Why did Carter take so much heat for Gas Prices and not Bush?

[Quixote1818]

I was only like eight years old then but it seems like Carter was getting ripped right and left over Gas prices. Is my childhood memory playing tricks on me or was that how it was?

[Raster]

1. setup

[bribri16]

26. Carter is a Dem. The media was controlled by the RW then also. n/t

[Raster]

34. and the texas, white boy, republican, petroleum mafia was in bed

with al saud. It really was very easy to pull off. Couple that with the fact that bushco* struck a deal with Iran to hold on to the hostages for several months longer... Carter never stood a chance. And for those who cringe at my conspiratorial leanings, please. Within five minutes of raygun taking the oath of office, Iran began the release process. The whole mess was better staged than CATS. Before the "energy crisis" Carter was leading raygun in all the polls. Hmmm, where else have we seen false energy crisises used to depose democratic officials. Can you say "Gray Davis and California"? I know I can.

[democracyindanger]

2. Gas lines are easier to show on TV

[melody]

3. The RW machine was behind the complaining

Reagan eventually defeated Carter.

[illflem]

4. There isn't shortage now as the there was during Carter

just high prices

[Quixote1818]

6. Was that Carters fault? nt

[illflem]

20. Not at all, but the public likes to blame someone

[ComerPerro]

36. Yeah, but it seems to me that it would should make people mad at Bush

even more so than they were at Carter.

[Ravenseye]

5. My memory is tricky as well

It seems that maybe the problem is Carter basically told us we needed to sacrifice and we needed more energy efficient cars, while Bush just sort of smiles with that Alfred E. Newman 'what me worry?' face and American doesn't think about it.

Probably also the fact that we don't have gas lines and alternate day stuff helps. If you heard that the gulf station down the street had some juice, and you hopped in your pickup and drove down there to wait in line for four hours to get 6 gallons...maybe people would turn more against Bush.

I'll say this for the energy crisis in the 70s though. It really spurred innovation for high milage cars and we didn't reach the oil consumption we did in the seventies till 1997 again, thanks to all those gas guzzling SUV's.

[JanusAscending]

22. UNLIMITED GAS SUPPLIES?????

Do we really have unlimited gas supplies? For the past 20yrs. at least, has anyone but me noticed the # of gas stations, ALL OVER THE USA, that are now owned or operated by Arab or Middle eastern "Americans" ???? I've had a very "UNEASY" feeling about this for a very long time. I am the last person who any one would call bigoted. I always accept people at face value, until they prove me wrong. I will not use the terms that many other citizens of the US would refer to these folks as. Am I making sense here? Sometimes my brain works faster than my typing!! I do tend to be a little suspicious at times, especially since the year 2000 !!! What if the WORST scenario where to happen? If Islam declares an "holy war" on the USA, and decided to CLOSE ALL THE GAS STATIONS that we rely on for our livley hoods, etc., THERE GO OUR UNLIMITED GAS SUPPLIES!!!! COMMENTS????:wow:

[JanusAscending]

24. Editing problem!!!

I tried to go back and edit this post, but for some reason a crucial word that I DID INSERT IN THE ORIGIONAL POST HAS BEEN DELETED???!!!! I posted "internal" before the sentence re to "holy war" in my origional post, and it was not included!! I was also not able to "edit" it in!!?? What's up with that????

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JanusAscending]

30. EXCUSE ME!!

Do you live on the East Coast? How can you make a "blanket statement like that, when you don't even live in my area? I'm sorry sir, but I'm not smoking anything!! Take a look at my profile before you attack me!! You're a "newbee" too! Who made you the UD God? Please Sir, don't be so quick to ridicule a fellow DU member in the future, as ALL OF THE NEWBEES HAVE TO PROVE THEMSELVES AS NON FREEPS!!! Thank you!!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

31. I never accused you of being a freeper.

And you mentioned that Arabs own gas stations "all over the USA," not only in your area of the country. I have been all over this country and have seen Indians owning gas stations more than Arabs.

