Wednesday, September 14, 2011

2012 = 1980?

Could Rick Perry vs. Barack Obama be the Reagan vs. Carter match-up of the new millennium?

Peter Wehner answered  Jonathan Alter's ridiculously easy challenge to prove Obama has been a bad president.  Wehner's fact-based piece is shooting fish in a barrel.  Unemployment, anemic economic growth, unprecedented deficit spending, worsening housing crisis, international enemies licking their chops...  Wehner wraps it all up in a handy, user-friendly bulleted list.

Obama had a chance to be the next Reagan, but instead became a more flamboyantly inept Carter

Obama is not Carter, he's worse.  Stephen Moore compares Obamanomics to Reaganomics, and it's not pretty for the Hope and Change crowd:
The two presidents have a lot in common. Both inherited an American economy in collapse. And both applied daring, expensive remedies. Mr. Reagan passed the biggest tax cut ever, combined with an agenda of deregulation, monetary restraint and spending controls. Mr. Obama, of course, has given us a $1 trillion spending stimulus.

By the end of the summer of Reagan's third year in office, the economy was soaring. The GDP growth rate was 5% and racing toward 7%, even 8% growth. In 1983 and '84 output was growing so fast the biggest worry was that the economy would "overheat." In the summer of 2011 we have an economy limping along at barely 1% growth and by some indications headed toward a "double-dip" recession. By the end of Reagan's first term, it was Morning in America. Today there is gloomy talk of America in its twilight.
Is Perry the next Reagan?

I don't think so.  Like FDR, Churchill or any other historical figure, there's only one, and the tales of crony crapitalism emanating from Austin give me pause.  Still, Perry poses a credible challenge to both the Democratic and GOP establishments not seen since the rise of the Gipper.

The Republican establishment can't stand the guy because like Reagan, he's an outsider not beholden to the K Street Gucci contingent.  And the Obama mouthpieces blabbing on about how they welcome a Perry challenge while feigning fear of a Romney or a Huntsman smacks a little too much of Brer Rabbit's "Please don't throw me in that briar patch!"

He's got Kinky Friedman's vote!

Here's what the singing humorist had to say...
I have been quoted as saying that when I die, I am to be cremated, and the ashes are to be thrown in Rick Perry’s hair. Yet, simply put, Rick Perry and I are incapable of resisting each other’s charm. He is not only a good sport, he is a good, kindhearted man, and he once sat in on drums with ZZ Top. A guy like that can’t be all bad. (Kinky Friedman - Rick Perry's got my vote)
He closes with a hearty endorsement:
So would I support Rick Perry for president? Hell, yes! As the last nail that hasn’t been hammered down in this country, I agree with Rick that there are already too damn many laws, taxes, regulations, panels, committees, and bureaucrats. While Obama is busy putting the hyphen between “anal” and “retentive” Rick will be rolling up his sleeves and getting to work. (Kinky Friedman - Rick Perry's got my vote)
President Obama is playing Jimmy Carter to a T, even besting that lugubrious president's dismal record.  Can Rick Perry step in and fill Reagan's boots?

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was totally unimpressed with Perry's performance in the Tea Party debate the other night. He seemed awkward and didn't seem to think well on his feet. The best I can say is I suppose we could do worse. Sorry. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Silverfiddle said...

I'm not endorsing Perry, but rather wondering aloud if this is a historical parallel or not.

Bd said...

The GOP has no one except far right wackos and liars.

Ducky's here said...

Obama had a chance to be the next Reagan

-----------------

But Silverfiddle, St. Ronnie Raygun the ignoramus was also responsible for a massive debt increase.

And as I try to point out to the economically ignorant on the right, the nonpareils of illiteracy, the Raygun moron borrowed at 8-12% while Obummer is borrowing BELOW THE INFLATION RATE.

Buy a vowel, do something.

Ducky's here said...

Perry is your man. That dipstick isn't used to facing opposition in Texass. It's rough for him in the real world.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if Rick Perry is a Reagan or not (I'm leaning towards no), but Obama will definitely be compared to Carter.

Obama tried to accomplish way too much in too short of a time, and he has taken on the same admonishing-father tone that Carter had.

Silverfiddle said...

No argument that Reagan followed the DC progressive spending path, but in inflation adjusted dollars, Obama has already racked up more debt than Reagan did his entire 8 year term.

So yeah, keep marching out pedantic twaddle like comparing borrowing to the inflation rates, or money spent to the average DC temperature in August.

Under Reagan we had a strong dollar, a doubling of the economy and an almost doubling of revenue, but most importantly, we had JOBS!

