humanities.philosophy.objectivism

On Apr 2, 10:50 pm, Ken Gardner wrote:
> Matt W. Barrow wrote:
> >Maybe an Obama administration is just the kick in the pants that America
> >needs. Of course, that would probably result in the next administration
> >being a Huckabee administration.
>
> Obama is the second coming of Jimmy Carter.  I was around for the
> first one.  No thanks.  Maybe much of country deserves a swift hard
> kick in the pants, but I don't.  And Carter wasn't a mere kick in the
> pants, but an long, drawn-out, national suicide attempt that Ronald
> Reagan stopped in time.  

A recent discussion in Time or Newsweek (don't recall which) indicated
that Clinton 92-96 aides have joined Team Obama and Clinton 96-00
aides have joined Team Hillary. These kind of calls are really
difficult to make, but for the moment I'm going to go with the Clinton
92-96 analogy over the Carter analogy, because the only Carter person
onboard is Brezinski, and he's awfully old. Also, when the Hillary
meltdown finally comes, many of those people may try to come over, but
with what success, it's hard to say.

I think the most accurate assessment of Carter is that he dramatically
changed his tune immediately after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,
and that policies begun at that point found some continuity with
Reagan's. But the problematic character of Carter's policies can be
seen as extending all the way back to Nixon/Ford and detente. Carter
just put a moralistic gloss on detente, IMHO.