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Newly released FBI memos detail a sensitive investigation into fundraising in the Carter White House that started with a comparison to Watergate but fizzled after uncovering special access for donors but no criminal wrongdoing. The memos were released from the file of Charles Manatt, an Iowa native and former Democratic National Committee Chairman who was interviewed during the investigation. The records became public after Manatt died in July at age 75 in Richmond, Va. Manatt grew up on an Audobon farm and studied rural sociology at Iowa State University before ascending to the top of the fields of law, business...

It's now quite clear that Obama is playing chicken with Israel on Iranian nukes. That is why Leon Panetta came out with a statement this week accusing Israel of planning to attack Iran. If that statement is true, it's the worst kind of sabotage, undermining the advantages of surprise. If it's false, it is intended to place Israel at the focus of Iranian rage. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The goal of Obama's nuclear brinkmanship is to drive Israel into making dangerous territorial compromises. This is a Carteresque policy: blame the victim, and arm her enemy. Jimmy...

OMG! Carter thinks Iranian nukes 'not a catstrophe' OMG.... When it comes to the Middle East, the former president never ceases to amaze.In an interview published in Time, he was asked: "What do you think it means that Iran seems to have its first nuclear fuel rod?" His complete answer: "Well, of course, the religious leaders of Iran have sworn on their word of honor that they're not going to manufacture nuclear weapons. If they are lying, then I don't see that as a major catastrophe because they'll only have one or two military weapons. Israel probably has 300 or...

Former President Jimmy Carter says Newt Gingrich knows exactly what he is doing when he uses phrases like "food stamp president" and talks about the poor learning a work ethic. Carter says this rhetoric is "appealing to the wrong element in South Carolina." [snip] "When you emphasize, over and over, welfare, food stamps, and ‘Why don’t the black people get jobs," and if I’m president, I’ll make sure they turn toward a work ethic, rather than an ethic of welfare and food stamps, that’s appealing to the wrong element in South Carolina," the former President said on CNN.

While campaigning in South Carolina on Thursday Rick Santorum said his sweater vest is responsible for the momentum his campaign has seen of late. “It sort of took a life of its own … and the vest gave me this power,” he said, ...

With hunting season underway, the Rick Santorum campaign will unroll a new variation on his signature fashion item, the sweater vest. Supporters will soon be able to buy Santorum hunting vests in bright orange that proclaim the “right to bare arms,” Mr. Santorum said at a campaign stop in Rock Hill, S.C., on Friday. Associated Press Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum wears one of his trademark sweater vests during a campaign appearance Thursday in Charleston, S.C. (photo at article link) The Republican presidential candidate said his website has already sold close to 1,000 sweater vests in the...

When Jimmy Carter offers guidance, any leader would be wise to pay attention. As just one example, Jimmy advised Yasser Arafat, and he remained a president for over ten years! ... most importantly, if you want a second term, don’t say things during your first term that might bring back memories of the “malaise speech.” What? Oh, nevermind…

ATLANTA (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter has some advice for Barack Obama as he gears up for the 2012 election: Don't alienate voters with controversial positions. The Georgia Democrat told The Associated Press on Tuesday that just about everything he did alienated voters, from sealing a treaty to hand over the Panama Canal to establishing diplomatic ties with China.Carter said: "If your main goal is to get re-elected, avoid a controversial subject as much as you can in the first term."

The second term of Jimmy Carter is going about as well as the first one. From Gallup: “PRINCETON, NJ — Throughout 2011, an average of 17% of Americans said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the United States. That is the second-lowest annual average in the more than 30-year history of the question, after the 15% from 2008. Satisfaction has averaged as high as 60% in 1986, 1998, and 2000.” What does this mean? Expect more cries of racism by Eric Holder and other incompetents. Expect more cries of sexism by Babs Boxer and other nincompoops....

FMR. PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER is today reported to have not only sent off a condolence message to North Korea over the death of mass murderer, horrendous DICTATOR Kim Jong-il, in it he also addressed comments to the heir-apparant, Kim Jong-un, and wished for "his success" as he goes forward to "assume power."

