In no particular order:
- Gas prices were low.
- So was unemployment.
- The labor participation rate was higher.
- Minority representation in the middle class was increasing.
- We had a manned space program.
- We had elections in Iraqi towns, instead of slave auctions.
- Our allies in Europe trusted us.
- Our rivals worldwide were wary of us.
- And our enemies did their absolute damnedest to hide from us. Well. The ones still breathing, at least.
It’s been a bad six years, folks. Particularly the first two: they set the tone for the next four, and likely six. Just the way it is.
+1. Alas that some on our side made the Perfect the Enemy of the Good. Both McCain and Romney are looking real good right now….
Nope. McCain still doesn’t look good.
Amen to that.
Its only ever “some on our Side” as opposed to the failure candidates themselves.
Well, yes. It is a system where we get to choose the candidates, so if there is a fault, it is ours. Second, of course, look at Moe’s post. There was a LOT of talk about how W was a RINO, but he did a great job. Not that he ever got credit from the “Real Conservatives(TM)”. Third, see Skip’s reply. He really thinks Obama is better the McCain would have been. Surreal, and a fault of the “base”, not the candidate. The Republicans have never given us the kind of fail that the Democrats have. We have no Carter, no Obama, no Pedobear. You might have some credibility on the “failure candidates” side if we did……..
“Third, see Skip’s reply. He really thinks Obama is better the McCain would have been.”
I don’t know Skip, so I don’t know what’s in his head, or his heart, but that is *not* what he said.
I think that McCain would have been a less bad president, that the current one, but I think it would have been heart disease v.s. cancer (Obama’s the cancer).
Would you say to a person who has stage 4 cancer “Oh, I guess COPD looks real good now?”
No. COPD never looks good. Neither does McCain. He just doesn’t look as bad as Obama.
Romney, now he would have been a *good* president. A bet leftist for my taste, but then I think AuH2O was a bit of a big government liberal.
i’m old enough to remember Carter. he preferred setting up the white house tennis court schedule to putting the fear into the iranians. he actually woke up with a few months to go in his term, but wasn’t nearly enough. when Reagan came in couldn’t ship the hostages home fast enough. and the unemployment rate went too low, not enough people to fill jobs and the economy “overheating”. could we try that again?
Jimmy Carter *spit* was lucky to live long enough to see a president more feckless, more anti-American, more antisemitic, more cowardly, and more self-righteous than he is. Unfortunately for America, we’ve seen the two worst presidents in US history over a period of one generation, and have as a major party nominee, a candidate that will make both Carter and Obama look like Boy Scouts.
Sadly, too many of the voters who are too young to remember Carter (myself included; I was five years old when Reagan took office) didn’t bother to look up what the 70s were really like.