Is it Safe Now to Admit Jimmy Carter Was Right?

[robertpaulsen]

Is it Safe Now to Admit Jimmy Carter Was Right?
by Joseph Wheelan



Mr. Wheelan is the author of four books on American presidents and American history, the most recent published in January, Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress.


Misunderstood, mocked, and maligned, the 39th president (1977-81) will forever be associated with the Iranian hostage crisis and the botched rescue attempt; the human rights-inspired Olympic boycott and grain embargo; inflation; the infamous rabbit attack; and, above all, skyrocketing fuel prices.

Americans, who hate to be told they must change, roundly condemned Jimmy Carter’s memorable “Crisis of Confidence” speech of July 15, 1979. In it, Carter outlined a program for achieving energy independence: “On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.”

We admirers have long endured ridicule whenever we dared to defend Carter’s prescient plan for reducing U.S. dependence on oil.

But today, after all the abuse and scorn heaped on Jimmy Carter and his supporters, we find ourselves paying more than $4 a gallon at the pump to fill our hulking gas guzzlers.

It turns out that Carter was right after all.

more...

http://www.hnn.us/articles/52030.html

[bemildred]

1. Yes! Jimmy was right! He was right then, he's been right all along!

And it's about time he got the credit he deserves.
:applause::applause:

[asthmaticeog]

2. Only now? I've been saying so for years.

I sure *hope* it's been safe, otherwise I'd be right fucked.

[Mnemosyne]

3. I continue to put on a sweater after all these years. :) n/t

[treestar]

4. He really was

The Raygun years were the beginning of Americans thinking reality was optional.

[TooBigaTent]

5. The Democratic Party's betrayal and abandonment of President Carter was an

early example of their complicity in the corporatization of Amerika.

We have learned nothing in 27 years.

[robertpaulsen]

12. True. Have you read Secrets of the Temple?

Great book about Paul Volcker and the Federal Reserve. The Democratic Congress began their capitulation in 1978 by cutting in half the federal income tax on capital gains and halting budget growth for domestic social programs that aided the poor. The key blows, along with the Fed's shift to Friedmanesque monetarist operating methods, was the Monetary Control Act and every important aspect of the 1980 legislation - repealing usury laws, authorizing interest on checking accounts and abolishing rate ceilings. To quote from William Greider's book: "The Democratic Party was abandoning the egalitarian agenda that it had embraced for nearly fifty years. The benefits would flow upward on the economic ladder and the costs would flow downward".

Both Carter and the poor were abandoned. Then we got Reagan. :cry:

[Enthusiast]

16. And you are exactly correct!

TooBigaTent has nailed it. All this and Reagan was praised to high heaven for making Americnas 'proud again'. How fucking stupid. Reagan should have been thrown out of office for Iran- Contra.

[eShirl]

6. I want to see this rec'ed all the way to the top of The Greatest

Carter was the most decent man to be president in my lifetime.

[robertpaulsen]

15. Most decent President/Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Roosevelt and Wilson also did it, but Carter is the most decent of the bunch in my book.

[Tikki]

59. I used to carry a picture card of President Carter...

in my wallet...got it in a package of cookies, some promo with all
the Pres. on like a trading card.

Once when I was at the cashier at the grocery store a man behind me
commented on why I would carry a picture of Pres. Carter.
I commented on what a kind and decent man Pres. Carter was and he agreed,
but the man said he was wrong for America.

I told him I was an American and that Pres. Carter was the right person for me.

:)
Tikki

[bonito]

7. K&R n/t

[jgraz]

8. Of course, it's still not safe to say Ronald Reagan was WRONG

Maybe one day the American public will wake up. :banghead:

[robertpaulsen]

9. Hopefully soon.

If Americans start asking, "Where did we go wrong with our energy policy?", they'll find the answer in The Great :eyes: Communicator.

[wizstars]

58. Shouldn't that be "the Great Prevaricator"?

...or maybe I'm getting him confused with GWB....

it's so easy to do.

