Deep Thought Of The Day
Jimmy Carter Was Right
“On the battlefield of energy we can win for our nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.” – President James Earl Carter July 15, 1979.
But people wanted big cars and checking your tire pressure is for fags.
So it goes.
Jimmy Carter’s political career died the night SNL did a skit with him and Amy gathered together to tell everybody we could end inflation and the national malaise by burning half the money in our wallets.
I think you are giving SNL for too much credit. Carter was easily mocked, but he happened to be right about our energy situation.
It’s called “vision”.
Jason – Yeah, he was “right” on energy, which is why we had gas shortages and my folks had to sit in long lines at the pump. Carter, yeah he’s a genius, “windfall profit taxes” and all….
Yup; Carter used to be the record holder for U.S. Worst President Ever. Used to be. Until now….
Wasn’t he one of the first to talk about wind power?
Mike,
Had we followed Carter’s suggestions then we would most likely have had the following:
Less problems in the Middle East as oil would never be worth the record amount it has currently achieved thereby signficantly diminishing the capabilities and wealth of the countries in OPEC.
No September 11th as without Middle East billionaires to help finance Al Qaeda they couldn’t afford to train hijackers on planes.
American pain during the 70’s would have translated to a significant boon for us in the present. We would have been ahead of the technological curve and possibly could have helped diminish the effect that the new industrialized nations have had on the environment. Not to mention another homegrown AMERICAN industry. But that goes against your conservative principle that a democrat could be completely correct. Which just goes to show that you are as closed minded as anyone else so you might want to think before you accuse others of a trait that you readily exhibit.
yep, they waited in line for it back then…now no wait at all. We get all we want for $4 a gallon! awesome
“Yeah, he was “right” on energy, which is why we had gas shortages and my folks had to sit in long lines at the pump.”
Your apple didn’t fall far from the moron tree, then. The gas crisis occurred on Nixon’s watch in 1973. You could look it up, but then you might have to put down your gun and type with both hands.
Al… there was a second lesser gas shortage in 1979-80, caused by supply disruptions after the Iranian Revolution and the start of the Iran-Iraq war. Not sure how that was Carter’s fault, unless one says Carter should have invaded Iran to install a puppet government. But the Soviet generals across the border might have had a few objections.
Your “moron” theory is still valid though in response to Mike W.
At any rate, we have seen real supply shortages before, and now the lack of gas lines shows there is no supply problem.
Boy you’re not real quick huh Al. There was a shortage in 73′ and then ANOTHER in 79′. Might help to know what you’re talking about before you call someone else a moron.
Here’s a pic.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Line_at_a_gas_station,_June_15,_1979.jpg
I see Anon has already corrected me. I guess he and I are both morons, haha.
Jason – Yeah, he was “right” on energy, which is why we had gas shortages and my folks had to sit in long lines at the pump. Carter, yeah he’s a genius, “windfall profit taxes” and all….
: rolls eyes :
We had a moment back in 79 and 80 to grab ahold of our energy system and people of your ilk held it back. Nice job.
Hey everyone, lets all give Mike W a big thank you for $4 per gallon gasoline.
How much gas would still be consumed on an annual basis is every American that could drove the smallest care possible (with vocational reasons being a legitimate excuse)?
Even if we halved our gas consumption wouldn’t we still be dependent of foreign sources, especially when the amount of petroleum we use for manufacturing is considered?
I don’t like depending on other nations for everything, but I think its reaching to say if people didn’t drive trucks we’d be energy independent.
Nice symbolism between Carter and Raygun, Libs and Cons…..
Carter put up solar panels on the White House; Raygun took them down.
Carter: Fuck the Middle East, we won’t need you.
Raygun: Fuck the average American, Big Energy needs your
bloodmoney!I know Tom S and Mike W are just bullshitting with these comments trying to get a rise out of me.
I think it is a defense agaisnt the pschyological damage that they would do to themselves if they every figured out that they have been wrong about everything (EVERYTHING!) for the past 20 years.
“Hey everyone, lets all give Mike W a big thank you for $4 per gallon gasoline.”
It’s ~$3.50 right now in NCC. Like usual you’re not getting facts straight. (ive seen $3.40’s some places as well)
I hear Carter forged a document, outed a CIA agent and lied about Iraq having WMD’s.
“they have been wrong about everything (EVERYTHING!) for the past 20 years.”
What about 8 years under Clinton – did the bad stufff only happen under Republican’s in your parallel universe Jason?
Look at the bang up job Clinton did fighting Bin Laden and Terrorism.
Your “Clinton ploy” isn’t working. You have been wrong about everything (EVERYTHING!) for at least 20 years.
Get used to it.
Well Jason, I believe you say that with the utmost confidence. After all, you can do that when you ignore reality and facts and stick to your blind ideology.
Sorry, my bad, Mike. But that second gas crisis wasn’t exactly the horror your folks have told you. I had forgotten all about it.
Actually, Clinton did no worse a job of it than Bushco has. No getting around the Aug. 6 briefing at Crawford that Chimpy blew off.
Look at the bang up job Clinton did fighting Bin Laden and Terrorism.
You might not want to go there. Clinton had an extensive program to combat Bin Laden specifically. Bush essentially ignored the programs Clinton had in place.
“Sorry, my bad, Mike. But that second gas crisis wasn’t exactly the horror your folks have told you. I had forgotten all about it.
”
So you’ll ignore it because it wasn’t as bad as the one that occurred under a Republican President? That makes sense………
LG – He had “extensive programs” and failed miserably. He even had a chance to take out Bin Laden and didn’t do it. There were a whole series of attacks throughout the 90’s that Clinton did nothing about. Those “extensive programs” were utter failures considering the attacks that occurred on Clinton’s watch.
Unless of course the fact that he had “extensive programs” is all that matters, effectiveness be damned.
Indeed, unlike Bush, Clinton actually prevented a massive Al Queda attack on the US.
If by “prevent” you mean failed to kill Bin Laden nor offer any meaningful response to numerous attacks meant to guage our response then yeah, he did an awesome job…….
I doubt any of you Dems are about to praise Bush for the fact that we haven’t been attacked since 9/11. If you’re going to praise Clinton’s so-called “effectiveness” you have to do the same for Bush.
I would, Mike, except he’s destroying America through blatant contempt for the Rule of Law.
Bush had his chance and blew it, just like everything else he’s managed in his life.
The anti-Midas….everything turns into shit.
First off, we have been attacked since 9/11 — the anthrax letters. But then, they might have been cooked up by the government itself, so maybe we shouldn’t call them “terrorist” attacks. But they did occur after 9/11, so you’re “ignoring” this inconvenient fact.
Second, I didn’t ignore the 1979 gas “crisis.” I honestly didn’t remember it, and it certainly wasn’t any big hassle. The ’73 situation lasted far longer and made a much bigger difference in many things about American society. Among its lesser effects, it was directly responsible for the death of the Detroit “muscle cars.”
I don’t much care about the partisan crap you and the DLers indulge in; I only mentioned Nixon to fix the ’73 crisis in history. It wasn’t his fault, any more than the ’79 crisis was Carter’s — in fact, less so. But in either case, blaming the president holding the reins at the time is intellectual laziness.
If you want to defend Bush, be my guest. I knew you were a 12%er all this time.
BTW – defending Bush does nothing to help your case that you have not been wrong about everyhting (EVERYTHING!) for the past 20 years.
Yeah, I was just about to post that. Mike always says he hates Bush. The truth is out.
Maybe he’s one of those people who loved Bush until he turned out to not be conservative enough — remember the exodus from Bush that happened right after Bush wanted to deal with illegal immigration like a grown-up?
“blaming the president holding the reins at the time is intellectual laziness.”
So why is everything Bush’s fault?
Not that i’m saying he’s not a bad president, only that libs will pin anything and everything on him.
“I would, Mike, except he’s destroying America through blatant contempt for the Rule of Law.”
I’m not saying he hasn’t, I’m just pointing out your partisan double standard.
I’m sorry, I thought the post was about energy policy. This adminstration’s was set in secret, and it has produced record high gas prices.
What part of this record can or should be defended?
The truth is partisan. Sorry to breck that fact to you…
Al,
You want to know how I know Mike W is BSing and just trying to get a rise out of me?
He never read the article which points out that Carter wanted to invest in shale oil and clean coal. Those are two big GOP talkign points that he has not tried to claim.
The fact is if we had done something to promote energy independence when Carter called on the country to rise to that challenge – we would not be the shitmess we now fond ourselves in.
Doesn’t change the double standard.
if “blaming the president holding the reins at the time is intellectual laziness.” then that applies when DL folks scream “It’s Bush’s Fault” about everything under the sun.
Is he a bad President? Has he done things I disagree with? Yes, but that doesn’t mean I won’t question some of the ridiculous Bush-Bashing I see.
Jason,
If we had known Bin Laden was going to be the greatest terrorist the US has ever seen Reagan wouldn’t have armed him. If we had known we’d end up going to war with Saddam twice we wouldn’t have armed him to fight the Iranian. If we had known……
You are agreeing to my point that you republicans have been worng about everything (EVRYTHING!) for thepast 20 years then?
Buck stops where?
Bush prefers loyalty over competence. That’s a proven fact, even if it’s a partisan one.
