Townhall (Conservative publication) compares Trump to Jimmy Carter

[Statistikhengst]

This was an interesting read:

S. E. Cupp - Is Donald Trump the Jimmy Carter of 2016?

Let's set the table: Eight years with the same party in the White House, two terms marked by considerable scandals, a flagging economy, the defeated drawdown of an ill-begotten war, "one of the worst periods in American-Israeli relations," as one world leader put it, and a growing dissatisfaction with Washington.

That sounds like today, but it was also 1976. During two Republican terms, one abruptly interrupted by the Watergate scandal, the country experienced the gloomy abandonment of the Vietnam War, the shaky instability of a bad economy -- which President Gerald Ford tried to fix by taxing corporations and the wealthy (sound familiar?) -- and Ford's significant misstep in "reassessing" aid to Israel, giving way to the quote above by Israel's Prime Minister Yithzak Rabin.

There was immense distrust and frustration, with the opportunity for Democrats to offer something new. But instead, they offered more of the same. Giving today's crowded GOP primary field a run for its money, 14 other Democrats vied for the nomination, including Arizona Rep. Morris Udall, Alabama Gov. George Wallace, Washington Sen. Henry Jackson, West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd, Sargent Shriver, Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh.

Before the Iowa caucuses in January 1976, only 4 percent of Democrats said they'd support Jimmy Carter, and his name recognition was at 2 percent. After announcing his candidacy, the Atlanta Constitution -- his home state paper -- ran the headline, "Jimmy Who is Running For What!?"..

...Carter, like Trump, used the media to his advantage, garnering a tremendous amount of coverage. Carter biographer Laurence Shoup writes that it was the media's "favorable coverage of Carter and his campaign that gave him an edge, propelling him rocket-like to the top of the opinion polls ... enabling him to rise from an obscure public figure to president-elect in the short space of 9 months."

While Trump's coverage by the media could hardly be called "favorable," he certainly is getting a ton of it, arguably to his advantage in the polls.

Of course, where Trump and Carter differ is in recognition and resources. Trump is already a national figure, and has said he may spend a billion dollars to win, unlike Carter who, according to the New Yorker's Jeffrey Frank, had to sleep in his supporters' homes during the campaign.

I disagree with some of Townhall's characterizations of 1976, but generally, find it to be a fascinating comparison.

The writer of the article, S.E. Cupp, is an avowed Conservative and she writes a great deal of interesting and sometimes, very deep stuff. I don't agree with her on much of anything, but find that she writes very, very well.

I will remind again: this comparison is being made in a very Conservative publication.