In what can only be described as the worst fears of the American Public writ large; we are now suffering through the second term of Jimmy Carter.
The year 1980 was considered a bellwether year in presidential politics. America was firmly caught up in the economic and foreign policy nightmare that was the Carter Administration. The prime rate was 20.5%, inflation was running at 14.8%, unemployment was a then record 10.8%, the 30 year mortgage rate was a staggering 18.5% and gas prices (adjusted to 2008 dollars) were $3.45 a gallon. The soviet invasion of Afghanistan had given President Carter reason to boycott the 1980 Olympic Games. Oh, and let’s not leave out the surrendering control of the Panama Canal. Carter’s mistakes were legion
As of Election Day, November 4th 1980, 52 Americans had been held hostage in Iran for exactly one year. The highlight of their captivity was a botched administration rescue attempt that resulted in the deaths of eight American soldiers and the loss of three American aircraft.
The Democrats had considered President Carter’s administration such a failure that they actually fielded a candidate against him in the primaries for his re-election. In the general election of 1980 Ronald Reagan won the popular vote 50.7% to 41%, carried 44 states to Carter’s 6 and led in the Electoral College 489 to 49. The Iranian hostages were released 20 minutes after President Reagan was sworn into office.
The catastrophe that was the Carter Administration has had its shortcomings analyzed almost to death. Rising energy prices and stagflation marked his time in office. His infamous “Malaise Speech” in which he basically said that the country’s problems weren’t his administration’s fault, but rather the fault of the American people, was the apex of hubris. One only has to look at the twin disasters of the creation of the Departments of Education and Energy to realize he was a policy wonk gone mad.
The Department of Education’s proposed budget for 2011 is $50.7 billion. Since its inception under President Carter subsequent administrations have sunk over $700 billion into the Department of Education for absolutely no discernible return on that investment.
The Department of Energy is no better. The current appropriation for 2011 is over $28 billion. We’ve collectively thrown over $500 billion into this department since its beginnings. For that kind of money, I should have a flying car a la the Jetsons and it should run on water. Where’s my flying car? Over $1.2 trillion wasted within these two boondoggles and neither education policy nor energy policy has any crowning achievement to point to.
The calamity that was Carter so affected the American people it was twelve years before we could be lulled, once again, into allowing a liberal to hold the reins of presidential power. Bill Clinton’s second term recovery after a disastrous first term fooled Republicans into believing that his “Third Way” triangulation scheme could actually work. George Bush the lesser’s “compassionate conservatism” almost buried the Republicans. His insistence on cooperation with progressives on such policy debacles as No Child Left Behind, served to do nothing but embolden the left to urge him to continue spending and to ignore deficits. Such reckless monetary policy eventually led to Democratic takeovers of the House and Senate in 2006 and set the stage for the nightmare we are all living now.
By 2008 the Republican brand was so sullied that in a fit of rebellion the American Public voted for change. On January 20th, 2009 Barack Obama was sworn into Office in a traditional ceremony and that was the end of that.
These two men, Obama and Carter, are so eerily similar. Both are Nobel Peace Prize winning apologists for America’s strength. Both exhibit not only exasperation with American dominance on the world stage, but both believe they can talk any foreign belligerent into cooperation. Neither of them has any idea how to use the US military to project power, and both believe Americans are an ignorant, hapless people that need the guidance of an authoritative federal government to guide each and every aspect of their lives.
Barack Obama and his administration quickly developed a reputation for something that has not set well with the American public: Either defying common sense, recorded evidence, the rule of law, public sentiment or all at once, the Obama administration can be counted upon to do whatever it wants and then justify those actions by whatever means that presents itself.
One of President Obama’s first executive decisions was the $787 billion “stimulus package.” Despite conventional wisdom that says government cannot create wealth, only confiscate it from those that do, we were assured that this spending would halt the recession, stem unemployment, and invigorate the economy. None of this turned out to be true. The really amazing part of this was, even as the White House’s own website was shown to be allocating stimulus dollars to congressional districts that didn’t exist, and spending excessive amounts of capital to save only one or two supposed jobs, they continued to spend; even as the unemployment rate passed 9.5% and credit remained frozen for the overwhelming majority of Americans.