Bill Clinton's lessons for ObamaBy Julian Zelizer, CNN Contributor updated 5:05 PM EST, Mon December 19, 2011 **SNIP** The first is that President Clinton was very successful at counteracting Republicans when they attacked. One of President Obama's great frustrations has been the "messaging wars." He has frequently been frustrated by how the GOP portrays him to the public and defines his policies in unfavorable ways. Clinton didn't let the GOP do that easily. When Republicans painted the president as left of center early in his term, he responded by aggressively highlighting his centrist credentials, lowering the deficit in 1993 and...

I am amazed how similar the trajectory of this administration, is beginning to mimic that of Jimmy Carter.

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Carter was inept, but Obama is totally incompetent

President Barack Obama has one of the worst approval ratings of any president in modern political history, Paul Bedard notes in his Washington Whispers blog in US News. Obama’s 43 percent rating in Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index today is far below Democrat Jimmy Carter’s 51 percent at the same point in his presidency. Carter has been considered one of the 20th century’s worst presidents, according to the index. Political experts consider the ratings a crystal ball with the potential for predicting a president’s chances for re-election. Historically, it has been difficult for incumbents to remain in office if...

This news is hardly shocking: President Obama's slow ride down Gallup's daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history. Since March, Obama's job approval rating has hovered above Carter's, considered among the 20th century's worst presidents, but today Obama's punctured Carter's dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama's job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter's 51 percent. ...What's more, Gallup finds that Obama's overall job approval rating so far has...

President Obama's slow ride down Gallup's daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history. Since March, Obama's job approval rating has hovered above Carter's, considered among the 20th century's worst presidents, but today Obama's punctured Carter's dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama's job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter's 51 percent.

After making numerous phone calls and speaking to many Christian leaders in Egypt this week, I have learned that what is really happening on the ground is far removed from the television reporters’ happy endorsement of democracy seekers. To describe what is really going on around the country as “barbaric” would be an understatement. While some of the protestors may be true democracy lovers, the widespread terrorism on display defies all human decency. The truth about recent events in Egypt reveals that the country has disintegrated into a total anarchy and barbarianism that would make the Vikings blush. Peaceful Christians...

Has a president ever arrived freer to choose his own course, to devise his own response to the economic crisis that greeted him in office? Candidate Obama landed with no explicit ideological commitments (at least that he cared to share). He was an icon of something else altogether, and his followers were ready to follow wherever he led. Alas, a few days before his all-but-certain election, he glibly telegraphed what would prove the seminal mistake of his administration, telling Time magazine's Joe Klein that, right after fixing the financial crisis, "a new energy economy . . . That's going to...

I know remakes are all the rage in Hollywood these days, but when did former President Jimmy Carter get written into the script at the White House? It has been three decades since American voters — exhausted by his epic incompetency and appalled by a supporting cast that made the Sweathogs from “Welcome Back, Kotter” look like the board of directors at the Cato Institute — canceled Carter’s show. I hardly expected a comeback three decades after it went off the air. To be fair, President Barack Obama is more Carter’s evil twin than his reanimated political corpse. Carter...

LEOGANE, Haiti (AP) - Haiti hasn't seen many homes built for the poor following a devastating earthquake almost two years ago, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday. In a 10-minute interview with The Associated Press, Carter said he noticed little housing reconstruction for struggling Haitians as he drove from the international airport to the residence of the U.S. ambassador in Port-au-Prince to Leogane, a coastal city 18 miles (29 kilometers) west of the capital that was largely flattened in the earthquake because of its proximity to the epicenter. He added that there may be construction in other parts of...

Former President Jimmy Carter confidently predicted the reelection of President Obama next year. Carter accredited his confidence to “the fact that all of the GOP contenders are so far outside of the mainstream that voters will fear to turn over the awesome powers of the presidency to such extremists.” Carter characterized the Republican opposition to what he termed the President’s efforts to create a “more caring and nurturing role for government.” “The notion that individuals want to or are capable of managing for themselves is out of date and out of step with where the American people want to go,”...

