Jimmy Carter told us to get off gas / Raygun said we have enough

[mdmc]

Nowadays we live in a Raygun America. Obama jocks Raygun, as did W., Bigdog, and GHWB. No one talks about Cater or real solutions.

I am guilty myself. I drive instead of taking the bus. Give my convenience or give me death, as the saying goes..

[midnight]

1. Jimmy was educated in science, and Ronny wasn't.

[izquierdista]

7. Ronnie was a thespian

Educated in illusion, making people believe a story with a happy ending.

[Donnachaidh]

10. Ronnie was worse - Ronnie was an IGNORANT thespian

please -- there are good actors out there. Don't broadbrush them in with this dead corporate shill....

[izquierdista]

12. He was a very good actor

So good he even even convinced himself. To say he was not a good actor is akin to saying Hitler was not a good public speaker. It's the effect that both had on their target audience that was horrible.

[Donnachaidh]

13. don't think so.

He was a good SHILL. Worlds apart from being a good actor.

[KansDem]

16. Compared to this other actor, I might agree...

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2004/06/06/chimp,0.jpg

...but just barely...

[joeybee12]

18. He was a bad actor, and bad actors usually make good spokesmen...

and he was selling products, GOP lies and himself.

[Dawgs]

2. "Obama jocks Raygun"

Give me a fucking break!! Obama is not perfect, but he's working on alternative energies and has just raised the fuel standards - AGAIN!!

[mdmc]

3. Raygun was the worst president of my life

I've heard Obama sing his praises often. I don't recall Obama jocking Carter in the same way..

Bottom line - We made very little effort to make real change, and every effort to spill baby drill..

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Reagan was a monster

And Obama's praise of him is revolting. Jimmy put solar panels on the White House, Regan took them down. Same for all of the policy that would have prepared us for the challenges of today.

[tledford]

17. Fifty years from now, historians will place Reagan at the bottom...

...along with Buchanan.

The damage to the US economy that he initiated will *also* take fifty years to recover from.

[ShortnFiery]

5. Obama often verbally honors Reagan. That's what gives me the creeps.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/16/obama-compares-himself-to_n_81835.html

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/011908.html

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/11/20/channeling-the-gipper.html

[mdmc]

6. ditto

[Jennicut]

9. He is comparing himself politically, not policy-wise.

Reagan did transform America, he just did it in a terrible way.

[polichick]

4. Carter was an adult, telling us in that 1977 speech what we needed to hear...

Raygun brought us denial and feel-good delusion with his Morning in America bullshit.

[uponit7771]

11. There are no buses where I live I have to drive because of kids. You're right about RayGun, don't...

...know why anyone would vote for "trickle down"

[phleshdef]

14. Lie. Obama has clearly said in no uncertain terms that we have to get off oil.

He said just yesterday that oil can be nothing more than a bridge to clean alternative renewables. He said just yesterday that the fact that oil companies are drilling miles deep under the ocean shows that we have hit the peak and that all the easily obtained oil has been sucked up out of the ground.

No one talks about Carter because Carter, unfortunately, is widely viewed as a complete failure of a President that couldn't get anything done.

[paparush]

15. Timeline of America's Dependence on Foreign Oil

* In 1974 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources, President Richard Nixon said, “At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need.”

* In 1975 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources, President Gerald Ford said, “We must reduce oil imports by one million barrels per day by the end of this year and by two million barrels per day by the end of 1977.”

* In 1979 with 40.5% of oil from foreign sources, President Jimmy Carter said, “Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 – never.”

* In 1981 with 43.6% of oil from foreign sources, President Ronald Reagan said, “While conservation is worthy in itself, the best answer is to try to make us independent of outside sources to the greatest extent possible for our energy.”

* In 1992 with 47.2% of oil from foreign sources, President George Bush said, “When our administration developed our national energy strategy, three principles guided our policy: reducing our dependence on foreign oil…”

* In 1995 with 49.8% of oil from foreign sources, President Bill Clinton said, “The nation’s growing reliance on imports of oil…threatens the nation’s security… will continue efforts to…enhance domestic energy production.”

* In 2006 with 65.5% of oil from foreign sources, President George W. Bush said, “Breakthroughs…will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.”

* In 2009 with 66.2% of oil from foreign sources, President Barack Obama said, “It will be the policy of my administration to reverse our dependence on foreign oil while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/The-Daily-Reckoning/2010/0430/A-history-of-false-starts-for-US-energy-independence

[mdmc]

21. thanks for the info and link

:kick:

[paparush]

22. No Problem.

That's a handy list/link to refer to for all sorts of issues.

[TheKentuckian]

19. It's totally Ray Gun's America and that's why many of us are fit to be tied

Obama is playing the same album but just another track. He's kinda like what Eisenhower was in the wake of FDR. Ike was FDR's 6th term, he was caught in the same dynamic that dominated American politics until Unka Ronnie, despite being more conservative.

Ike had to be a sort of New Deal Republican to survive and have impact or he had to change the record. Obama had the ability to change the record but stuck with the same old tunes. He had no inclination to be a transformative President in that way and still seems more focused on "ending old debates" by surrendering to Reagan and just doing a bit of fine tuning.

There is no choice but to strike out on a different path or embrace Unka Ronnie's direction and thus far Obama has chosen to be another term for the old bastard that tore down America.

We stay on Reagan's trajectory and to have real change there has to be a new paradigm. We cannot mitigate Reaganism, it must be destroyed and relegated to the dustbin of history rather than meekly adjusted.

[seabeckind]

20. Well said... n/t

[mdmc]

23. agreed

:toast: