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How Obama Can Avoid the Mistakes of Carter
As Barack Obama met with the former presidents today, we can hope he cast an eye across the table and vowed not to indulge the cult of personality that undid Jimmy Carter. Avlon is the author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America.
You get graded on a steep curve as president. Getting elected should be accomplishment enough to last a lifetime, but once you enter the Oval Office the goalposts get moved and you're competing against the ghosts of presidents past.
On Wednesday, President-elect Obama will sit down for lunch at the White House with the four other living members of the club that only 44 men in the history of our republic have joined. It's an unprecedented meeting, part of an unusually thorough and thoughtful transition orchestrated by the outgoing administration. But as the son of the first President Bush can tell you, even personal experience learning from a previous president does not guarantee future success.
Obama has spoken frankly of his Rorschach-like political appeal, where people across the political spectrum project on him what they wish to see. It is a quality he shares with the early Jimmy Carter.
President-elect Obama begins with an historic advantage that lunch companions Carter, Bush, Clinton, and Bush did not have—he enters office as an immediately consequential president, the embodiment of America's struggle to form a more perfect union, an step toward absolving our original sin of slavery. On that thematic level alone, his place in history is assured even before inauguration.
Obama has another advantage in the presidential sweepstakes—the times are piled high with difficulty. Great presidents require great drama. That's why Theodore Roosevelt was always cursing the fact that he was not a wartime president, and that's why Bill Clinton's self-inflicted scandals will compete with his political and policy accomplishments for history's headlines. With America embroiled in two wars, and suffering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, “No-Drama” Obama has plenty on his plate, providing the opportunity for presidential greatness as well as the possibility of a presidential quagmire.
But Obama has another natural advantage--he is entering office with not just the admiration but the affection of the American people. We haven't seen a truly pop-culture president since the Kennedy Camelot years, and after the historic unpopularity of President Bush in his second term, the shift to the Obama phenomenon in the White House will be stark. Obama's actions won't just be covered in Time or Newsweek, they'll be covered in People and Rolling Stone as well. And it will be a key reason that any Republican attempts to pursue a simply obstructionist "No-Bama" strategy will fail.
Obama's approval ratings won't remain sky-high over the course of his presidency, but he will connect personally with the American people in a way that George W. Bush never did and in so doing redefine Teflon for a new generation.
But importance is not the same thing as success, just as popularity does not necessarily translate to effectiveness. As Obama is having lunch today, he might look across the table and ponder this presidential cautionary tale:
Once there was a president who campaigned on hope and change after a period of disillusionment, division, and economic downturn. He was a virtual unknown when the campaign began, a long-shot dark-horse with a brief record in public office, criticized by party-elders for having the self-assurance to believe that he should be president instead of waiting his turn. But people across the political spectrum responded to the candidate's calm candor and thoughtful intelligence—they saw in him a different kind of politician who could heal old divides and make them believe in our democracy again. Armed with a disciplined campaign, he pulled off what Time called "something of a political miracle." Before inauguration day, over 60 percent of Americans believed he would make a good or great president. By March, proposing a far-sighted energy bill and an economic stimulus plan that balanced job-creation with targeted tax-cuts, his approval ratings reached 72 percent. Things fell apart from there.
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Brendino
Interesting article. I was born in '86, so I didn't know of the similarities to Carter!
finderj
Barrack Obama's election is indeed concrete evidence of the positive growth of America's attitude on race. There is, no doubt, still a long way to go to eliminate racial predjudice and to celebrate racial and cultural differences as contributing to a unique culture. However, the original sin of slavery was paid for, in the blood of over 625,000 people between 1860 and 1865. There may yet be atonement to be made for Jim Crow and the institutionalized racism the country endured through the 1960's, but surely no one can discount the bitter, bitter payment this country made for accepting slavery in the first place. Just because the deaths occured 149 years ago does not invalidate the price paid. Subsequent acts of racism do not lessen the sacrifice made to cleanse this country of slavery. As a nation, we paid for slavery. We are still paying for institutionalized racism, as well we should, until every last vestiage of that evil is gone as well, but slavery has been paid for.
Mary50
Man, what a boring bunch of stuffed suits. Can't wait to see a woman up there one day, at least for the chance to see the majority of the population actually represented in the White House.
BernieO
I disagree that people projected onto Carter what they wished to see. Carter was far too specific about what he planned to do for that to have been the case. People project their wishes onto Obama because he talks in generalities, leaving the interpretation open to his audience. For example, "Change you can believe in" is open to a myriad of interpretations.
Carter has never gotten credit for the many good things he did. His energy policy was right on target and would have saved us a lot of grief had Reagan not undone it. The peace agreement between Israel and Egypt was so successful that people have forgotten just how tense and dangerous that relationship was, so ironically Carter rarely gets credit for that either. The military warned Carter that keeping the Panama Canal would lead us into a war in the region and begged him to turn it over. When he did, the media rarely reported on the military advise, focusing instead on the dire predictions being made by Republicans - none of which proved correct.
This article is the first thing I have read in years which defends Carter. Democrats sit back and allow Republicans to define their people. Republicans don't let that happen. That is why you rarely hear anyone point out that Reagan bears a lot of responsibility for the energy crisis because he undid Carter's programs.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090105/cm_csm/yrodgers05.
magicman
I actually shook President Carter's hand when he was campaigning in Pennsylvannia in 1976 for the Democratic Nomination. I walked down a Hall, around a corner, and literally bumped into the man. Carter was accessible. He also 'beams' the Holy Spirit. He is a most unusual, deeply spiritual, incredibly intelligent man. For those who do not know, Carter was involved in, or spurred such things as Nuclear Submarines, B-1 Bomber, Stealth Aircraft, Precision Guided bombs and munitions. And then had the good sense to never use them. They were for our 'protection'. That was the sole purpose for having them around in the first place. It was never thought that they would actually be used in combat, it wouldn't be fair. He turned out to be sooo right.
In case you are wondering, the hand hooked rug President Clinton was referring to in the Oval Office was made by 'the happy hookers' of Long Island and given as a gift to the Country. I know what you are thinking ....
mavin1620
Obama is inheriting a country that is economically as bad off as it was in 1976. However, Carter inherited the Nixon-Ford mess that has been ignored by everyone since it happened. Luckily, Obama is appointing more nationally experienced people than Carter, Reagan, or Clinton appointed. Clinton's appointments were a mess, remember "nanny-gate" and all of that?
I wish Obama the best. I am worn out by the fools and ditto-heads on the right, and the holier-than-thou liberals on the left. Neither are acting as good citizens right now.
mavin1620
John,
Good article.
helenb1azes
What kind of fool are you? The picture is loaded with other U.S. Presidents who made some pretty bad mistakes....and you talk about Carter. Carter! You are one silly man!
sophia5
Imagine that. The new worst president ever (G.W. Bush) and the former worst president ever Carter posing in the same picture, symbolizing twelve years of incompetence, which coincidentally were somewhat defined by an oil crisis.
funkychicken
Brendino:
With all due respect, understanding the past -- even that past prior to one's birth -- is possible, and highly encouraged. There are several good history books on the seventies. Try Bruce Schulman's book, it's a good place to start.
LuckyTN
1. The Democratic Party leadership didn't like Carter and did everything they could to undermine his administration.
2. Carter was way ahead of Reagan until just a few months before the election. Reagan made a deal with Iran for them to wait until the inauguration to release the US hostages and that sunk Carter who had tried having the hostages rescued then released.
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