Obama is flushing us down a third world toilet.

Unknown said...

The historical parallel I have seen is this. Carter was elected because of the highly unpopular Nixon/Ford administration.
Obama was elected because of the highly unpopular Bush Administration (even though he wasn't running).
The massive debt increase in the Reagan years was his military buildup (which Carter nearly destroyed and left us vulnerable) to counter the USSR, which eventually the USSR couldn’t match and broke the bank. Money well spent.

Z said...

Nobody can be Ronald Reagan. I see Perry gazing into the audience like "DO YOU LIKE ME?" I like assurance and quiet confidence; he doesn't have it.

But, anybody who even knows ZZTop let alone plays with them has my vote :-) (*I've got LEGS) :-) "And I know what..."

never mind.

Ducky's here said...

Silverfiddle, you neglect to credit Carter's appointment of Volker to the Fed. Another typical right wing error.

Saint Ronnie Raygun did nothing but shift part of the tax burden to the middle class when he raised the Social Security tax.

The moron also almost got us into a war with Brezhnev. Be grateful he died when he did.

Z said...

I'll never forget the reverence alone the roads in liberal Los ANgeles when Reagan died; people were lining Wilshire Blvd 10 people thick, young and old...hanging over freeway overpasses under which his hearse traveled to the library...

for someone who did so much damage, he sure is loved by a majority of AMericans.
Ducky, "be grateful he died when he did?" You suggesting that, out of office, he'd have taken us to war? wow

Infidel de Manahatta said...

Let's skip the middle man and just vote for Kinky Friedman.

Unknown said...

"almost got us into a war with Brezhnev"
Brezhnev was too busy getting his a$$ kicked in Afghanistan and building up his defense and aerospace industries to saber rattle with the West, very much.

Ducky's here said...

z, I'm talking about Brezhnev, the one the idiot Raygun liked to play chicken with.

Anonymous said...

Unh unh!

~ FT

Anonymous said...

"Obama is not Carter, he's worse."

INDEED!

~ FT

Anonymous said...

"Perry poses a credible challenge to both the Democratic and GOP establishments not seen since the rise of the Gipper."

NO! NO! A thousand times NO!

The only one who is not part of the GOP Establishment -- or a Darling of the Christian Right -- is Ron Paul, and he couldn't possibly win because:

1. Whiny voice, eccentric, old-womanish platform manner

2. Tells the truth (always a no-no in politics)

3. Labelled an "anti-Semite" by Neocons, who are irked at RP's resistance to the Ethos of AIPAC (one of several foreign Owners and Operators of Washington, DC) and his unwillingness to have the USA give her all for Israel.

4. Gets no serious coverage in the MSM

5. Openly denigrated and dismissed by Right Wing Radio, which has revealed itself, apparently, to be yet-another creature of AIPAC and the Neocons.

6. TOO OLD!

~ FreeThinke

Anonymous said...

I predict an Obama victory in 2012.

Why?

1. The GOP can't get its act together.

2. Those who know the score and tell the truth are instantly marginalized by the Establishment, which very sadly includes the two parties both of which have been in collusion against the best interests of legitimate U.S. citizens or decades. The so-called Conservative movement has proved itself to be a sham. It died at the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

"Under the spreading chestnut tree
Where I sold you and you sold me ..."


Score yet another one for Orwell's tragically prophetic vision.

This potted frog has been boiled to a pulp.

~ FreeThinke

Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

! Ducky; You say about Reagan: "The moron also almost got us into a war with Brezhnev"

This idea was floated BEFORE Reagan was elected and meant to prevent it from happening. It did not work and neither did any war occur, besides the Cold War which Reagan actually ended. "Almost" does not rise to the level of fact.

Stop living in your minds past.

Ducky's here said...

Reagan ended the Cod War all by himself. Bore me later with that nonsense.

Yeah, I know, he raised military expenditures. It was that simple.

Well sit back and enjoy the freaking disaster trying to get ourselves out of the massive debt that butt nugget started us accumulating.

Amazing that you hold him up as a model conservative. Now bore me later with that boilerplate nonsense.

Ducky's here said...

Brezhnev was too busy getting his a$$ kicked in Afghanistan ...

------------

Yeah, too bad we weren't paying attention.

Jersey McJones said...

Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, the Bushes, and Obama all have two major things in common: all adhered to the Milton Freidman school of economics, and all continued and supported the ridiculously massive MIC. Those two diseases are the main causes of all the symptoms our sick nation suffers today.

So, whether it's the next Carter, or Reagan, or Bush Sr., or Clionton, or Bush Jr., or Obama, in the general scheme of things it really doesn't matter. One thing I know for sure: with a Republican president things are just going to get a little worse.