Obama’s tripping over his words STEVE HUNTLEY Oct 28, 2011 The cable home for left-wing politics, MSNBC, has been running commercials advocating its liberal worldview. In one, the network’s Rachel Maddow stands in front of the Hoover Dam and declares, “When people tell us no, no, no, we’re not going to build it; no, no, no, America doesn’t have any greatness in its future . . . it doesn’t feel right to us, and it doesn’t sound right to us because that’s not what America is.” Every time I’ve seen that, I wondered whom Maddow was talking about. Presumably, she...

Former president Jimmy Carter believes President Obama will win the 2012 election despite the woeful state of the US economy. Referring to next year’s election, Carter said he was “optimistic” that President Obama would “fill the centre ground” mainly because the current clutch of Republican nominees had moved so far right that they would find it hard to capture “swing or even moderate Republicans”. When questioned on Rick Perry’s use of religion within his nomination campaign, Carter, himself an evangelical who “teaches scripture every Sunday”, responded bluntly: "He's not going to win." "I am a Christian but the separation of...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-24/obama-s-mythical-political-skills-won-t-save-him-ramesh-ponnuru.html

Historians know that they can never claim wars start with a clash of armies. They know that the root causes of war start long before. In the same way that the seeds of war germinate well in advance of battle action, so too did the causes of this country’s mortgage meltdown, housing collapse, and credit crisis. Champions of Big-Brother-Government want you to blame everyone else except government intrusion for the economic plagues that currently assail us. But there’s no getting around the truth. In the 1990s and 2000s, activist leftist groups like ACORN, AFL-CIO, and NEA conspired with liberal politicians...

I guess every few years, civilized society has to put up with some new crop of ignoramuses who want to tear things down and rant against things they do not comprehend. No matter what the “Occupy Wall Street” lost-souls think, for those readers who really want the truth, this column’s for you. It is the first in a series. It’s the American way for people to stand on street corners with placards or bullhorns. But with the current bunch, the real question for mainstream Americans is whether the cries of the protestors are based on facts or contrived fiction. We’ll...

Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former National Security Advisor to President Carter and a frequent guest on his daughter Mika’s MSNBC program, made a series of strange statements during his segment on “Morning Joe” earlier today. Talking with the MSNBC crew about the concentration of wealth in America as motivation for “Occupy Wall Street,” Dr. Brzezinski seems to believe that publishing the names of people who make a lot of money would be helpful in redistributing wealth: Brzezinski wants anyone making a lot of money to be pointed out, but a short time later he says he does not want Wall...

After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December, 1979, President Jimmy Carter told the world that it had "made a more dramatic change in my own opinion of what the Soviets' ultimate goals are than anything they've done in the previous time I've been in office." By then, of course the Carter Administration was in extremis. Jimmy Carter's lesson was learned far too late. But the cost to the United States -- and its allies around the world -- of President Carter's learning curve was high indeed. We have just gone through a three-year Presidential learning curve again. One wonders,...

In his book God Knows, Joseph Heller perfectly described the manipulative, power hungry bored first lady. Bathsheba, in his telling, is a constant meddler, jockeying for power and, desperate to have her son, Solomon, made David's successor to the throne. She spends her free time in creative activities like inventing pantaloons because she is way too narcissistic to play second fiddle even to the king. We should be so lucky. The last two Democrat First Ladies cost us a bundle in their effort to be co-Presidents. Hillary ("two for the price of one"), with hair styles changing weekly, mucked about...

It was bound to happen. Just like Jimmy Carter, Iran sensed another weak US President and gave Obama the back if its hand. The unfortunate truth is – Obama will react to Iran’s attempt to murder the Saudi Ambassador and bomb the Saudi embassy and the Israeli embassy pretty much the same as Jimmy Carter reacted to the taking of American hostages in the US embassy in Tehran during his administration. Already the Obama administration is calling for an international response to Iran’s latest plot against the US. WHY? It strikes me as more of the “It Takes A Village”...

