What if Jimmy Carter were President instead of Bush?

[sknabt]

I have a fairly long commute so I have time to think. The random thought of the day was what if things were reversed and Jimmy Carter was president now? Bush? Oh, he'd be swapped over to 1977-81, the Carter years.

Next to Clinton, the most scoffed at president by conservatives has to be Carter. Mention this on any Fox News Channel segment and you'll get laughed off the stage. But is it so funny?

Now, I'm no expert on the Carter years. So I was thinking in broad terms:

• Carter is a very intelligent man, a Naval Academy grad, who got there, I believe through merit. He graduated in the top 10% of his class. Bush ain't so bright. He's a 'legacy' ivy leaguer who majored in martinis.
  
• Carter had a distinguished military career getting hand-picked by legendary Adm. Rickover for command in the nuclear Navy. Bush? He took the path of least personal risk during his brief military 'career' thanks to daddy's name.
  
• Carter ran the family farm. Bush? The ranch he bought in 2000 isn't a working one. He's a poser looking Reaganesque in his cowboy boots chopping wood.
  
• Carter is a very moral leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize. Bush? Well, his claim to 'peace' is his "axis of evil" speech that led to the botched invasion of Iraq and the current diplomatic messes in Iran and North Korea.
  

So what would the world be like if Carter were president instead of Bush? Would we be in Iraq? Would our global prestige and respect be at an all time low? Would we be running record budget deficits year after year? I'd say no on all accounts.

Of course, Carter earned a bad reputation off of stagflation and the Iranian crisis. But inheriting Clinton's robust economy and being blessed with Alan Greenspan at the Fed for most his presidency he wouldn't bear the curse of a stagflation scenario. Further, forget the Iranian crisis. It wouldn't occur on his watch. And who can argue based upon his diplomatic and foreign policy skills we wouldn't have been better of under Carter than Bush?

Well, the downside in this daydream is I'd have to relive 1977-81 under Bush. It would be a complete disaster! A man who has nothing but a shallow ideology based upon Reagan's legacy, he'd be lost. Because Reagan hadn't been president yet so Bush wouldn't have a political idea in his hollow head. He'd be forced to mimic Nixon - now there's a thought! :)

We'd probably make some "axis of evil" speech against the Iranians for taking our hostages. You can see how well that works. They'd still probably be in Tehran today! Stagflation would worsen as he'd run up the debt like mad - and interest rates - trying to cut taxes for the rich. Or maybe not. That's him copying Reagan. If his mentor was Nixon his strategy shifts to price controls.

Carter brought us the Energy Department. Would it exist under Bush? If he created one would it look like Halliburton on the dole - which is to say pretty much the Halliburton of today?

I'm getting sick thinking about all this so I better quit. ;)

[Warren Stupidity]

1. It would be day 1800 or so since bin Laden took down the WTC

and there would be nightly specials covering the fact that bin Laden was still at large.

[dajoki]

10. Faux would have a clock on the screen counting...

the seconds since he hasn't been caught.

[Name removed]

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[Webster Green]

4. What a load of crap!

"He gave us modern Islamic terrorist" :rofl:

Mind explaining just how he did that?

[Old and In the Way]

6. He'll be awhile citing his links to NewsMax and FreeRepublic

that prove his statement. :rofl:

[Old and In the Way]

5. If we had followed Carter's lead on energy, we wouldn't be shedding

American blood and treasure in the ME today. He got nailed by the formation of OPEC <> But his answer was to promote conservation/CAFE standards, and develop nuclear/alternative/renewables. He promoted the Department of Energy to deal with this critical issue. When Reagan/Bush came to office (by keeping the hostages on ice until after the election), they negotiated cheap oil with Sauds and pretty much took down our national energy policy. They got rich, we got cheap oil, and our energy policy/economy is now totally dependent on ME oil.

Carter made some mistakes with regards to the ME...he formulated the policy to use CIA backed (fronted by OBL) Mujahadeen to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. But the #1 concern then was Russian expansion of influence in the ME. His policies on energy were exactly right and if we had stayed the course, we'd have a whole different economy based on decentralized and efficient energy systems that would make us independent of ME politics and we wouldn't be dumping trillions into Iraq fighting a war we cannot win.

[sknabt]

11. An independent vote for Carter?

I was talking to a dear friend last night who's politically unaligned but I'd say leans conservative just a hair. And out of the blue she mentioned the same point I brought up. Carter's got a bad reputation but she'd much prefer Carter as president than Bush. She breached the entire topic with no prompting from me.

To me this is a clear sign the nation is starting to really wake up.

[Cosmocat]

12. GOD DARNED RIGHT ...

"His policies on energy were exactly right and if we had stayed the course, we'd have a whole different economy based on decentralized and efficient energy systems that would make us independent of ME politics and we wouldn't be dumping trillions into Iraq fighting a war we cannot win."

I went back and looked at his policy ... Almost 25 freakin years now, and as you noted, IF it had been followed through on we would be in a TOTALLY different situation ...

It just is INSANE how the MSM follows the bully pulpit of the right to make Carter out to be some kind of dunce, while they have reinvented Reagan as one of our greatest presidents, and prop up a stooge president whose policies are driven by an administration full of criminally insane and ideologically derganged lunatics ...

[enid602]

3. Poor Jimmy

The Carter Administration is remembered for stagflation and unemployment, which were actually the delayed result of years of overspending in Vietnam, much as our economic prospects will be greatly shaped by Iraq and God knows what else Bushco has in store for us. Tell you what though; I don't think he would have invaded Iraq, and he sure as Hell wouldn't have goaded Israel into going postal over Lebanon. He'd certainly make every effort to reinstate the energy policy that he initiated in the late '70's. You know, the one Reagan abruptly ended as his first official act as President.

I remember reading last year that it would take 10 years to wean the US off foreign petroleum. That's one year we've lost.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[sknabt]

9. Huh?

To be a Leftie today, you must believe...

Overdosed on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh there Mattttt?