When is the last time you admired a politician... and who was it.

[polpotterybarn]

I dun know how old you are, Tom Clancy, but after Nixon and Ford, Carter was like a breath of fresh, clean air. Finally, a non-crook, non-nutjob in the white house. I think Carter gets trashed a lot unfairly.

Old enough. Just kidding, I'm 18.

I dun know how old you are, Tom Clancy, but after Nixon and Ford, Carter was like a breath of fresh, clean air. Finally, a non-crook, non-nutjob in the white house. I think Carter gets trashed a lot unfairly.

The demonization of Carter is pretty weird to me, did Carter not satiate the typical American's appetite for a warmonger as Commander in Chief? If only we had listened to Carter when he was president...

Of course, you guys obviously don't see the Irony.

I'm blaming Carter like you're blaming Reagan.

See it now?

Maybe if the two situations weren't literally opposites irony would be applicable. People want to put Reagan on currency whereas people have literally called Carter "the worst president of the 20th Century." Using Carter as a scapegoat puts you in the majority

 

[Madeline]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXZcJojTucg]YouTube - Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen[/ame]

If you really are 18 Tom Clancy, that's amazing. You have astounding insight for one so young...I thought by law your generation were all playing video games and obsessing about Lady Gaga?

Gives me hope.

 

[Tom Clancy]

I dun know how old you are, Tom Clancy, but after Nixon and Ford, Carter was like a breath of fresh, clean air. Finally, a non-crook, non-nutjob in the white house. I think Carter gets trashed a lot unfairly.

Old enough. Just kidding, I'm 18.

The demonization of Carter is pretty weird to me, did Carter not satiate the typical American's appetite for a warmonger as Commander in Chief? If only we had listened to Carter when he was president...

Of course, you guys obviously don't see the Irony.

I'm blaming Carter like you're blaming Reagan.

See it now?

Maybe if the two situations weren't literally opposites irony would be applicable. People want to put Reagan on currency whereas people have literally called Carter "the worst president of the 20th Century." Using Carter as a scapegoat puts you in the majority

Except when did I say I want to put him on the Dollar Bill? I prefer to keep the Founding Fathers there.

I'm not using Carter as a scapegoat. Maybe you're using Reagan as one?

 

[Tom Clancy]

YouTube - Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen

If you really are 18 Tom Clancy, that's amazing. You have astounding insight for one so young...I thought by law your generation were all playing video games and obsessing about Lady Gaga?

Gives me hope.

Lol...

I play videogames, just like any teenager does. Except I find Politics and History my #1 thing to keep learning on. If you know what I mean.

Lady gaga? My ex loves her.. but not my cup of tea.

 

[Madeline]

Be fair, Tom Clancy. It's become almost an article of faith for the general public that Reagan was a Great President and Carter was the worst.

 

[Tom Clancy]

You would be right if I was here saying Carter was the worst. But did I?

Nope.

 

[polpotterybarn]

Old enough. Just kidding, I'm 18.



Of course, you guys obviously don't see the Irony.

I'm blaming Carter like you're blaming Reagan.

See it now?

Maybe if the two situations weren't literally opposites irony would be applicable. People want to put Reagan on currency whereas people have literally called Carter "the worst president of the 20th Century." Using Carter as a scapegoat puts you in the majority

Except when did I say I want to put him on the Dollar Bill? I prefer to keep the Founding Fathers there.

I'm not using Carter as a scapegoat. Maybe you're using Reagan as one?

I never said that you do either of those things. I was saying that because "liking Reagan hating Carter" and "liking Carter hating Reagan" are polar opposites. What are we arguing about

 

[Tom Clancy]

You know what.. I have no idea.



By the way, Welcome to the board. You'll like it here.. Just watch out for the Trolls.

 

[QUENTIN]

Kucinich, when he voted against the AUMF and invasion of Iraq.

Feingold, when he voted against the Patriot Act and called for a Congressional censure.

Grayson, when he grilled members of the Fed.

Cory Booker, when he lived for years in the worst slum tenement in the district he was representing.

I don't admire these politicians overall and much of what they've voted for I find reprehensible, but as far as politicians today go they're about as good as it gets.