The administration’s Making Homes Affordable program is a $75 billion project that was supposed to help millions of Americans avoid foreclosure. Now it is revealed that over a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in this mortgage modification program have dropped out. That exceeds the number of people who have actually managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes. Last month alone, 155,000 borrowers left the program – bringing the total to 436,000 who have dropped out since it began in March 2009.
Early on in his administration President Obama decided that the federal government would seize both GM and Chrysler. During this process he excoriated the managers of investment funds that had secured loan positions against company assets as greedy profiteers, not bothering to consider that these fund managers ultimately represented the 401(k) programs of teachers, plumbers, policemen, and other working stiffs that were building retirement funds. In a clear disregard for settled law, he turned 100 years of bankruptcy law upside down and gave the UAW a superior position for compensation of their unsecured debt over the secured debt of the investors.
Next there’s the debacle that has inherited the moniker Obamacare. The law is considered by many to be unconstitutional in that it is basically a federal mandate that all citizens must purchase a specific product (medical insurance). From the beginning, a clear majority of American citizens were opposed to the legislation. Not only that but it defies logic to promise people that the government will lower costs while artificially flooding the market with millions of new customers. Yet, Obama persisted with this train wreck anyway.
In case you’ve been on sabbatical for the last couple of months we have an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. We’ll save the debate over why we’ve placed so many other sites off limits to oil exploration that companies are forced into drilling in 5,000 feet of water for another day. We’ll just concentrate on the myriad of mis-steps the administration has committed. For the first week or so there was little comment from the White House regarding the Deep Horizon disaster. As the problem worsened we find that there were things that could have been done by the administration that were not. For one, they could have suspended the Jones Act which would have allowed foreign flagged vessels to assist in the skimming of oil. Not only wasn’t this done immediately, to my knowledge, it has yet to be done at all. Now, according to Florida Senator George LeMieux we find out that oil skimming and boom equipment from other parts of the US have been deliberately withheld from being deployed to the Gulf because they might be needed where they are located. Imagine the howls of rage if George Bush had told Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu that helicopters could not be deployed to Louisiana because they might be needed elsewhere?
When the President finally deigns to address the American Public regarding the oil spill from the Oval Office; he uses the opportunity to press Congress for approval of his cap and trade bill citing the disaster in the Gulf as reason enough to proceed with his “green” energy legislation. Talk about Alice through the looking glass!
Finally, in a move that had more in common with Al Capone than the Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama shook down BP executives for $20 billion worth of company assets in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. I was functioning under the impression this was a constitutional republic and that the assets of a person or corporation being forcibly removed without a judgment was unconstitutional. Apparently; just like with GM, health care, and a raft of other extra legal dealings issued from this administration; I don’t know what I’m talking about.
The American Public has quickly lost and continues to lose confidence in this President. This is abundantly clear from the plethora of plunging poll numbers. With such clear indications of the magnitude of problems citizens have with this president’s agenda, you would think that he’d be contemplating a change in course like Clinton did in 1996. Word on the street is that Barack Obama is actually searching for ways to saddle the nation with the rest of his redistributionist agenda more quickly.
There is speculation that President Obama may be seeking to parole or “defer action” on millions of illegal aliens via executive order. A situation that, according to former Obama adviser and executive president of the SEIU Eliseo Medina would eventually expand the “progressive” electorate and help ensure a “progressive” governing coalition for the long term. “We reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters. Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out of three? Can you imagine 8 million new voters who care about our issues and will be voting? We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.”
There are also reports that the Obama Administration would prefer that, once the elections are held, the lame duck congress would utilize its majorities to pass cap and trade legislation before the newly elected body is seated.
The economy is damaged as it is. To ask it to also absorb health care and cap & trade on top of the tragedy in the Gulf will put economic recovery permanently out of reach. As it stands now the economy will have to create 300,000 new jobs each month for the next four years to get us back to where we were before Mr. Obama’s Wild Ride began.
Lack of job creation, skyrocketing energy costs due to the double body blow of a drilling moratorium coupled with cap and trade legislation. A crippling of small business directly due to health care over-regulation. Massive environmental damage to the Gulf coast, substantial unemployment, and a crushing national debt. Welcome to the second term of Jimmy Carter.