The president came into office with a plan to make nice with evil regimes (which won him the Nobel Peace Prize after just months in the White House). The Obama Doctrine called for engaging with America’s enemies. Little foibles -- bankrolling terrorists, or trampling the human rights of their own citizens -- would just have to be overlooked. To many, this seems like Jimmy Carter-redux. Our 39th president, after all, wanted to play nice. America’s enemies sized him up as a patsy. Once they thought that they really understood what kind of man was in the White House, no snub...

Life's going to be great at the bottom...  if we all just learn to do without a few things! This clip is spooky... and damning: [YouTube] Jimmy O'Bama video/toons/more at Reaganite Republican... -h/t Paul and John

U.S. President Barack Obama needs to make good on the promises that won him the Nobel Peace Prize, fellow laureate and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday. Carter called on the current American president to back the Palestinian’s bid to the UN for statehood and seize the opportunity provided by the Arab Spring to facilitate Palestinian-Israeli peace. The shaking up of authoritarian rule in the Arab world has created opportunities for resolving conflicts in the Middle East, Carter said, comparing the Arab Spring to the political reality in which he, as president, helped broker the peace treaty between...

President Barack Obama told a Florida TV station yesterday that the United States is facing economic difficulties because it has “gotten a little soft” during the last 20 years. [ ... ] Obamaʼs “soft” comment, and its political circumstances, echo a controversial speech by then-President Jimmy Carter. In July 1979, Carter declared that “too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.” The speech was later dubbed the “malaise speech,” even though it did not use the word.

Many Americans feel insecure. They are worried. Their financial condition is not good. They know they are dependent upon their employers, and they also know that losing their jobs could lead to disaster. An insecure nation is not going to re-elect its leadership. Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Well, with all due respect to FDR, that's no longer the case. Americans have a legitimate fear that government is simply out of control, spending the nation into bankruptcy and failing to fix economic problems. That fear is real, and it's a present danger....

From the department of unhelpful praise, former President Jimmy Carter tells Rachel Maddow he's a-ok with the idea of Mitt Romney as the GOP presidential nominee..... But this isn't the first time Carter has given generous quotes about one of Obama's challengers. Back in May, he said in a CNN interview that Jon Huntsman was "very attractive to me personally" as a White House contender.

Romney Gets Jimmy Carter Endorsement, Loses Any Prayer Of Being GOP Nominee By: Noah Rothman Former President Jimmy Carter appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” last night to deliver a “Rick Perry​ for President” campaign add: "I'm not taking a position, but I would be very pleased to see him win the Republican nomination," Carter said. This compounds Romney’s troubles with the Republican Party faithful among whom he is already mistrusted as being insufficiently conservative. The most effective line of attack against Romney thus far has focused on his governorship in Massachusetts where he was the author of health...

Former President Jimmy Carter wants to see Mitt Romney win the Republican nomination and run against President Obama next November. "I hope he wins," Carter said of the former Massachusetts governor in a Thursday night interview with MSNBC. "I'm not taking a position, but I would be very pleased to see him win the Republican nomination."

Jimmy Carter would be 'pleased' with nominee Romney By ALEXANDER BURNS | 9/15/11 6:26 PM EDT From the department of unhelpful praise, former President Jimmy Carter tells Rachel Maddow he's a-ok with the idea of Mitt Romney as the GOP presidential nominee. "I'm not taking a position, but I would be very pleased to see him win the Republican nomination," Carter told the MSNBC host, according to advance interview excerpts. Continue Reading Carter also said he was grateful to another Republican candidate, Michele Bachmann, for her volunteer work on his own presidential campaign. "I appreciate that she helped me out,"...

“I’m not taking a position, but I would be very pleased to see him win the Republican nomination,” Carter said on an interview on MSNBC set to air Thursday night. Carter also said he appreciated that Rep. Bachmann (R-Minn.) worked on Carter’s presidential campaign in 1976. Bachmann has mentioned how she was a Democrat during college but switched parties after because she disagreed with certain foreign and domestic policies of the left. “I know, and I appreciate that she helped me out!,” Carter said. Carter expressed confidence that Obama would be reelected. … Back in May, he also had high...