To find a politician I admired overall, you'd have to go back 90 years to Eugene Debs.

 

[hjmick]

I respected Tom Bradley.

 

[uscitizen]

When is the last time you admired a politician... and who was it.
//

GHWB for refusing to eat brocolli.

 

[Londoner]

[Jimmy Carter] was unable to make necessary changes and to inspire us with his leadership, and he had the political capital and house and senate backing him.

Jimmy Carter asked the nation to sacrifice RE petroleum addiction.

He said one day we would get stuck in the Middle east.

He knew we could not completely get off or abandon oil; rather, he just wanted to create a comprehensive conservation and alternative energy strategy in order to limit our oil use so that we would not be so exposed to the $4 gallon -- he didn't want the American Lifestyle to make terrorists richer. He didn't want oil shocks to have such a severe effect on the American economy (which is more dependent on petroleum than any other economy by a scary factor). He didn't want to have to compete with China and India for a diminishing resource. He saw a real problem, but Reagan and narrow corporate interests silenced him.

Reagan and the Right framed Jimmy as a "sky is falling" lefty. They said he was crazy to think America needed to move more parts of its transportation and production networks to less oil intensive systems. Reagan's first act in the White House was to tear down the solar panels put in place by Carter. [The Right loved making fun of the Left for worrying about energy; they loved making fun of the alternative energy crowd. No need to worry about oil!] Because of Reagan, America spent 30 years not addressing our crippling dependency on the Middle East. America handed its energy future to profiteers who had no interest in preparing for a oil-scarce universe. They invested heavily into Reagan. Because of Reagan we spent 30 years making terrorist nations richer. Ronnie solved the oil problem by increasing our military footprint in the Middle East (and he didn't put his increased military spending into the price of oil; he deprived the market of accurate price signals, which would have lead to a different approach to energy). Like bush, he hid the financial costs of militarizing the Middle East in emergency spending measures. He kept it off the books. America didn't know what hit them until the Reagan deficits became impossible to ignore.

Carter asked America to make sacrifices. Reagan told them what they wanted to hear.

Reagan got energy wrong and America is now lying in that bed.

Silly Rabbit -- Reagan's Cold War spending and military build up made government much bigger, and more in debt, and centralized power more than anything Carter could dream of. Reagan was the first Big Government Conservative. He was a fiscal nightmare, and he set America on an energy path that would eventually destroy her.

 

[Bill Angel]

Be fair, Tom Clancy. It's become almost an article of faith for the general public that Reagan was a Great President and Carter was the worst.

As President, Carter was serious about energy conservation. It's unfortunate that his energy conservation agenda was not supported by subsequent Administrations.

There is a recent interview by Leslie Stahl with Carter on this issue:


[Carter's] energy conservation programs resulted in a 50 percent cut in imported oil, down to just 4.3 million barrels a day.

"Unfortunately, now we're probably importing 12 million barrels a day, since part of my energy policies were abandoned," Carter told Stahl.

"Well, and you built solar panels on the roof of the White House," Stahl remarked.

"That's right, which were ostentatiously removed as soon as Ronald Reagan became president," Carter replied, laughing. "He wanted to show that America was a great nation. So great that we didn't have to limit the enjoyment of life."

"And the public seemed to like that better than they liked your message, which was 'We have to be limiting," Stahl said.

"That's right," Carter agreed. "America responded to that quite well."

 

[California Girl]

George Washington.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Eric Schneiderman, Current State Senator, and soon-to-be Attorney General for New York.

 

[Sarah G]

I have to admit, back in the mists of time when I was a young un, in the ancient days when computers ran on IBM cards and vacuum tubes, I was a big fan of Nixon. That was the last politician I felt any enthusiasm for. And that was a long long time ago.

I love my senator, Sherrod Brown. He's very energetic, gets his opinions out there and is a senate historian. Smart and he always does what I want him to do, I like that in a senator.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Jimmy Carter was the absolute worst President the US ever had until Obama came along. Now he is the second worst President we have ever had. Obama beats him hands down at being an ASS CLOWN.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich. Ring any bells?