Looks as though the writers for the Republican commercials for the next campaign won’t have to think of ideas; they will only have to weed some out.
Even though I voted for Obama, I now compare him more with Jimmy Carter than with any other recent president. I had thought I was getting a tough-minded advocate of bipartisanship when it was possible, and a good policy wonk, in any case. Alas, for me as a liberal, I got neither. Obama has blundered his way through his first year plus with a degree of ineptitude that is Carteresque. I never thought he was the deity that some fools on my end of the spectrum panted for with alarming idiocy. I was not expecting a cold, indifferent poseur who couldn’t cut a deal with the opposition to save his mortal soul. Add to this Obama’s fawning over the Islamic world and his near-hatred of Israel, and you have something close to a liberal trifecta of incompetence.
Re: “Both are Nobel Peace Prize winning apologists for America’s strength.”
A minor point:
Apologist – n. A person who argues in defense or justification of something, such as a doctrine, policy, or institution.
Apologizer – n. A person who offers an apology or excuse for some fault, insult, failure, or injury.
I think you mean the latter.
Sedonaman,
Point taken.
Gestell,
So what happens next? Does Hillary! resign as Secretary of State and mount another challenge for the Oval Office a la Ted Kennedy in 1980? Or does some other liberal emerge form the pack to attempt to limit the damage? I think you have to admit that if Obama and his circle of czars succeeds in gaining a second term we could end up with Woody Allen’s wish here in the US.
As strange as it sounds, I can see Hillary making another run at the Democratic nomination. I can’t think of another big-time liberal who would be a plausible candidate. Hillary would have to do some serious triangulating to have the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of winning the election. She’d have to find a way to appeal to enough Independents and normally Republican voters to counter the loss from the Democratic left she would have to endure.
I think this is now a Republican period, and that there is every chance that Obama will lose in 2012. It would take a truly massive amount of dumb decisions to cost Obama his party’s nomination. Now Obama is very good at lousy decisions, so there’s always that possibility. Instead, what I think will cost Obama the election are the following;
1. The economy will show, at best, only very minimal significant recovery. Republicans can easily play the economy card against Obama.
2. Our war in Afghanistan will make clear what an idiotic decision it was for us to have gone in at all. Liberals will be opposed to it, but a growing number of conservatives will also want us out. It won’t work anymore for a candidate to talk tough about finding bin Laden. That won’t be enough of a reason to lose still more thousands of American troops.
3. Whether or not they can force repeal of Obamacare, a Congress (possibly a Republican-controlled House) will be able to block all of Obama’s big-ticket dreams.
4. The Tea Party will have proven itself a serious movement, able to control the Republican party in at least some states. This will indicate the massive move to the Right that is already well under way in the general population.
So, conservatives, get ready for some serious celebrating in the next few years.
A second term of Obama would be as meaningless as the second term for Bush. Just more of the same garbage. I’m not sure how much it even matters anymore.
Just remember that every conservative victory is a victory for China. Oh wait, every liberal victory is a victory for them as well. It really sucks being up against someone who knows what the $%^& they are doing.
Gestell,
I may be incorrect on this issue, but my personal opinion last election cycle was that liberals had trouble picking which special victim’s group to back in the primary. Was it going to be women or African Americans? The liberals finally chose African Americans. I believe that Hillary’s liberal credentials are solid enough to win a primary fight against Obama this time around; especially after the performance Obama has turned in so far. I don’t’ see him being able to pivot like Clinton did in ‘96.
I also agree that a liberal democrat has little chance of winning the next general election. Let’s take your points one at a time
I don’t believe we’re going to see any significant improvement economically. We would already be having to show significant job creation numbers to assuage the average person’s economic fears. Since @ 70% of our economy depends on consumer spending, don’t’ look for a fix anytime soon.
Afghanistan is a real problem because there is even less of a centralized authority there than there was in Iraq. While I believe more conservatives will sour on the war, I believe they’ll be more upset over the ROE’s than the mission.
There wont’ be an immediate repeal of Obamacare. However; if republicans win majorities in both Houses they will ‘starve’ it. Every bill and continuing resolution will have clauses in them prohibiting any money being spent to fund any portion of Obamacare.
