Obama's Awful '70s Show Echoes Jimmy Carterby Eric Alterman - DailyBeast
April 25, 2011 | 1:16am
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Can You Spell “M-A-L-A-I-S-E?”
Stylistically speaking, Barack Obama could hardly be further from Jimmy Carter if he really had been born in Kenya. Carter was a born-again Baptist who was raised on his father’s peanut plantation and supported George Wallace on the road to the Georgia state house. Barack Obama—well, you know the story. But the two men have a great deal in common in their approach to the presidency, and not one of these similarities is good news for the Democrats or even for America. Both men rule without regard to the concerns of the base of their party. Both held themselves to be above politics when it came to making tough decisions. Both were possessed with superhuman self-confidence when it came to their own political judgment mixed with contempt for what they understood to be the petty concerns of pundits and party leaders. And worst of all, one fears, neither one appeared willing to change course no matter how many storm clouds loomed on the horizon.
Ask yourself if the following story does not sound like another president we could name The gregarious Massachusetts pol, House Speaker Tip O’Neill, could hardly have been more eager to work with a Democratic president after eight years of Nixon and Ford. But when they first met, and O’Neill attempted to advise Carter about which members of Congress might need some special pleading, or even the assorted political favor or two with regard to certain issues, to O’Neill’s open-jawed amazement, Carter replied, “No, I’ll describe the problem in a rational way to the American people. I’m sure they’ll realize I’m right.” The red-nosed Irishman later said he “could have slugged” Carter over this lethal combination of arrogance and naivety, but it would soon become Carter’s calling card.
Well that was the ‘70s, you say, and America is a different country these days. True enough, but while history never repeats itself, political patterns do. More and more, Democrats are starting to worry they that they have a more um, colorful version of Jimmy Carter on their hands. Obama acts cool as a proverbial cucumber but that awful ‘70s show seems frightfully close to a rerun. Consider the following and see if the hair on your arms doesn’t start to stand up straight in a horror-movie kind of way...
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More:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-25/obamas-awful-70s-show-on-gas-prices-echoes-jimmy-carter/?cid=bs:archive1And for those that don't know who Eric Alterman is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_AltermanAnd Author:
http://www.amazon.com/When-Presidents-Lie-Deception-Consequences/dp/B000H2N74M/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_5http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BF5ANWVXL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg:kick:
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