“You are agreeing to my point that you republicans have been worng about everything (EVRYTHING!) for thepast 20 years then?”
Nope. You’re just as wrong and just as ignorant as always Jason. (and you can’t spell.)
Mike, I had to do some work, so I didn’t get right back to you. Let me give you an example of how Clinton’s policy actually hurt bin Laden. You know those armed drones flying around, looking for bin Laden? Well that is what found him the time that you say that Clinton didn’t kill him when he had the chance.
Clinton was unable to kill him because the drones were not armed. Today, because of that very situation, the drones are armed so that upon spotting bin Laden, we can turn the drone into an effective weapon.
Clinton was meeting with top advisors several times a month on the issue of al Qaida. Those meetings ceased when Bush took office and the anti terrorism task force didn’t meet until days before 9/11.
Bush has had 7 years of every resource in the government (and the world, for that matter) and hasn’t seen bin Laden except in the home movies that bin Laden sends to him. No, I’m sorry, you cannot pin 9/11 on Clinton.
LG – What of all the small scale attacks by Al Qaida throughout Clinton’s terms? What about the 1st WTC bombing?
I’d rather be a bad speller than be wrong about everything (EVERYTHING!) for the past 20 years.
But don’t worry Mike. Soon you guys will be out of power again and your constant carping and complaining will make sense again. Our political ecosystem has aplace for people like you.
It is far, far, far away from where decisions are made.
You know jason, repeating that line over and over again doesn’t make it any less untrue.
Well…..it does for certain people, if you believe in Goebble’s theory.
But don’t worry Mike….
Okay. Worry.
“republicans have been worng about everything (EVRYTHING!) for thepast 20 years”
With insight (and spelling) like this I’d be the one worrying.
“What of all the small scale attacks by Al Qaida throughout Clinton’s terms? What about the 1st WTC bombing?”
Yeah, what about them? The idiots who think a disproportionate response to those attacks would have stopped 9/11 conveniently don’t bother to speculate on what that disproportionate response would have triggered had it occurred.
Pointing at Clinton’s supposed faults isn’t a very good way of showing you don’t like Bush, since it’s the frequent refuge of those who love Bush.
I feel for you Dude. I do. But like I said, soon you and the whole wrong headed Republican system will be on the sidelines and the country will get back to business with you and the rest of the conservative braintrust getting the attention that it deserves.
You know what I wish? I wish Republicans would stop being such asshats and start being Republicans.
If you guys want to blame someone for the energy crisis, try blaming the American people. After a decade of gas shortages, high (for the time) prices, inflation, job losses, tiny cars, etc., Americans liked what Ronald Reagan was selling: cheaper oil.
Sure, if we had all wanted to set the thermostat to 68 in the winter and 80 in the summer, we wouldn’t have had more dependence on oil now. But nobody–nobody–wanted to do that. It wasn’t just a Republican position. Reagan won in landslides because most people wanted to get the hell away from anything to do with Jimmy Carter.
And no, Republicans haven’t been wrong about everything for 20 years. The economy has expanded, education is more available to more people, and gasoline is still cheaper (prices adjusted) than we paid in the 1970s. Not to mention the way technology has changed the way we work and play.
Sharon – Right. We’re the ones who fell in love with trucks and SUV’s. We can’t blame politicians for our oil consumption. We have only ourselves to blame for that.
And as far as the “republicans were wrong about everything” line. Just imagine Barack Obama as President during the Cold War. That would be scary as hell.
It’s really more than trucks and SUVs, Mike. America has had a love affair with the car for 3 to 4 generations. We built a huge country and connected it with roads for driving. Not to mention the relatively cheap air fare of the 1980s. The idea that we can collectively slap our foreheads and just abandon cars is laughable, especially if you live outside the Northeast corridor.
Oh I agree completely, but our love affair with gas guzzlers certainly didn’t / doesn’t help matters.
we can blame politicians for and greedy CEO’s for not improving CAFE standards
You can, but there really wasn’t much of a demand for such, DBB. These policies don’t just spring out of someone’s forehead fully formed. If the public had made higher CAFE standards a big issue, they would have been increased. But Americans have always liked big cars. As Dana has pointed out before, when CAFE standards were raised in the 1970s, people started buying what we now call SUVs and minivans because the standards were different for them. And as someone who owns both a little car with decent gas milage and an SUV that gets worse milage, I can tell you that it’s hard giving up the space of the SUV when you’re hauling around a bunch of kids or stuff.
That’s fine. We all make choices and you choose to give money to Saudi Arabia and fund terrorism.
It is not my choice, but I don’t have to haul around stuff like you so your choice is cool with me.
This is where leadership would have been useful.
We don’t recycle because it’s convenient. Sometimes we need our consciousness raised.