If the T.E.A. Party Movement will face its largest challenge in 2011. Finding, supporting, and electing candidates is one thing. Remaining vigilant enough to hold those candidates accountable in the future is the trick. If they can do that, there is a good chance that a majority of the republican legislators may yet discover they still have a spine.
Martel732,
The only way America can turn that situation around ids to stop deficit spending. If that does not happen, we’ll certainly be in trouble no matter which party is in control. Currently we only have @ 20 cents on the dollar actually on hand for what we owe China. That’s a really serious issue. Obama went to the G-8 trying to convince them not to enact austerity programs. I wonder what the chances are that he’ll wake up and stop spending when the other members tell him he’s crazy? MY guess is that the S O B is so arrogant that he’ll show them all how wrong they are by spending us into further oblivion.
During the Carter administration, a Boston Globe writer named Kirk Scharfenberg wrote an op-ed piece lambasting Carter. His original headline, which he had written to get laughs, somehow actually made it into print, and he was duly fired from the paper. Here it is: “More Mush From the Wimp.” The funny thing is, the headline seemed so descriptive that I barely noticed it.
Time is running out for Hillary. She’ll be 70 in 2016, and by then, how many voters will be enamored by what is sure to be a passé baby-boomer philosophy – from and aging one at that?
It’s even worse than the deficit spending; how do we bring back a significant portion of the blue collar jobs that have been lost.
College isn’t for everyone, and many white collar jobs need blue collar jobs below them for support. Without the tax base and consumer spending base of good blue collar jobs, the deficit spending WILL continue.
China will never completely float the Renminbi until it is to their advantage to do so. The only way to protect jobs from Asia in general is protectionism; the labor available there is simply too cheap.
Sedonaman,
True, she is rapidly approaching her ‘use by’ date. Which would seem to indicate that 2012 is a do or die year for her.
Martel732,
I don’t know that there is any ‘going back’. It’s been awhile since I was involved in the manufacturing process; but the breakdown is roughly 30% materials, 60% direct labor, and 10% overhead/indirect labor. Under those parameters, the area to target to recover the highest percentage of ‘cost-of-production’ is direct labor cost.
Case-in-point,
I worked for awhile as a Manufacturing Engineering Consultant. One of my clients was an owner of a cedar mill. He had every operation from beginning to end under one roof. Literally bringing in cants of lumber (6”x6”x8’) ripping and stacking them, kiln drying on the premises. Then sizing and routing out finished product. One product made there were high end cedar hangars utilized by upscale haberdashers and clothing stores. From start to finish a hangar cost @ 43 cents per piece to manufacture. Problem was we could only get 40 cents each for them. The line ran at close to capacity to produce the 43 cent hangars. You cannot speed it up (not without investing a quarter million in new equipment). You cannot reduce the cost of materials, and you’re paying a wage right now that is balancing on the edge of competitive.
There’s no adjustment to be made. You cannot reduce the cost of materials. You cannot absorb the cost of new equipment, and you cannot cut the salary any closer. What’s your only choice? You stop making cedar hangars.
Eventually he solved this issue by becoming an exclusive manufacturer of cedar linings for closets. There was enough margin there to keep the doors open and keep most (80%) of his employees on the job. Not all companies are innovative enough to discover and focus in on new niche industries, nor are they courageous enough to strike out in that direction.
reply to Martel732.
We do live in interesting times when Europeans are reluctant to plunge too deeply into debt and keep the volume of their stimulus packages fairly low. And yes, I can easily imagine Obama continuing to pour stimulus money the US doesn’t have into the economy. In contrast with the US, China’s stimulus policies seem to work, at least to some extent. Perhaps Americans should hope that China bails us out in a few more years.
There’s no adjustment to be made. You cannot reduce the cost of materials. You cannot absorb the cost of new equipment, and you cannot cut the salary any closer. What’s your only choice? You stop making cedar hangars.
There is something to be done. The same thing our competitors to do us. Massive tariffs on nations that don’t pay a decent wage. Chinese imports don’t look so great with a 500% tariff. What are they going to in response? We ALREADY don’t sell them anything. We need to use their reliance upon exports against them.