[file83]

21. Reagan was WRONG. Saying anything else is dangerous, IMHO.

[Connonym]

25. not where I am...

they just opened up Ronald Reagan Elementary School the next town over :eyes:

[ekwhite]

34. Ronald Reagan Elementary?

Will the kids come out of that school dumber than when they went in?

[nxylas]

53. Do kids graduate from that school to Ronald Reagan Middle School?

And from there to Ronald Reagan High School, located on Ronald Reagan Boulevard? Honestly, it's like an obsessive-compulsive disorder the way conservatives want Reagan's name and/or likeness everywhere, with replacing that pinko FDR on the dime as their holy grail. Have they tried to get his wrinkly mug on Mount Rushmore yet? I'd be very surprised if they hadn't.

[Connonym]

62. I'm pretty sure they learn that ketchup is a vegetable

and voodoo economics is taught. You don't even want to know about Star Wars stuff they learn in science.

I kid but it makes me sick. I remember the early 80s. I remember my dad being laid off from 2 different companies that shut down their businesses in WI. I remember my dad, formerly middle management, finally taking a job as a laborer in a foundry. Not that there's anything wrong with labor but not for a man of his age and education, taking minimum wage job because it was all he could find to put food on the table. Yeah, the 80s were some good fucking times for my family. Not that I'm bitter or anything...

[AlbertCat]

44. Reagan was WRONG. Saying anything else is dangerous, IMHO.

How about saying Reagan was clueless, incompetent, a tool, and perhaps the 1st PR president?

Talk about an empty suit so the secret underground Executive Branch could work its machinations sans opposition. (Iran Contra anyone?) Only Bush II has exceeded this job description. If "early stages of Alzheimer's" Reagan was an empty suit, "Dry Drunk" Bush is a cardboard cutout. The GOP has turned the office of the President into a supporting role.

Even Fire Sign Theater got this right in their "The Breaking of the President"...and that was 1971!!!!!

[JCMach1]

29. Reagan wasn't just wrong, he was a criminal!

[ekwhite]

35. Amen to that

He should have been impeached for Iran Contra.

[TAGGLINES]

39. Seems as though the only impeachable act

Is to get a blow job in the Oval Office...This shit is hopeless...and shameful

SSDD......:rant:

[Dollface]

64. De-Reagan-ulation has destroyed this country. No restraints and no accountability for corporations.

Brought to you by a political party that didn't notice that their leader had dementia. Kind of reminds me of McCain in that sense.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

10. K & R n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

11. It has *always* been safe to say he was right.

At least in my house it has always been safe to say that.

[bvar22]

13. J Carter...The first Democrat to be swiftboated by Corporate interests.

The very first thing Bill Clinton should have done was re-install the solar panels on the White House.

[liam_laddie]

14. K & R !

Carter is one of the few intelligent and principled Presidents we've had in the last 100 years. He sure as hell WAS right and STILL IS!

[msedano]

17. Carter was ready to fry the world with nukes...

...when he commanded a nuclear submarine armed with tons of warheads. Such sobering responsibility adds weight to his observations on saving the world. Of course he was right, and for all the right reasons.

regards,
mvs

[verges]

19. Actually

he served on post WWII diesel boats which certainly did not carry nuclear warheads. He resigned his commission as a LT a full year before the Nautilus was commissioned. Also, a LT wouldn't have been a CO of a boat.

[bemildred]

20. But he was a nucular engineer IIRC.

:-)

[verges]

48. That's true.

And, he was plannibg on being a nuclear sub officer. But he resigned unexpectedly after the death of his father in late 1953.

[xxqqqzme]

65. I fairly certain he was never a commander of a nuc-sub.

His father died and he resigned from the navy to take over the fam's peanut business.

add:
'...Upon the death of his father in July 1953, however, Lieutenant Carter immediately resigned his commission and was discharged from the Navy on October 9, 1953.<13><14> This cut short his nuclear power training school, and he was never able to serve on a nuclear submarine, as the first of the fleet was launched January 17, 1955, over a year after his discharge from the Navy....'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Carter

Carter is the only president, I know, who had a vision of the future for the US. The sheeple were tooo stooooopid to listen cuz the corporate media had their new attraction/distraction - st ronnie.