[JanusAscending]

35. I 'm sorry,

I mis spoke.If you'll read my origional message again, you'll see that I said sometimes my brain gets ahead of me. I didn't mean to say across the USA. I'll admit, I expanded the area a bit, but I did mean to say in my area of the East coast. I've found it so in NY State, Ct. Ma. etc. But just the fact that any foreigners are taking over the gas stations in our country bothers me! It bothered me when Rockafella Plaza was bought out from under us!! It bothered me that China tried to buy out American oil company, as well as Maytag or Whirlpool. Whatever...... I didn't accuse you of calling me a "freeper" either. Let me clarify...I meant that, because we both are "newbees" on DU, we have to be careful what we say about "each other" because until we prove ourselves we could all be suspect of being "freepers" I for one, am not, nor am I accusing you of being one, unless proven otherwise. We may not all agree, but we have the right to have a difference of opinion without attacking each other. If you wanted to know "what I've been smoking " in jest, you should have made it clear to me that was in fact the case. It's not nice to ridicule a 66 yr. old widow, who's been a Democrat by birth , and voted for J.F.K. in her very first voting experience!!! Some times I have a great sense of humor, sometimes I don't!!!:pals: P.S. Wait 'til you get old enough to choke on your own spit!!! LOL ( or have to re type almost every word you write!!! It's just so much fun!!;)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

37. It's all good.

I mainly had a problem with the "foreigners" comment. I myself am a 1st-generation American of Indian descent, so I'm a bit leery of potential stereotyping of any kind.

And I apologize if you took offense at my tone. I usually communicate better in person than over the Internet. :hi:

[JanusAscending]

38. Love ya brother!! and Thank you !!

nm

[troubleinwinter]

42. comments (since you asked):

How your post cannot be taken as bigotted is a mystery to me.

Why would you put Americans into quotation marks when discussing Arab or Middle Eastern Americans, and why do you feel "UNEASY" about these Americans?

What do you mean by "terms" that others would use?

Why do you feel that "Islam" may declare war on USA and that these Americans would close all the gas stations?

You asked if you make sense. NO.

You claim that you take people at face value, and I think you do... you seem to assume that Arab or Muslim Americans would declare "holy war on USA" and deprive us of "OUR UNLIMITED GAS SUPPLIES". What makes them OURS?

I think you are incorrect that you are "the last person that anyone would call bigoted".

I also think you are wrong that your brain is faster than your typing. Quite the oposite.

[Ravenseye]

44. Not really sure what of my message you're responding to

but I gotta say I take offense to you putting quotes around Arab "Americans".

I'm an Arab "American". My Uncle who fought for our country in World War 2 was an Arab "American". How would you feel being refered to in this manner? Oh well...she's a so she's not REALLY an American. Sorry that my family didn't come over on the Mayflower. Sorry that you think you're not bigoted because you wont' use a nasty term to describe 'us'. You'll just make comments about how we're untrustworthy americans because you've noticed a few gas stations in conneticut manned by people with brown skin who might not even be Arabs.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble but you, Ma'am, are a bigot.

[JanusAscending]

56. PLEASE,PLEASE, PLEASE,

Forgive a STUPID OLD WOMAN. I really am not a bigot, I love everyone of you. My heart is breaking that I made you feel this way. Maybe I am losing my mind because I recently lost my husband of 38 yrs. We were a multi racial couple, and fought all the prejuduces through the 60's and 70's and came through it unscathed, because love is sronger than bigotry. I hope my tears will wash away the pain I've caused you and your family. I don't know what gets into me sometimes. Maybe it's just fear, because I'm alone, or maybe I should learn to keep my big mouth shut. I sincerley apologize to you and anyone else on this board that I've offended.:cry: :loveya:

[goddess40]

46. God will fill up the oil fields

or that's what some nut told my hubby when we bought our first prius in '02. That man couldn't understand why we would want to buy a car that gets better mileage.

[charlyvi]

7. Yes. He got ripped.

But it was the first time gas prices had spiked like that; also, he was telling people things they didn't want to hear. Alternative sources of energy, turn the heat down, turn the air conditioning up, etc. You know, advice we'd be a whole lot better off today if we had listened to and followed. But Reagan put an end to it--Feel Good Amurika!!! We're perfect, nothing to think about here, move right along!!!!

[bobbieinok]

23. remember the anger when Carter said we should turn off the Xmas lights??

how unAmerican could you get???????????

