EPIC FAIL: Now JIMMY CARTER is calling Obama an incompetent loser

It’s been a disastrous couple of weeks for President Barack Obama. His signature legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is a slow-motion train wreck. His poll numbers have tanked.

Now, things have gotten so bad for Obama that former president Jimmy Carter has called President Obama incompetent in the family-friendly pages of Parade magazine.

“He’s done the best he could under the circumstances,” Carter said of Obama in an interviewed published on Thursday. “His major accomplishment was Obamacare, and the implementation of it now is questionable at best.”

Carter presided over what was, until the current recession, the longest period of economic stagnation since the Great Depression. There was runaway inflation, high unemployment and an ongoing energy crisis. There was a hostage crisis in Iran involving the capture and imprisonment of 52 Americans for 444 days.

In the summer of 1979, Carter gave one of the least effective speeches any president in the history of the American presidency. The deeply unpopular “Crisis of Confidence” speech became widely known as Carter’s “malaise” speech.

Carter lost his 1980 reelection bid to Ronald Reagan by an electoral vote total of 489 to 49. He won only six states, along with the District of Columbia.

The 39th president’s Parade interview touched on several subjects in addition to Obamacare including his grandson’s role in a hidden camera video of Mitt Romney, the Middle East, the Trayvon Martin case and the recent  tribulations of fellow Georgian Paula Deen.

Carter’s wife Rosalynn was also present at the interview and contributed to it.

Via: Daily Caller

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Covering Wal-Mart in DC, Media Don’t Question Claims of ‘Worker Advocates’ Who Will Kill Jobs

For the past several weeks, Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has been playing defense in the news media against “advocates for workers” who favor a “living wage bill.” That’s partly the result of shrewd marketing on the part of lawmakers who favor the legislation – who doesn’t favor a “living wage?” But it’s also because reporters do not typically question self-described “worker advocates” about the economic realities attached to a higher minimum wage.

When the government mandates a higher wage beyond what employers can afford to pay for unskilled labor, the result is higher unemployment. In other words, if the self-proclaimed “advocates” of the working class had there way, the number of people with jobs would be smaller.

After Mayor Gray vetoed a so-called “living wage” bill in September, the Washington Post ran a series of reports that call out for additional investigation.  The proposed legislation -- officially titled the “Large Retailer Accountability Act” -- would have directed retailers with sales of at least $1 billion to pay employees a minimum of $12.50 an hour in combined wages and benefits up from the current minimum wage of $8.25 an hour. Union officials have a vested interest in the bill since it includes an exception for employers who collectively bargain with their workers. To its credit, the Washington Post makes it clear in a Sept. 12 report that the bill would put Wal-Mart at a disadvantage.

“The union exemption and square-footage requirement rankled Wal-Mart officials, who said those provisions created an uneven playing field — particularly with the unionized grocery chains they plan to compete with in the city,” the report says. But that’s not the full story. Contrary to what D.C. council members have been telling members of the press, the proposed “living wage” would result in fewer opportunities for the newest and most needy members of the workforce. Yet, the Washington Post claims the “bill would raise the annual earnings of a full-time employee making the lowest legal wage from about $17,000 to $26,000.”  That’s assuming they are hired in the first place and that’s assuming employers are willing to pay that wage.

If readers were better acquainted with what recent studies said about laws that raise the minimum wage, the political class would have a lot more to answer for in the press. Just last year, the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity published a reporton teenage unemployment that deserves more attention.

By increasing the minimum wage from $6.75 to $7.40 in 2005, Rhode Island policymakers cost the state’s teens 397 jobs in 2011, the study concluded. Out of that total, the study also said 306 were lost to those without high school diplomas.

Via: Newsbusters

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“Another Broken Promise, Mr. President?”

Right now, President Obama and Mitt Romney are looking for the one line that will stand out as the defining line of the debate, a line that encapsulates the candidate’s reason for running and all his frustrations with the other guy. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a solution for the nation’s problems. But it does have to immediately resonate with voters. 

In 1980, the quip that stood out was challenger Ronald Reagan’s dismissive, “There you go again...” to President Carter. Folks knew exactly what Reagan meant: that we had seen through Carter’s attempts to attack Reagan’s supposedly “radical tendencies” as a dodge to distract voters from Carter’s responsibility for an ever-weakening America.

This time around it’s a safe bet that President Obama will try out another quip to further characterize Romney as an out-of-touch millionaire. It’s much less clear what quip the Romney team is looking for. His campaign has suffered from lack of clarity all along. The debates would be the perfect moment to fix on one. And frankly, we think we have one, based on the president’s own record.

During the debate on Wednesday night, President Obama will undoubtedly be asked to defend his record. Mr. Romney will be asked to respond. When he does, Romney should wait a beat -- as Ronald Reagan knew how to do so well -- and ask: “Another broken promise, Mr. President?”

Most Americans need to be reminded of just how many promises this president has broken. When you truly believe the government can fix almost anything, you’re bound to promise much more than can be fulfilled. Thus, Romney has a rich field to plow. The only problem will be brevity, because there are so many examples. But allow me to mention a few, each one of which could be condensed and followed by the refrain: “Another broken promise, Mr. President?”

