It's all too likely. The Obama administration and Congress don't want to just ration gasoline, but all carbon-based fuels. In addition, President Obama has called for an ambitious $150 billion alternative energy research program. The Democratic leadership has just passed a cap-and-trade bill that mandates that utilities get 20 percent of their energy from renewables like solar and wind by 2020. And the vast deficits piled up Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama may also bring back those 13 percent or higher inflation rates.
Speechwriter Stewart wonders why Carter's address to the nation became known as the "malaise" speech since it never used that word. Here's why: To most Americans, Carter's speech made it plain that it was the president who had no confidence in America and its future. Consequently, a year and half later, the public voted no confidence on his presidency."
I think Jim makes an important observation. Obama thinks the problem is with the people of America. So did a former president. Obama is beginning to channel Jimmy Carter.
Here is an article from last summer that gives, in my view, an insightful analysis of then Carter and now Obama. Surprisingly relevant even though written 15 months ago.
"Remembering Malaise: The 30th Anniversary of President Carter's Crisis of Confidence Speech
Ronald Bailey | July 15, 2009
Thirty years ago today, President Jimmy Carter broke ten days of isolation at the presidential retreat at Camp David to give a nationally televised speech telling Americans that they were the problem. In a fascinating effort to rewrite history, former Carter speechwriter Gordon Stewart offers a defense of Carter's infamous "malaise speech" in today's New York Times. Stewart notes that Carter believed that...
...Americans had become inward-looking, obsessed with consumption, fragmented, incapable of collective action and suffering a “crisis of confidence.”
In his speech Carter told Americans:
It's clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession....
Carter said that he'd earnestly listened to scores of people from all walks of life and that he had concluded:
This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: "Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis."...
I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.... It is a crisis of confidence...
... we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose."
"But why might Americans have really been "suffering a crisis of confidence"? Maybe it had more to do with a 13 percent annual inflation rate, than trying to fill up their empty lives with material goods. Average prices increased 40 percent between 1979 and 1981. The prime interest rate peaked at 21.5 percent in December 1980. The unemployment rate fluctuated between 6 and 8 percent for Carter's entire term. Earlier in the decade Americans had suffered under price controls and gasoline rationing imposed by Presidents Nixon and Ford. The 1979 Iranian Revolution caused a spike in oil prices and gasoline rationing was being considered by the Carter administration.
Could we be about to relive the 1970s? It's all too likely. The Obama administration and Congress don't want to just ration gasoline, but all carbon-based fuels. In addition, President Obama has called for an ambitious $150 billion alternative energy research program. The Democratic leadership has just passed a cap-and-trade bill that mandates that utilities get 20 percent of their energy from renewables like solar and wind by 2020. And the vast deficits piled up Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama may also bring back those 13 percent or higher inflation rates.
Speechwriter Stewart wonders why Carter's address to the nation became known as the "malaise" speech since it never used that word. Here's why: To most Americans, Carter's speech made it plain that it was the president who had no confidence in America and its future. Consequently, a year and half later, the public voted no confidence on his presidency."
I think Jim makes an important observation. Obama thinks the problem is with the people of America. So did a former president. Obama is beginning to channel Jimmy Carter.
Here is an article from last summer that gives, in my view, an insightful analysis of then Carter and now Obama. Surprisingly relevant even though written 15 months ago.
"Remembering Malaise: The 30th Anniversary of President Carter's Crisis of Confidence Speech
Ronald Bailey | July 15, 2009
Thirty years ago today, President Jimmy Carter broke ten days of isolation at the presidential retreat at Camp David to give a nationally televised speech telling Americans that they were the problem. In a fascinating effort to rewrite history, former Carter speechwriter Gordon Stewart offers a defense of Carter's infamous "malaise speech" in today's New York Times. Stewart notes that Carter believed that...
...Americans had become inward-looking, obsessed with consumption, fragmented, incapable of collective action and suffering a “crisis of confidence.”
In his speech Carter told Americans:
It's clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession....
Carter said that he'd earnestly listened to scores of people from all walks of life and that he had concluded:
This kind of summarized a lot of other statements: "Mr. President, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis."...
I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.... It is a crisis of confidence...
... we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose."
"But why might Americans have really been "suffering a crisis of confidence"? Maybe it had more to do with a 13 percent annual inflation rate, than trying to fill up their empty lives with material goods. Average prices increased 40 percent between 1979 and 1981. The prime interest rate peaked at 21.5 percent in December 1980. The unemployment rate fluctuated between 6 and 8 percent for Carter's entire term. Earlier in the decade Americans had suffered under price controls and gasoline rationing imposed by Presidents Nixon and Ford. The 1979 Iranian Revolution caused a spike in oil prices and gasoline rationing was being considered by the Carter administration. "
"Speechwriter Stewart wonders why Carter's address to the nation became known as the "malaise" speech since it never used that word. Here's why: To most Americans, Carter's speech made it plain that it was the president who had no confidence in America and its future. Consequently, a year and half later, the public voted no confidence on his presidency."
I reject the comparisons of Obama to Carter. That said, it would still represent a substantial improvement over GWB & GOP Congress.
The Democrats current arguments, "Things are bad now, but much better than two years ago" and "Our unpopular policies of TARP, auto industry rescue and stimulus package helped avert a Great Depression" are accurate, but do not fit on a bumper sticker. Our fickle electorate (it was fickle in 2008 and it it fickle now) is unmoved by such rational arguments and facts.
What to do? That is the reality. That is the playing field. The Democrats need to compare today to two years ago, emphasizing the near collapse. They need to show that the adults are in charge. Why aren't they pointing out that GWB's deficit is coming down under Obama (just as Reagan/Bush's did under Clinton)?
Two weeks is not a lifetime in politics - we are close to the finish line. I expect the Democrats to narrowly keep the House and comfortably keep the Senate. It is all about turn-out and voter enthusiasm. The Dems know what they need to do - they just have to do it.
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