[Lisa]

29. people ridiculed him for turning down the heat in the WH

... and appearing on TV wearing a sweater. He was trying to lead by example, and his foes made it look like he was foolish or being holier-than-thou.



Of course, he's been proven right now -- if we'd stuck with the energy-saving measures he'd suggested, we'd be far better off (in terms of economic efficiency, less pollution affecting human health, and less of a threat from global warming) -- also, the US would be selling its technology to the rest of the world, rather than watching Europe and Japan pull ahead in areas like solar and wind power research.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Because the first energy crisis kicked in under Nixon

I remember Richard Nixon telling us, in a national address, how to make Christmas ornaments that didn't use electricity.

Ford came next, and gas prices rose under his leadership, too.

Carter caught hell because the Radical Right had seized power in the GOP where moderate Nixonites had been. And, of course, most of the Radical Rightists were Nixonites themselves. It was a protracted palace coup.

Carter was the first president or candidate to be brought down by the Republican Hate Machine. The gas price issue was secondary.

As the Radical Right falls apart over the next few years, while the new energy crisis grows a set of teeth we never thought would be possible, people will know exactly where to place the blame.

--p!

[Al-CIAda]

9. Short answer- One is backed by BIG OIL, the other isn't.

BIG OIL and its supporters control the media. One administration insanely appeals to vanity and excess, the other to prudence, planning and conservation.

Greed is good, don't you know? Now lets go steal some oil.

[Talismom]

12. Bingo Al-CIAda! Great name too! n/t

[MoJoWorkin]

10. You are correct---

My guess is that the media "pointed out" every night that it was CARTER'S fault. THey would NEVER point a finger at the two OIL MEN in the current White House--wouldn't be prudent. The media is in sooooo deep with these guys. I can't believe that John Q Public hasn't come to that conclusion on their own---is America THAT stupid?

[Al-CIAda]

15. Yes, America IS that stupid. If hand holding and 9.11 protection of Saudis

didn't slap them, what will?

Dumbasses.

[movonne]

11. One is a Repug and one is a Dem....which one do you think the

media favors..

[kestrel91316]

13. Because Bush is the Second Coming of Christ, silly!

[Alcibiades]

14. The Iran hostages

were what did Carter in. Most folks in the 1970's recognized that gas pricing was up to OPEC and the oil companies, not the president.

That being said, THIS president did claim he would "jawbone" the Saudis into keeping prices low. For me, the most telling moment of the Bush presidency was the smooching and hand holding with then-Crown Prince Abdullah

www.whitehouse.org/news/2005/042505.asp

[UTUSN]

16. Why, Because Shrub Campaigned on Personal Responsibility

(for everybody but him).

[The2ndWheel]

17. You would think they would love him

with the Carter Doctrine and all. Sort of the way Clinton helped the CEO's get richer and richer over the long term, yet the RW machine can't beat the guy down enough.

We're a crazy ass species.

[EST]

18. Carter was/is a polite, liberal gentleman.

He spent so many years learning to subjugate his temper that it never occurred to him to strike back, hard.
Imho, he is arguably the smartest man ever to occupy the white house but he was unprepared for the right wing smear and lie machine, a powerful force even then. His unwillingness to face the possibility of an ides-of-March face off, being surrounded by the same ill starred crooks as now, left him unprepared for the palace intrigue that hounded him out of a second term.

The neo-fascist cabal was perfecting its m.o. and has never been encumbered with a conscience.

(Damn, I'm beginning to sound like a Mickey Spillane character)

[LiberalArkie]

19. Carter instituded price controls

so that the pumps just went dry at a low price rather that increasing to something totally outrageous. The pumps ran out, but at least poor people could afford it.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

21. That's the way I remember it too

There are no long lines to fill up tanks.

People don't have to wait. The gas is there.

The well-off don't care that the poor can't afford it just as long as they don't have to wait to get it.

[johnfunk]

33. Gee -- that would put Carter and NIXON in the same category

Why is it that everyone so blithely forgets Nixon's wage and price freeze? Damn socialist!

[fujiyama]

25. Several reasons are my guess

There were long lines.

Carter actually promoted sacrifice. Yeah, it's a concept Americans don't take kind to. What buying gas helps the Saudi royal family? Pshhh who cares I want that hummer!

