The Jimmy Carter candidate in '08

Captain Ed looks at Barack Obama's willingness to meet with America's enemies and he draws an apt comparison to Jimmy Carter. I think Ed should have drawn this comparison out a little further, though, because the comparison is applicable in more than just this narrow sense. In 1976, Jimmy Carter positioned himself as fresh, new blood to Washington. Given America's fatigue with politics in the mid-1970's, it worked like a charm. Carter's fresh perspective and new blood translated into naivete and a hopeless lack of experience to get the job done, though. In that way, Obama is the new Carter. I hold few doubts that Obama would prove to be too naive and experienced to lead the country sufficiently. Obama's answer at the CNN/YouTube debate solidifies that fact for me. A vote for Obama is a vote for Jimmy Carter circa 1976. As we all know now, all of those votes for Carter in 1976 are pretty solid proof that the American voting public is not infallible. Hopefully we will have learned at least one lesson in 30 plus years, even if that means the Democratic nominee is Hillary.

Carter vs. Carter

Iowa a presidential nomination does not make. For S&Gs, let's pretend for a moment that Obama and Huckabee become the nominees of their respective parties. It will be as though we will be choosing between two variants of Jimmy Carter. I made the case for Obama as Carter in July. With Huckabee the parallels are even more significant. Are the American people really ready to make that mistake again?

I still view Iowa as an aberration on the Republican side of things. The corn state seems to have a fetish for the Carter types. Unfortunately, the results leave me extremely wary. What if, after another era of trials and tribulations for this nation, we make the mistake of electing another Jimmy Carter, another person who is totally unqualified for the presidency?

Reason has left the arena

John McCain's only hope this election was a strong, reasoned public. Then he began co-opting Obama rhetoric. In doing so, he ceded reason, and as a result, reason has left the arena. Emotion and rhetoric will rule this election, and that is going to leave John McCain wondering what could have been. If you think he is bitter now, imagine how bitter he'll be after Jimmy Carter the Second (history will determine if Obama is Jimmy Carter the Lessor, and may God help us if he is).

Defining Obama's Presidency

I'm sure many a reader will slide their eyes across that headline and think, "Defining his Presidency? He just got elected!" Well, hear me out on this. He will have a choice once in office. He can be the conduit for pent up liberal/progessive momentum, or he can be his own man, a leader. If chooses the former, and I fear that he will, his presidency will be a disaster. If he chooses the latter, however, he may just have a chance at a second term and a positive presidency.

Love him or hate him, Bill Clinton was more "his own man" than "conduit," and because of that, history will neither relegate him to the dustbin nor label his presidency a net negative, despite his flaws and errors. Obama has a much tougher road ahead of him than Clinton did during our vacation from history. Thus, he needs to be his own man, a leader, and a significantly better one than Clinton.

This isn't to say that it would be a presidency that conservatives would at all be pleased with. It is just to say that he can find a way to avoid being the next Jimmy Carter, and that way is by leading without giving away too much of his influence to the netroots.

President Obama Channels His Inner Nixon

I must admit that I was wrong. I saw President Obama as a Jimmy Carter type. Who knew that he was more of a Nixon?

Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

How does this make you feel, America? At least Nixon's enemies list was born of his own paranoia. This administration, perhaps appropriately, wants to develop a wider ranging enemies list by have you all spy on each other and tattle, much like they used to do in the Soviet Union.

Advantage, McCain

I think this is the best thing I've read about the 2008 Republican race yet:

I'm not saying McCain is a "winner" in the Hail-to-the-Chief sense, I'm just saying right now he's most likely to wind up with the nomination. This is beginning to feel like a thriller with tons of wild plot twists but a disappointing finale. Imagine 1996 with exciting car chases round hairpin bends but you still wind up with Bob Dole.

Mark Steyn does an excellent job of summing up where we are at right now. McCain is by no means coronated yet, but this (South Carolina) is a big boost to his momentum. Disappointingly, Fred Thompson finished third behind Huckabee. It is going to take one hell of a Super Tuesday to keep him in it. I'll admit that I have been very leaning Thompson since he entered the race, but I wanted to see a Thompson campaign that grabbed voters by the shoulders and said, "you've got no reason not to vote for him." Without it, I never could see him winning a general election. Unfortunately, while he's shown a little fire, his campaign has never been up to par. Unless they have some secret strategy that they've been holding back, I'm not sure he'll even be a candidate by the time Wisconsin's primary rolls around.

As for McCain, I do vomit in my mouth a little when I think of him as the nominee. He is moderately conservative in that he is pro national security and marginally fiscally conservative, but this is a man who actually took some time to consider the Democratic Vice Presidency just 4 years ago. I'm not even going to take the time to enumerate his many non-conservative positions. Plus, given his age as a potential first term president, his VP choice would become all too crucial. If he were to become the nominee, he might have an outside chance against Hillary, but I fear he'll get crushed by the Carter-like Obama.

As an addendum to this post, Peter Robinson has perhaps the strangest analogy to the Thompson campaign that I have ever seen. Apparently even Robinson doesn't see Thompson getting the job done, despite the promise he shows.