[msedano]

72. feeble memory?

damn. all this time that is what i remember from carter's run for the white haus. are you sure your research is more accurate than my memory? yet, doesn't the essence remain, didn't he ride around on that boat willing to write finis to civilization as we know it, if so, giving his exercise of responsibility as CIC more gravity that say, shithead now in office, or any of carter's successors?

regards,
mvs

[onetinsoldier]

18. jimmy carter

he was(is)also right about the middle east

[Terre]

22. April 18, 1977

and two years earlier, Carter addressed the nation:
http://www.pbs.org:80/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_energy.html

Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.

It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.

We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren.

We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.

Two days from now, I will present my energy proposals to the Congress. Its members will be my partners and they have already given me a great deal of valuable advice. Many of these proposals will be unpopular. Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices.

The most important thing about these proposals is that the alternative may be a national catastrophe. Further delay can affect our strength and our power as a nation.

Do read the rest at the link above.

Read it and weep.

He set the date of achieving his/our energy goals by 1985.

Imagine where we would be now, if those in power had LISTENED and ACTED.

[BobTheSubgenius]

23. Carter had no clue.

Building houses on behalf of Habitat For Humanity? With HIS OWN HANDS??? What the hell was he thinking???

Clearly, suitable work for an ex-President is drooling onto a microphone for $2,000,000 an hour.

Yeah.....I'm still bitter about the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's. Does it show?

[AlbertCat]

46. Clearly, suitable work for an ex-President is drooling onto a microphone for $2,000,000 an hour

That or working for Bechtel.

Take note of what Dem presidents do after office and compare with what Repug Presidents do.

[northernlights]

66. aw, c'mon, give credit where credit is due

poppy bush founded his "thousand points of light" foundation. Oh, wait. that one got a bad rap when it turned out that most of the donations went to fat salaries for his buddies....

[cliffordu]

24. I knew Jimmy was right when I saw the news reports of people being killed

in gasoline lines...and that was just a hiccup on the faucet.....

I started riding a bicyle in earnest at that point.


It's going to get worse. A lot worse.

[1monster]

26. I've been saying it for many, many years.... Ever since St. Ronnie started dismantling all of Jimmy

Carter's energy policy (as well as anything else Carter built up) and replacing it with his "Mo(u)rning in America."

[crimsonblue]

27. My dad has told me numerous times

that Carter was the best person to ever be President (my dad then got brainwashed by my mom's family, a bunch of bankers... he then has said that Reagan was the best president ever...). He has been able to give me a good reason as to why he voted for Reagan over Carter..

one more thing, I don't get how Reagan gets ANY credit for the Iran hostage release. Carter worked on it vigorous until the end to secure the release, and he cared more about getting them freed than claiming victory, as Reagan did in his inauguration speech.

[ekwhite]

36. In fact, Reagan was responsible for keeping them there longer

It is well known that the Reagan campaign cut a secret deal with the Iranians. It is no surprise that they were released on inauguration day.

[MannyGoldstein]

28. Like Most Engineers, He Was Years Ahead Of His Time

Engineers (I'm one) tend to have good analytical skills, and are thus among the first to recognize what will happen in the future. However, we're awful at knowing *when* it will happen, and at understanding the process that it will take for people to embrace the future.

[windoe]

30. K & R I am windoe and I recommend this thread

JImmy Carter has always served people and the Earth. Too bad the humanitarian types are so few and far between in government, and that they are surrounded by such ruthless sharks.

[jcla]

31. Jimmy Carter was sandwiched

between Nixon (with Ford fininshing the term) and Ronass Rayhole. Nixon didn't care about oil and Ronass Rayhole wanted his rich friends to get richer.
Jimmy Carter tried to get something done about oil dependency but people just laughed... all the way to the bank and lambasted him with the Iran Hostage mess... which he didn't create and high oil prices. Carter and Ford were two decent men who got the short end of the stick. (I still wouldn't have pardoned Nixon.) Both had messed to clean up after politicians who could have cared less and were followed by Ronass and his thief friends.
I still wear my sweater, also. History has proved Carter right about so much!

[go west young man]

32. Awesome President. Always was and always will be.

He and Gore were well ahead of the rest of em.