Via: Fox Business

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Weekly Standard: How to Make 2012 into 1980

When Republican strategists like Karl Rove cite 1980 as a model for this year’s election, they usually have in mind two main elements: Ronald Reagan’s question in the late October presidential debate about whether voters felt better off than four years earlier, when they elected Jimmy Carter, and Reagan’s ability in that debate to reassure swing voters about his ability to serve successfully if elected, converting a very close race into a ten-point blowout by “closing the deal.”
Reagan toasting 1981

The premise of most GOP analysts is that because of the bad economy, Carter was seen as presiding over a failed presidency, and that to throw him out four years after he had ousted the Republicans, all the voters needed was affirmation that Reagan was up to the challenge of turning the economy around. The application of this precedent to Mitt Romney’s race against Barack Obama is too obvious to need much elaboration: establish Romney as economically qualified and the election will be his.\

Via: Weekly Standard

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Memoirs of an American Family

During the summer of 1979, Jimmy Carter gave his famous Crisis of Confidence speech. In the now infamous narrative, Carter intended to set forth a new energy plan. Instead, the speech revealed his shaky confidence in the American ideal. Behind shallow praise of the “American People,” the former peanut farmer painted a picture of our nation with a pessimistic brush. America was facing a “crisis of spirit” and had lost confidence in her future. Needless to say, this message of “Malaise” did not resonate strongly with a generation of Americans who had been raised in a nation with confidence and patriotism in their hearts. During the 1980 election, Americans came to a fork in the road. They had a decision to make between the “malaise” of the Carter administration and the future promised by a retired actor named Ronald Reagan.

Like me, my father was on his way out of college during the 1980 election cycle. Although he did not trust Reagan because of his years in the liberal cesspool that is Hollywood, he was deathly afraid of Jimmy Carter’s policies and lack of experience in the political sphere. Just like in 1980, I believe our nation is standing on the precipice of economic destruction and political chaos in 2012. The future President Obama promises does not align with the principles of hard work, individual innovation, and entrepreneurship that built my past. While the American people will always keep the fires of the American Dream alive in our hearts, our government has steadily progressed away from individualism and small government. At this juncture in history, I find it enlightening to look into the past for answers, both my past and my father’s past.

I grew up learning the values of hard work, innovation, and compassion from my father. He embraced these lessons as a young man growing up in a small town in the Midwest before he imparted them to my siblings and me. My father was born smack dab in the middle of a family of 12 in the small town of Atchison, Kansas. My hometown is one where local, familial ties are important, and the Lutz family was a classic example of this practice. Early on, each of the 12 children learned to work hard and watch out for each other. My grandfather started a dealership and auto repair service with his brother in the 1950s after serving in the Korean War. He was a trusted businessman and always made sure to shop local and take care of his friends and neighbors. My father and his 11 siblings grew to appreciate the small town life, entrepreneurship, and family ties through their parents’ example.

When my father was 7 years old, tragedy struck our family as his father, my grandfather, passed away from a sudden heart attack. My grandmother never remarried and raised 12 children on her own. The entire family pulled together. According to my father, they had to “work as a team if they wanted to survive.” My father and my aunts and uncles didn’t know they were poor. For them, hard work was a part of life. The children made money in any way that they could. My father delivered papers when he was 12 and grew up doing odd jobs around town, including shining shoes and collecting bottles. The children were lucky enough to attend a private, Catholic school in town, but they had to work hard to pay the high tuition bills. During high school, my father would occasionally stop by the school office and drop off 5 or 10 dollars for his tuition payment. Eventually, he and his siblings paid for their own educations.

Via: Hot Air Green Room

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Romney copying Reagan's 1980 path to victory

TAMPA, Fla. - The Romney campaign has seized on Ronald Reagan's 1980 playbook, hoping to copy the Gipper's transformation during his GOP convention and subsequent debate with Jimmy Carter from a mocked B-tier Hollywood actor to a respected and winning presidential alternative.

Several Republicans including Romney's son Tagg said that Mitt Romney's path to the White House is a carbon copy of Reagan's, who was ridiculed by Carter and his team as they tried to divert attention to their hapless management of the economy.

Former Republican Party boss Haley Barbour said Carter accused Reagan of being a warmonger and loony conservative but when voters saw him perform well at the 1980 convention and debate, they thought, "Reagan doesn't look like a nut to me. He seems like a pretty nice guy."

That's the goal of Team Romney here--use family to show his softer side, highlight his charity and spell out in detail his plans for the presidency. "We don't have to hit it out of the park," said son Tagg Romney. Instead, he said, his father simply needs to show that he's not the ogre the Obama team is making him out to be.

Barbour suggested that Romney is on the verge of a big break out, based on polling numbers. He noted that when Romney became the presumptive nominee, the first Gallup Poll had him up by 2 percent. When Reagan became the presumptive nominee, he added, Gallup had him 14 points behind Carter and nine points behind at the beginning of the GOP convention.

Romney, however, is dead even with Obama.

But Democrats don't buy it and think Romney is moving too late to remake his image. Bill Burton, co-founder of the Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action, told Secrets, "Romney missed a critical opportunity to tell the American people his story this spring and summer. As a result of only attacking President Obama and not introducing himself, voters see Romney as the kind of guy who got rich by rigging the system and profiting from the losses experienced by hard-working middle class families."

And, he added, a softer performance in Tampa might not work. "He can fix that some during the convention but there has been a hardening of Romney's perceived indifference to the middle class that will be difficult to wash away," said Burton.

Via: Washington Examiner

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