Quote of the Day

“Americans fall into two distinct categories today: those who remember how devastating the policies of Jimmy Carter were, and those who are about to find out.” – Ron Hart

The column declines somewhat after that.

via Nick Gillespie

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Davebo says:

    Yeah, I recall him adopting wage and price controls and the incredible inflation that followed…..

    Much like Obama, Carter inherited a steaming pile of crap. He didn’t make the best decisions to address the pile, but he certainly didn’t create it.

  2. odograph says:

    I remember stagflation as Carter’s problem – kinda stupid to compare responses as if they map.

  3. Eneils Bailey says:

    Much like Obama, Carter inherited a steaming pile of crap. He didn’t make the best decisions to address the pile, but he certainly didn’t create it

    Yeah, and he stepped in it, danced it it, and died his political future in his incompetence to contend with it.

    But that still does not relieve Carter from the responsibility of of being the biggest idiot to ever call the White House home.

    Obama had a meteorite rise in popularity; but that will flame up, streak across the sky to the ooh’s and aah’s to people who think that political leadership can be attributed to a gift of gab.
    Gabby he is, sincere to the Socialist movement he is, and good for this country, he ain’t.

  4. odograph says:

    Yeah Eneils, he’s a totally different kind of guy, in a totally different situation …. but he’s the same because … we all don’t like Carter, that’s why!

  5. Alex Knapp says:

    Wait, does he mean policies like airline and trucking deregulation? Or Paul Volcker’s policies at the Fed? Because I remember those WORKING…

  6. Grewgills says:

    Americans fall into two distinct categories today: those who group people into two simplistic categories and those who don’t.

  7. James Joyner says:

    Wait, does he mean policies like airline and trucking deregulation? Or Paul Volcker’s policies at the Fed? Because I remember those WORKING…

    Certainly, some Carter problems that were carried on by Reagan in fact worked. OTOH, he’s generally considered an incredibly unsuccessful president and he created the Departments of Education and Energy, botched the Iran hostage crisis, and presided over a rather lousy economy that worsened throughout his time in office.

  8. But he managed the White House tennis court scedules rather effectively.

  9. Eneils Bailey says:

    Wait, does he mean policies like airline and trucking deregulation? Or Paul Volcker’s policies at the Fed? Because I remember those WORKING…

    “Even a blind squirrel, at times times can find his own Nuts.”

    Hold on, I don’t think that quote is exactly right. I will check it and get back to you.

  10. Alex Knapp says:

    James,

    OTOH, he’s generally considered an incredibly unsuccessful president and he created the Departments of Education and Energy, botched the Iran hostage crisis, and presided over a rather lousy economy that worsened throughout his time in office.

    Just because he’s CONSIDERED an unsuccessful President doesn’t mean he was.

    I will grant you that there was no need for the Depts of Energy or Education. I will grant some definite bad things that Carter did.

    But I don’t know that he was DISASTROUS. And while he did mishandle it at first, he DID get the hostages free in Iran, and he did it without giving them weapons for said hostages.

    For my money, I’ll take Carter over Nixon, Ford, or Bush II.

  11. odograph says:

    Do kids today know that Republicans invented the WIN button?

  12. Eneils Bailey says:

    Do kids today know that Republicans invented the WIN button?

    Do kids know today that Jimmy Carter invented nothing; just kinda spent his Presidency marking time until we could celebrate the arrival of Ronald “The Man” Reagan.

    YeeHaw….

  13. Drew says:

    You have to admit that the WIN button was a particularly absurd attempt to deal with a serious economic problem.

    But look at the bright side, although they were worthless output, someone had to be employed to make them. Sorta like some of the provisions of the “stimulus” bill. KnowwhatImean,man….??

  14. odograph says:

    The thing to remember is that if someone really believes in Keynes (and that these really are dire times, a harder argument), then digging a hole and filling it up again is good work.

    Surely, if you accept that hypothetical framework, digging a hole, adding landscape plants, and filling it up again is an improvement.

  15. odograph says:

    (I don’t think times are so dire that digging empty holes is warranted 😉

  16. Bithead says:

    But he managed the White House tennis court scedules rather effectively.

    And he did manage to bravely take on the Rabbit of Antioch.
    What a leader!

  17. Eneils Bailey says:

    For my money, I’ll take Carter over Nixon, Ford, or Bush II.

    You must live on the cheap.

    But I don’t know that he was DISASTROUS. And while he did mishandle it at first, he DID get the hostages free in Iran, and he did it without giving them weapons for said hostages.

    Yeah, Iran did not officially release the hostages until after Reagan was sworn in. And you are right, Carter did not trade arms for hostages, they knew Carter did not have the nuts to use them, and Reagan was already writing their names on them.