You have eloquently explained how we can not compete with cheap Chinese goods without government help. This is the power that governments wield that individual corporations do not.
Martel732:
We don’t? See here http://www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html. Once you it to China, where does it stop? You are talking about a lot of American jobs in the export business if they retaliate. Then you have a trade embargo with the effects of Smoot-Hawley all over again.
The opposite Smoot-Hawley would be comparative advantage:
reply to Martel:
I don’t think massive tariffs will do much. The ‘protection’ of protectionist policy is mostly an illusion, and the consequences down the road are not good. Besides, aggressive tariff policies tend to worsen relations between countries, and the US have enough troubles in the world as it is.
But with comparative advantage, only one nation makes all the money.
And trot out all the fancy stats you want. We do not sell nearly enough goods to China to make it worthwhile in trading with them.
Protectionism is not an illusion. The EU does it, China does it, Japan does it. Protectionist policies give substantial trading advantages to these economic blocs.
And I don’t care about relations with China. %%^^ them.
“The American Public has quickly lost and continues to lose confidence in this President. This is abundantly clear from the plethora of plunging poll numbers. “
Once again, IC hangs the crepe for Barack Obama. The ‘American People’ are turning against his wimpy-Carteresque-yet-still-somehow-brass-knuckle-thuggish administration!
His poll numbers are dropping LIKE A ROCK as the ‘American People’ rise up and..and…
Ah well, maybe not.
His poll numbers seem rock solid, with numbers that compare pretty favorably to past presidents at this point in an administration. I can’t tell that they’ve really budged for over 6 months, despite passing the allegedly unpopular Obamacare, presiding over a worsening and unpopular war, the lousiest economy in a half-century, and now a monstrous environmental disaster. All that, and still gets 49% approval from Gallup. The healthcare bill’s approval has been trending upward as well.
The most you can say about any of it is, like always, the nation is about evenly split. Those on the center left and beyond still give Obama very high approval ratings, and there’s just as many of them as there are Tea-whatevers.
I fail to see why you guys insist on claiming the mantle of ‘The American People’ for your positions. You got half, at best. And that’s just for your non-kooky positions.
Naturally, his approval will drop if the economy continues to sputter.
Oz
http://www.gallup.com/poll/140981/verdict-healthcare-reform-bill-divided.aspx
http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
Ozzie_M
“Once again, IC hangs the crepe for Barack Obama. The ‘American People’ are turning against his wimpy-Carteresque-yet-still-somehow-brass-knuckle-thuggish administration!” Ozzie; I’ve heard this administration described as impotent overseas and omnipotent at home; meaning that they cannot seem to handle either relationships with allies or enemies, but are really successful in ‘jackbooting’ the American population.
With regards to polling. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26393.html any president that loses such clear majorities so soon is in real trouble; no matter what.
“I fail to see why you guys insist on claiming the mantle of ‘The American People’ for your positions.”
Cite your reference.
Ozzie_M:
If ǿbama’s poll ratings are so “rock solid”, why are they falling in America’s enemies, the very people who were happy to see him win the election?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/iran_says_they_will_rescue_ame.html
reply to sedonaman,
In the Islamic world, it seems clear that many leaders and opinion-makers had convinced themselves that Obama would truly side with them against Israel. While, in my opinion, Obama certainly comes close to doing this, his diffidence and hesitation to state general principles in almost any context, let alone his inability to act on them, has shown the Muslim world that they shouldn’t trust him either. So, Obama is in a very difficult position–losing ground both in this country and in the Islamic world. Say what you will, it takes a strange talent to do this as well as Obama has thus far.
Gestell:
LOL!
Gestell, Sedonaman, Ozzie_M, et al;
These observations are all part & parcel of the Obama Administration. If the administration feels as if it has leverage, it doesn’t hesitate to use it. Reference AIG, GM Chrysler, or BP. However utilizing any such ‘leverage’ against those foreign enemies of the republican (in the general sense) of government and the administration is hesitant.
Particularly in the Islamic world nuance and hesitation are both qualities that only earn derision among the Islamic people. They can appreciate deception, the exertion of control, and exhortation to violence, but not nuance or hesitation.