[ekwhite]

33. Amen

Would that we had listened to Jimmy Carter back in 1979. We didn't, and we are paying the price now. Everyone can thank that "great President" Ronald Reagan for scrapping energy efficiency.

[waiting for hope]

37. Carter is a wonderful humanitarian and

a national treasure. Thank you.

[jimlup]

38. Idle speculation

This is idle speculation and I don't have any evidence. Still I wonder sometimes if the desert operation was sabotaged.

[madmom]

40. Been saying this for years...Carter's only "fault" was he was an honest politician!

[CrispyQ]

41. Carter/Reagan was my first presidential election.

I was so excited to vote for Carter -- I loved that he was concerned about the environment & that he encouraged conservation. Then I saw how the republicans used the hostage situation to manipulate the American public & how the American public allowed themselves to be duped. We had a second rate actor in the White House & I figured the American public deserved what they got. I became so disgusted with politics, it was many, many years before I voted again. I was young & stupid. I did not realize that eventually those policies would affect me, too. ~sigh.

[LiberalLovinLug]

42. Why the blame for the botched rescue?

Why isn't that the fault of the Military? (Who I suspect might have purposely sabotaged the mission)

When the Military has a 'success' they get all the praise and glory. Carter, I'm sure, was not a key military planner for that attempted rescue. Yet like the true man he is, he accepted the blame....and the MSM were happy to oblige.

[grace0418]

43. I was born in 1970 so I was very young at the time. I never understood why he

was so maligned. Of course, in a world where Ronald Reagan is some kind of saint and people vote for an idiot they want to drink a beer with instead of a leader with functioning brain cells, I suppose an honest, hardworking man with scruples would seem out of place in the Oval Office. :puke:

[whistle]

45. I'm re-listening to Carter's speech which I recall from that July 1979

...it was the launching platform of Reagan's campaign "Government is not the solution to our problem; government IS the problem".

The points in Carter's speech made a lot of sense, but he came across as "preaching to the people" and reinforced the perception that he was weak and not an effective leader.

Listen to what President Jimmy Carter had to say that evening:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimmycartercrisisofconfidence.htm


...and Reagan's first inaugural address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IleiqUDYpFQ

[Norrin Radd]

47. kr

[iquiring mind]

49. Inflation adjusted gas prices

http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Gasoline_inflation_chart.htm
http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Gasoline_Inflation.asp

We still pay much less than Europeans:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/news/international/usgas_price/?postversion=2008050109
Most expensive places to buy gas
Rank Country Price/gal
1. Eritrea $9.58
2. Norway $8.73
3. United Kingdom $8.38
4. Netherlands $8.37
5. Monaco $8.31
6. Iceland $8.28
7. Belgium $8.22
8. France $8.07
9. Germany $7.86
10. Portugal $7.84
108. United States $3.45

[RubyDuby in GA]

50. Yes he was right, but he's too much of a gentleman to say I Told You So.

Luckily, I'm nowhere near lady enough not to so..........HE TOLD YOU SO YOU F'IN RIGHTWING NUTJOBS!

[iquiring mind]

51. Glass is half full

With higher gas prices, people will drive more fuel efficient cars, drive less miles (pollute less), alternative energy sources will become more cost effective and perhaps it will cut down on urban sprawl by forcing people to live closer to their jobs.

Price is a powerful source for change in behavior!

[lfairban]

71. This may sound crazy.

Why is it that we are not all getting behind an increase in the gasoline tax?

From the article in the OP:

He was right to encourage fuel conservation by proposing a 50-cents-per-gallon tax on gasoline and a fee on imported oil — in effect, a floor for fuel prices.

From the thread, this comment by Paul Krugman:

Why doesn't’t cutting the gas tax this summer make sense? It’s Econ 101 tax incidence theory: if the supply of a good is more or less unresponsive to the price, the price to consumers will always rise until the quantity demanded falls to match the quantity supplied. Cut taxes, and all that happens is that the pretax price rises by the same amount. The McCain gas tax plan is a giveaway to oil companies, disguised as a gift to consumers.

