Remember When High Gas Prices Were "Hurting Carter's Presidency?"

[stopbush]

Well, I do.

Nary a peep when it comes to shithead.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Barely. I was just a wee thing then. Remember pictures of gas station

lines on the news, though. And the Iran hostages. And my dad screaming at the tv when Ronnie Raygun got elected and took credit for all the work Carter did to get those people freed.

[connecticut yankee]

3. Raygun did get the hostages free

He made a deal with Iran to hold them until he was inaugurated -- remember Iran-Contra?

The Repukes have been doing underhanded and nefarious schemes for many years. It's nothing new.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Yeah.. like Nixon did to keep the war going...

[Union Thug]

2. Good point. I remember that too..

Geezus...the cheapest gas at the pump today was 2.57/gallon when I filled up.

[etherealtruth]

4. Well I had just become a teen and I remember ...

... that Carter understood that everyone needed to sacrifice ...

AND, even more important

President Carter understood where our dependence on oil was leading us; understanding that oil resources were finite ...

[whistle]

6. Rush Oxycoton Limbaugh said on his show at around 12:45PM

...today that relatively speaking taking inflation into account, not until oil hits $99.00 per barrel which is was it was under Jimmy Carter (adjusted for inflation) should anyone be "squawking" or "going on" about high gasoline prices.

There needs to be a "bullshit" buzzer or tone much like the emergency alert system buzzer one hears on radio when they are running those tests. Limbaugh is so full of shit when he makes neo-conservative propaganda statements like that. How many Americans salaries and wages have kept up with the inflation rate since 1976, nearly 30 years ago? Quoting numbers from back then is a true admission on the part of the republicans and neo-cons that the Bush economic policies have been a total disaster for the country.

When I heard Rush ranting on about this as though it was fact, I hit the button that took me to NPR and classical music!

[BootinUp]

8. edited

Well, so I misread your post. The price of oil did fluctuate wildly in the late 70's early 80's, but whats more important is what was the price at the pump. By that measure we are already very near levels seen during the worst of the 1980's.

An inflation calculator is here:

http://www.stats.bls.gov/

So Rush's comparison is still a crock 'o shit.

[momisold]

7. Also remember

that the Carter-era price hike was really the first jolt American had about dependence on foreign oil, shortages, etc. Now America is "used to it" so it's not as big a deal.

I'm not saying it's not a big deal, I'm looking at it in the context of Carter-era to now.

[On the Road]

11. Actually, Carter's Was the Second

the first was under Nixon in 1973-74.

[lynne]

15. The Carter-era had a different twist -

- as it wasn't so much the price that was the problem but the availability as there was an actual gas shortage. The price was high but even if you could afford to pay $10.00 per gallon, you couldn't get gas because it wasn't in the pumps.

Then there were the "odd-even" days where you could only get gas if your tag ended in a certain number. The difference now is that the gas is currently available even if you pay through the nose for it.

[Vinca]

9. I remember that well. There was gas rationing, odd and even

days for buying gas at any price. I can't figure out why the entire nation isn't entirely berserk over the current prices at the pump. Especially when oil companies are raking in record profits. On the news they say, "people can't be affected because they're still driving." That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If I don't drive it means walking 5 miles on a bum hip to the grocery store, 7 miles to my place of business and 10 miles if I need to buy an article of clothing . . . then home again. Funny how I keep driving.

[demzilla]

10. What brought Carter down

was the hostage crisis, which dragged on for 444 days, and an overall bad economy, heavy on inflation. The gas problem was one of supply as much as of prices -- prices are high today, but there are no long lines, no visible sense of crisis that hits people over the head.

The first campaign I worked on was Carter's, in 1976. To Carter's great credit, he did try to get the country interested in conservation and intelligent management of energy resources. But that's not what people wanted to hear then, nor what they want to hear now.

[DavidDvorkin]

12. It was the press that hurt Carter's presidency

and ended up destroying it.

They denigrated and sneered at him from the start, and they deified Reagan throughout the 1980 campaign.

[Terran]

13. Well, the media may not be saying it, but...

I think when it hits $3 a gallon in the midwest and south, that *will* hurt Bush, a lot. People always seem to blame the prez for high gas prices whether it's his fault or not.

[kansasblue]

14. and I got something worse that "malaise"

[Doo_Revolution]

16. What about when it hits $4.00?

Will there be mass riots then? Or when it goes higher, whats the truth?

[Bluebear]

17. Remember when Bandar pledged to keep prices low until the election?

Well I do!