Also ultimately, adjusted for inflation gas is actually still cheaper.

[BeyondThePale]

28. cuz * is a WAR PRESIDENT

What a fucking joke...

[nickgutierrez]

48. ^^^ The answer.

The fact is, it's really easy to conflate the war in Iraq and high gas prices in such a way as to imply that there is a connection even though there isn't one. This is what has happened, and it's why Bush is largely resistant to criticism over the gas prices, despite the fact that the theory behind the invasion included the idea that it would reduce, not increase, gas prices.

By and large, people of any nationality tend to refrain from questioning a war while the war is going on (see "War is a Force that Gives us Meaning", by Chris Hedges), and in fact are often very much in favor of it as an abstract concept. (This idea does, however, appear to be inversely proportional to the amount and the proportion of war that country has recently experienced - see Western Europe as an example.) The fact that a full half of the American people are now asking questions about the war is a bad, bad sign for the war itself.

The reason I include this is to outline the way Bush hides himself behind the war, in order to shield himself from criticism on all issues, gas prices not excluded.

[The2ndWheel]

32. Jimmy Carter, State of the Union Address 1980

http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/speeches/su80jec.phtml

I'm sorry, this was written when?

Humans. Same crap, different decade. Same fights, same problems, same wars, over, and over, and over, and over, and over again.

[Horse with no Name]

39. Yeah and while there were 50 hostages being held under Carter

How many foreign hostages are we holding in places like Gitmo and Abu Ghraib?
How many soldiers are being denied CO status?
How many soldiers have been denied an exit from the military under the stop-loss?

Wouldn't you consider them hostages?

[wli]

40. the usual reich-wing-controlled media n/t

[Egalitariat]

41. Adjusted for inflation, December 1979 oil was $97/barrel

that's why.

[Quixote1818]

43. They said that would equal about $3.00 a gallon today. Right now here in

New Mexico it's at $2.70 and probably will reach $3 before too long.

[robertpaulsen]

45. Do you have a link for that figure? It seems to get higher and higher.

Several months ago, I read an article that adjusting for inflation, the record for oil would be $73 a barrel at the time of the Iranian Revolution. Then about a month ago I read an article that adjusting for inflation, it would be $82 a barrel. Who is measuring the inflation adjustment, and why such a drastic difference in less than a year's time?

Frankly, I think it's MSM drivel intended as a condescending pat on the head to a frustrated American public. "There, there, it's not nearly as bad as it used to be. Keep buying those SUV's, we've got a war to win."

All the while, ignoring or pooh-poohing the idea that global oil production is about to peak.

[Quixote1818]

47. I heard it was the equivalent of around $3.00 a gallon. We are almost

their already and will probably be their soon.

[Egalitariat]

49. Here ya go

Of course, everybody's obviously got their own number.

http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Chart.asp

[Quixote1818]

50. Wow, in 99' Gas was the cheepest it had ever been

nt

[Egalitariat]

51. Yeah, no kidding. Things were good back then, huh?***

[robertpaulsen]

52. Thanks. I'm sure we'll get there this winter or 2006 at the latest.

With an Iran showdown on the UN horizon, thanks to the Walrus, it will happen sooner than later.

[genieroze]

53. I was driving then and I ask the same question now. I think Carter

wanted to go after the oil companies for price gouging so the MSM got rid of him.

[newportdadde]

54. Bush is taking heat for it. Look at his poll numbers.

Now I would like to sit here and tell you that it was the war that was really doing it. But I can't do that, no the real thing that is effecting his polling and putting the hurt on him right now is gas prices.

People are now starting to feel it in the wallet, they could give two shits about kids dying in Iraq as long as the SUV was filled on 1.40 gas, but those days are long gone and as the price of fuel goes up, * gets a similar drop in polls.

[R. A. Fuqua]

55. I probably should not chime in--

I was a child at the time, and lived in Canada--however in history we were taught that there was an oil shortage during the Carter administration. So my impression is that there were lines at the pump, rationing--etc.

That is a slightly different situation from now--where people are just paying more. I think people panic more when things are scarce?

Also--although we gripe about high prices, everyone knows that they can control their consumption--so it really comes back to them. We are much better educated as a society than we were 30 years ago. We know about conservation etc.