JMJ

A Blue Girl said...

Is Perry the next Reagan?


I don't know, but he's going to be the next President. I can tell you that.

Anonymous said...

Polls show Texas Gov. Rick Perry with a commanding 10-point lead over the rest of the GOP field, but is he really in the lead to win the nomination?

His first debate performance was solid, but last night's CNN Tea Party debate should have been where he shined — and he did everything but. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, has adopted the slow-and-steady approach, which seems to be paying off by the day.

Perry stuttered, stammered, and doubled-talked on issues from immigration to parental rights, and allowed himself to be pummeled by the other candidates on the stage. He was even booed over his opposition to a border fence.

If Perry felt like a piñata during last week's debate, then last night he was a man facing a firing squad.
With the rest of the field directing their fire at Perry, Romney emerged unscathed from nearly two hours of bitter debate — while Perry stumbled from the hall with serious doubts about his electability.

Perry taking the lead in national polls may be the best thing to happen for Romney — whose candidacy is increasingly based on his general election chances.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/is-rick-perry-really-the-front-runner-2011-9#ixzz1XxoNoJ4G

Submitted by FreeThinke

Unknown said...

"Yeah, too bad we weren't paying attention."

Really? You need to keep up with current events as they happen, or you're be clueless.......

Rob said...

My pre-Regan political smarts are sadly lacking, so perhaps I'm being too kind, but to compare Obama to him is to do Carter a real injustice. Even if he was misguided and incompetent, I believe Carter to have been a well-intentioned and very decent man.

Ducky's here said...

Jersey, pretty much straight on but save some room for Ayn's cabana boy, Greenspan.

Anonymous said...

QUESTION: Why IS there such a thing as a strong Military-Industrial Complex?

ANSWER #1 : How many ways can you spell BILDERBERGER?

ANSWER #2 : How many ways can you spell COUNCIL on FOREIGN RELATIONS?

ANSWER #3 : How many ways can you spell BOHEMIAN GROVE?

ANSWER #4 : How many ways can you spell SKULL & BONES?

ANSWER #5 : How many ways can you spell HOUSE of ROTHSCHILD?

ANSWER #6 : How many ways can you spell ILLUMINATI?

Thomas Jefferson on Central Banking
 
"The Central Bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution...if the American people allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
 
 - Thomas Jefferson, US Founder and principle author The Declaration of Independence


~ FreeThinke

Anonymous said...

"We are not going to achieve a New World Order without paying for it in blood as well as in words and money."

- Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., 'The CFR Journal Foreign Affairs', August 1975.

Arthur, as you may remember, was one of JFK'S most prominent hagiographers and Chief Lickspittle and Apologists for the Kennedy administration. Schlesinger had one of the brownest, crustiest noses in the checkered history of Washington politics. He positively snuffled whenever he spoke. Disgusting!

~ FreeThinke

Anonymous said...

Dr. John Coleman in "Targets of the Illuminati and the Committee of 300[19]" asserts that the Illuminati's intentions include:

The establishment of a One World Government with a unified church and monetary system.

Further advancement of ideas through mind control.

Legalization & encouragement of the use of drugs and pornography.

Suppression of all scientific advancement unless they considered it acceptable to their aims.

To cause a total collapse of the world's economies and engender total political chaos.

To take control of all Foreign and domestic policies of the United States.

To keep people everywhere from deciding their own destinies by means of one created crisis after another and then managing such crises.

To weaken the (moral fiber) of the nation and to demoralize workers in the (labor class) by creating mass unemployment.

The utter destruction of all national identity and national pride.

Fracturing of the nuclear family by encouraging teenagers to rebel.

Use and promotion of rock music to facilitate this rebellion which include rock gangsters such as the Rolling Stones.

The destruction of religions.

An end to all industrialization and the production of nuclear generated electric power in what they call "The Post-Industrial Zero-Growth Society".

Penetrate and subvert all governments, and work from within them to destroy the sovereign integrity of nations represented by them.

Organize a world-wide terrorist apparatus and negotiate with terrorists whenever terrorist activities take place.

Take control of education in America with the intent and purpose of utterly and completely destroying it.

To press for the spread of religious cults such as the Moslem Brotherhood, Moslem fundamentalism, the Sikhs, and to carry out experiments of the Jim Jones and Son of Sam type of murders.

To export "religious liberation" ideas around the world so as to undermine all existing religions but more especially the Christian religion.

Depopulation of large cities according to the trial run carried out by the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. Pol Pot's (genocidal plans) were drawn up in the United States by one of the Club of Rome's research foundations.