Three reasons why 0bama is the Worst President. The Worst President:Has more scandals than Warren G. HardingHas a longer enemies list than Richard M. NixonIs more incompetent than James E. Carter.

Two new polls today find that just one third of the public feels President Obama deserves re-election while five times more Americans think Obama has done a worse job fixing the economy than Jimmy Carter, the modern era's Herbert Hoover. Washington Whispers contributor John Zogby tells us that his new polling is spirit-crushing for the depressed White House. "It was a very bad week for Barack Obama. Our polling shows his job approval at 39 percent and the percentage saying he deserves re-election at 33 percent, both the lowest of his term, while the percentage of voters saying the nation...

Written by one Ghangstalked Poisonradiationtorturee, a brilliant liberal commenting on a post from Rolling Stone leftie Matt Tabbie entitled, Obama and Jobs: Why I Don't Believe Him Anymore. I assume Ghangstalked (sic) means that Reagan was a disaster and that we can't allow a conservative with similar policies to take over. But does this dude who claims to be tortured by poison radiation (Cheney probably did it) really think this Democratic rallying cry will help Obama win? I think he does. In fact, I hope all ignorant (redundant) liberals take this and run with it. I'll be the first to...

Obama speech sets high stakes for country, drawing comparison to Carter addressBy David Nakamura Posted at 08:47 AM ET, 09/02/2011 An embattled president in his third year. A nation in doubt. A tough re-election campaign looming. A big speech to the nation. President Obama in September 2011? Yes, but also President Jimmy Carter in 1979, during the midst of a national energy crisis, with public confidence low and his own political fortunes ebbing. Carter’s speech, delivered in the Oval Office, attempted to signal a cultural shift, as the president identified a “crisis of confidence” in the nation and called on...

Much has been made of the Jimmy Carter-like malaise that Barack Obama has placed this country in. With good reason, comparisons are being made of the fact that they’re both weak and that neither demonstrates a working knowledge of the military or how foreign policy and energy solutions should be pursued. (Concerning the latter, Carter gave us Gasohol and Obama has given us the Chevy Volt.) Thus, we’ve been inundated with comparisons to the 1980 presidential elections and predictions of how the right GOP candidate, say Gov. Palin or Gov. Perry, will ring up Obama in November 2012 the way...

Is President Barack Obama on the verge of being attacked by a bunny wabbit? Absolutely. All the signs suggest that Obama is in immediate danger of a rabbit attack. It would ruin what's left of his presidency. And it would horrify Democrats by ushering in, say, a President Bachmann. It might happen while he's on that ridiculous vacation of his. Obama is chilling at some exclusive multimillion-dollar estate on Martha's Vineyard, even as thousands more Americans hit the unemployment lines, and as Republicans like Michele Bachmann make wild-eyed, crazed claims about bringing back $2 per gallon gas. "I think...

If Barack Obama were prone to conspiracy theories, he might think the last couple of weeks were part of a plot orchestrated by Jimmy Carter to salvage his own legacy. First off the Democrats get the GOP to acquiesce to a debt ceiling bill that will result in the federal government raising taxes and increasing spending by over $7 trillion over the next decade. The immediate result is United States government debt being downgraded for the first time in history, something Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner stated unequivocally would not happen only the week before. Soon thereafter the Fed looked...

So what was there to drown out disco during the Age of Malaise? What sorts of topics sold records besides sheiking yerbouti?Rock on!

Stayin’ Alive: Dow just misses ’78 losing streakPAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer Thursday, August 4, 2011 Not since the Bee Gees and their “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack dominated the radio has the Dow Jones industrial average endured a longer losing streak. The Dow blipped up 30 points Wednesday, ending a string of down days at eight. Until the last few minutes of trading, it looked as if stocks might match a nine-day losing streak that ended on Feb. 22, 1978. Weighing on stocks 33 years ago: A stalemate in Congress. A weakening economy. Fears about the global financial system. Sound...