I find it laughable that this administration continually insists it can deal with the likes of Kin Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Dmitri Medvedev; but are at the same time, absolutely horrified to speak with Bret Baier or Bill O’Reilly. They cannot even bring themselves to send a ‘replacement’ administration official to tangle with these guys. Makes their assurance of competence on the world stage not worth very much.
This is why I said in my previous post; “I’ve heard this administration described as impotent overseas and omnipotent at home…” Here, they will willfully ignore the American people when it comes to debt, deficits, and redistributionist policy. It’s as if they don’t care; more the actions of rulers than elected representatives.
Ozzie M’s previous claim that; “You got half, at best. And that’s just for your non-kooky positions.” is incorrect. The collation of all special interest groups on the left comprises @ 50% as does the entire collation of the right. The hard core progressives are as unhappy with Obama as the far right: The left because he’s not gone nearly far enough, and the right because he’s gone too far already.
To ‘fly-over’ country; this administration is just disingenuous. America gave them both presidential control and congressional majorities because of mounting debt (over $480 billion). This administration and a complicit congress has tripled down on that for no discernable advantage to anyone other than the administrations organizational supporters (i.e. the unions). No average person can say with a straight face that he is personally better off now.
Guantanamo is still open, Afghanistan is more involved than ever, Hispanics are upset over Obama’s neglect of ‘comprehensive’ immigration reform, gays are upset because he’s not pushed the agenda as he promised, blue-collar Americans are upset over the unemployment numbers and his inability to solve that problem. His taxes pledge will be shattered next year when workers realize that health care mandates we pay taxes on provided medical benefits as if they were any other portion of earned income. There isn’t’ a campaign promise he’s kept; almost as if he never believed any of his own rhetoric. He’s single handedly accomplished what the Republican Party never succeeded in doing; destroying the Democratic Party alliance.
I think Mr. Wavering is right on target when with his conclusion about Obama: “He’s single handedly accomplished what the Republican Party never succeeded in doing; destroying the Democratic Party alliance.” The Democratic Party alliance has been shredding for a very long time now. The Reagan era did a pretty good job of demolishing its political punch. Keep in mind that ever since 1980 no Democratic presidential candidate has won a majority of the white, non-union, blue-collar vote.
The Presidency has been largely a Republican job–with a brief Clinton interlude and, I suspect, an even more brief Obama interlude.
It usually takes a while for the various elements in the electoral base of either of the major party to fragment and for at least some of those elements to move to the opposing party. It’s happened before–when the Democratic alliance was forged under the New Deal. If you look closely, however, you’ll see components of the Republican voting base crumbling away in the late 1920s. Eventually a lot of those folks moved into the Democratic column where they and their descendants remained.
Many political scientists–I’m one of them–mark 1980 as the end of the New Deal alliance, and we’ve been witnessing the post mortem thrashings of the remains ever since.
Obama looks to administer the coup de grace to this alliance. So, yes, he’ll go down in history, but not at all as his followers had hoped.
Bill:
Re: “I find it laughable that this administration continually insists it can deal with the likes of Kin Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Dmitri Medvedev; but are at the same time, absolutely horrified to speak with Bret Baier or Bill O’Reilly.”
The Left mindset doesn’t expect hostes humani generis such as the aforementioned to follow existing, established international agreements, but liberals have convinced themselves, and try to get us to believe, that those very same hostes humani generis, through the same miracle ǿbama et al conned the voters, will be good and live up to their agreements this time if only we can just get them to promise it – again – by signing yet another peace [note spelling] of paper, and liberals can re-play Chamberlain by waving it in the wind. And if those hostes humani generis go back on their word, well … liberals will just shrug their shoulders and dismiss it with a, “Well-we-didn’t-really-expect-them-to-live-up-to-their-word.” Meanwhile, you-know-who pays the price in blood.
As far as Baier, O’Reilly, etc. are concerned, there is no political loss to be had from ignoring them because everyone knows, “Fox isn’t real news” anyway.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rachel Alexander, IC Politics. IC Politics said: Jimmy Carter's Second Term: In what can only be described as the worst fears of the American Public writ large; we… http://bit.ly/bsedpB [...]
[...] Intellectual Conservative: The year 1980 was considered a bellwether year in presidential politics. America was firmly caught [...]