To give the fullest support to supranational institutions such as the United Nations (UN), The International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Bank of International Settlements (BIS), The World Court and, as far as possible, make local institutions of lesser effect by gradually phasing them out or bringing them under the mantle of the United Nations.

Cause by means of limited wars in the advanced countries, and by means of starvation and diseases in Third World countries, the death of 3 billion people by the year 2000 & the population of the United States is to be reduced by 100 million by the year 2050. The Committee of 300 commissioned Cyrus Vance to write a paper on this subject of how best to bring about such genocide. The paper was produced under the title the "Global 2000 Report" and was accepted and approved for action by President Carter, for and on behalf of the U.S. Government, and accepted by Edwin Muskie, then Secretary of State, Under the terms of the (Global 2000 Report)


This appears in WIKI, and is, of course, denigrated and dismissed as "fiction," but what do you see HAPPENING all around you everywhere?

~ FreeThinke

Z said...

"abluegirlami said...

Is Perry the next Reagan?
I don't know, but he's going to be the next President. I can tell you that."

Well, abluegirl will I BE if that happens.
I kind of liked him to begin with but the more I hear, the more I'm not too sure. But, of course, ANYBODY BUT OBAMA>

98ZJUSMC said...

RoNNiE RaYgUn...RoNnIe rAyGUn....

Heh, I just had to come here and read trite, petulant nonsense from someone constantly making a fool of himself.

Kudos and thanks for the laughs.

98ZJUSMC said...

with a Republican president things are just going to get a little worse.

Wow! What a bold statement. Seeing as how the current hole that's being dug by the Universe's most smartest, bestest, most baritoniest man can't be stopped for at least two years, if then.

Very prescient.

Anonymous said...

"Silverfiddle, you neglect to credit Carter's appointment of Volker to the Fed. Another typical right wing error."

Ducky,
The Fed is inherently evil. We are talking Hitler and Mao trying to run over neighborhood dogs evil. It does not matter who gets appointed by who.

Silverfiddle said...

2 DUCKY: Brezhnev was too busy getting his a$$ kicked in Afghanistan ...

------------

Yeah, too bad we weren't paying attention.


All I can say, Ducky, is touche'...

Jersey McJones said...

FT, you do not need any conspiracy theories to understand why we have a huge MIC. All you need to understand is greed.

Ducky, Volker, Greenspan, Bernanke, were all products of the Friedman school. The idea is simple: stifle overall monetary inflation for the sake of the rich at the expense of wages and upward mobility.

So, like I, you can just laugh your ass off when these geniuses call Obama a "socialist." They wouldn't know a socialist from Chainsaw Al.

JMJ

Jersey McJones said...

98ZJUSMC,

Very adolescently snarky for a marine. I'm sure your pals think you're a great comedian.

I 10000000000000000000% things will get a LOT worse.

Catch up with me a couple of years from now and we'll see.

The way things are going, stupid fuckin' moronic Americans will elect a functionally retarded scumbag like Perry president and the country will tank beyond your worst prognostications.

JMJ

Always On Watch said...

Even some Dems are skeptical of Obama's so-called jobs plan 2011.

In 2012, we may be facing the situation that any GOP candidate will defeat Obama.

As I think back to 1980 and a bit earlier, I recall how everyone at first pooh-poohed the very possibility that Reagan, at his advanced age, could possibly win the nomination, much less the election.

But Carter was such an epic fail that many Dems voted for Reagan!

IMO, we are reaching the point that Obama is going to be abandoned except by his staunchest adherents.

Silverfiddle said...

Regardless of what you think of the GOP field, Jersey, Obama is a dismal failure. There's no way around it.

He's immature, incompetent and completely unequipped for the job.

The results don't lie.

Anonymous said...

Is anyone here familiar with the story of Cassandra in Greek Mythology?

She was given the Gift of Prophecy -- she knew all that was to happen and why -- but no one would believe her.

Her gift was wasted. Her life a continual series of abuses and punishments.

~ FreeThinke

Ducky's here said...

Regardless of what you think of the GOP field Obama is a dismal failure. There's no way around it.

-------

Silverfiddle, who's more handsome, Boris Karloff or Peter Lorre?

Anonymous said...

who's handsomer, Boris Karloff or Peter Lorre?

Obviously it's Bela Lugosi.

~ FT

Anonymous said...

>elect a functionally retarded scumbag

No, I think people want a change from what we've got right now. You know, that classless, semi-coherent fraud we've already got in the White House defecating uncontrollably on the office of president and the American people on a daily basis.