So, if we extend Krugman's argument that cutting gas taxes is silly, then raising them, as Carter purposed, is a good idea.

I fear that any competent politician would say, "See what happened to Carter. That is what you get for trying to make sense."

If taxes go up by $.50 then the price of gassoline will not rise nearly that much. Then the government could use the money to improve highways, reducing bottlenecks that waste gas (and time) and fund other transportation options the would reduce the number of cars on the road.

Even if the money was used to offset other taxes it would still be a good idea. What makes more sense, taxing gasoline, taxing sales or taxing income?

[pollo poco]

52. He was totally right

I was a teenage precinct captain for him. I couldn't believe how stupid people were.

Seems the sky IS falling. Too bad everyone wanted SUVs and kiddies!

[frogcycle]

54. Carter's bad rap is prima facie evidence that

the cabal now running the country, which was characterized as the "vast rightwing conspiracy" in the 90's has been with us longer than most folks realize. He was victimized by the same sort of dirty tricks and deceit as Nixon's "plumbers" used, as the "Swiftboaters" used, and as the opposition tried to use throughout FDR's tenure. It goes all the way back to the Hamilton-Jefferson arguments even before the Constitution was written. Oligarchy, with power and wealth concentrated in the hands of the elite few like in medieval Europe, or democracy, with a country run by "We The People."

Today's assaults on the Constitution are nothing new. The Oligarchs didn't like it from the beginning, and we have endured cycles of rule by "robber barons" and "progressives" ever since.

Most people don't grasp the "big picture." They oversimplify the debate into a popularity contest where tie pins and various word choices mean something. They don't mean diddley. The election is, as has always been the case, a choice between Hamilton and Jefferson.

[George II]

55. Carter was RIGHT!

Carter warned us that if we didn't do anything about energy and oil consumption we faced a crisis in 20-30 years.
Carter was the one who came up with the idea of creating underground oil reserves for emergencies. He was ridiculed by Republicans. Now Republicans are the ones who ask to tap those reserves to relieve shortages.

CARTER WAS RIGHT, and if he didn't have Reagan conspiring with terrorists and the Iranians in late 1980, he would have been re-elected.

[stanwyck]

56. Meanwhile, Rush, in last Sunday's NYT's magazine

wanted to revoke Jimmy's passport while he's out of the country. Rush does, however, express his admiration for Ann Coulter.
Maybe it's the drugs.

[Baby Snooks]

57. The Brazilians listened to him...

The only people who it appears listened to him were the Brazilians. In another year or two, Brazil most likely will be completely independent of oil with regard to automobiles. Ethanol was the future 30 years ago. The future is not ours it seems. Or anyone else's. Just Brazil's.

And what it will bring in from its new reserves of course will be used by the government to fund research and development into new sources of energy for industry and for electrical generation.

The vast majority of Americans will simply continue to live in the delusion that there is plenty of oil and Congress just needs to do something about the oil companies. Until it becomes too expensive for most Americans. Which will happen about the same time the reality of depletion hits. Which of course will solve the problem of supply. As supply dwindles, so will demand. Because as supply dwindles, it will become more expensive.

And the oil companies don't care. The intend to get the last dime out of the last drop of oil.

Most of the CEOs of the oil companies will simply move to Brazil. As will quite a few others.

[Douglas Carpenter]

60. of course he was right!! The stupidest thing I ever did (politically) was not supporting him in1980

I will FOREVER regret my short sided thinking.

What a different world we would had if we had listened to this wise and Great man.

[Flatulo]

61. Carter is a good and decent man and a great humanitarian.

The last moral leader before the 'it's all about me' gang.

[OwnedByFerrets]

63. Ive said it for years....President Carter inherited a

farking mess and did the best he could. The same criminals who are in charge now were working behind the scenes to bring him down with the Iranian crisis.

[redqueen]

67. Yes. And %#@$ Reagan, and anyone who believed his feel-good BS. (nt)

[FourScore]

68. The man is a visionsary. n/t

[Skittles]

69. I've always known Carter was right

and I never fell for that bastard Reagan's act either

[GeorgeGist]

70. "... the battlefield of energy... "

is the destiny of fools.