Thursday, March 31, 2011

Obama: “Hey, look over there! Jimmy Carter!”

Yes, the Grandee of Georgia Goobery continues to beclown himself.

One wonders what Obama will do with the rest of his life, once he is heaved out of the White House. I like to think he’d spare us the endless stream of embarrassing episodes that have constituted Carter’s post-presidential career, but I’m not optimistic. Being a self-styled internationalist, he might decide to continue slinging his pick at the edifice of American exceptionalism, or maybe he’ll slip into the role of minister-without-portfolio, becoming a mouthpiece for various disreputable foreign organizations (or, for that matter, for one or more disreputable domestic organizations). I’m sure George Soros will find something for him to do.

In any event, our biggest concern is over what he is doing (and not doing) now, and the most important future similarity I hope to see between Carter and Obama is one term in the White House.
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7 comments:

  1. cacMarch 31, 2011 at 8:52 PM

    It seems a particular problem with an executive presidency. Once you've been a head of state with all the grovelling and perks that come with it, it must be difficult to lapse into well deserved obscurity. And I suspect the curious habit of continuing to address former elected officials by their title doesn't help. If Carter was addressed as "Hey Jimmy" rather than Mr President I'm sure it would constrain his ego somewhat. While we have the occasional attempt by former PMs to bignote themselves (see Keating P and Fraser M - although as with the US, the worse their performance in office the more likely they are to pop up after it), no body takes them seriously and no one calls them PM any more.

    I've long thought that the US needs a ceremonial president to take care of the froth and bubble and let someone else get with the serious business of governing. Can anyone doubt that the US would be better governed if Obama was limted to opening flower shows and welcoming ambassadors while the real seat of power rested with Paco Command Centre?

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  2. PacoMarch 31, 2011 at 10:37 PM

    Can anyone doubt that the US would be better governed if Obama was limted to opening flower shows and welcoming ambassadors while the real seat of power rested with Paco Command Centre?

    Certainly no reasonable person could dispute that.

    Bill Buckley once wrote that we should have made the Kennedys our equivalent of the royal family - with the stipulation, of course, that they be banned from holding elective office.

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  3. cacMarch 31, 2011 at 10:48 PM

    "with the stipulation, of course, that they be banned from holding elective office."

    Well they seem to have taken care of that themselves. With the departure of Patrick Kennedy from Congress last year I hope I'm right in saying that he was the last member of that family to hold elected office? Incidentally, he seems to have been a chip off the old block. I find it very hard to believe that anyone from this bunch of booze smuggling, nazi sympathising, substance abusing, terrorist funding clan will ever again fool the public sufficiently to be elected to a school board but perhaps I'm overstating the wisdom of the great American public?

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  4. PacoMarch 31, 2011 at 10:57 PM

    Well, one has to take into account that their political strength was primarily in Massachusetts - a state which, like the will of God, is past all understanding.

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  5. YojimboApril 1, 2011 at 12:34 AM

    For awhile he will take the Clinton route, getting large sums for ripping the United States overseas while someone else writes his memoir for him. His memoir will bemoan the fact there was just too much to overcome following Bush.

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  6. kcApril 1, 2011 at 9:00 AM

    "...when the first president left office, he made a concession to the American taste for simplicity by decreeing that he would henceforth no longer carry the title of president, not even as a mere courtesy.

    There could only be one president of the United States at a time, he reasoned, as our newest president also observed during the transition period. But there could be more than one American general, so he let it be known that he would revert to his previous title of General Washington.

    From Miss Manners, whom I prefer to imitate, rather than the pompous boobs who populate 'journalism' today.

    Link to the column is here: http://wapo.st/cj1tD

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  7. richard mcenroeApril 1, 2011 at 10:52 AM

    "One wonders what Obama will do with the rest of his life"

    The phrase "run like a goosed gazelle" better be foremost in his thinking...

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