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Maureen Dowd interviews President Jimmy Carter on a range of issues, including comparisons between himself and President Obama. She writes, "In 1976, the former peanut farmer from Georgia exploded out of his shell, buoyed by the same sort of antiestablishment frenzy — or 'malaise,' as he puts it, recycling the word that caused him so many problems — that we see now."
The Constant Weader replies:
Let me make one thing perfectly clear, as another President used to say, Jimmy Carter did not use the word "malaise" in his inaptly-captioned "Malaise Speech." His speech was actually quite profound & sadly prophetic. Ostensibly about the energy crisis, what is remembered about the speech is Carter's premise that the American people were experiencing "a crisis of confidence":
The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America, Carter said.
But Carter ended his speech on a hopeful note (& without that treacly "God Bless America," which future Presidents seemed to feel was somehow fitting for a nation built on a Constitution that never mentions god):
Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.
Of course, we did not have that rebirth. We got Ronald Reagan instead, the Great White Dope, whose vision for the nation seemed to be an oligarchy who would direct the end of communism (already dying in the Soviet Union) & rule the world by force of saber-rattling & Star Wars.
Another aspect of Carter's speech that is especially relevant today: in it, Carter emphasizes that he drew his conclusions about the national mood from listening to ordinary Americans:
I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society -- business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you.
One can't become President of the United States without being an egotist, but President Obama seems to be over-the-top. His "town halls" are shows, where -- instead of listening to the questioners -- he patiently explains to them why they're wrong. The purpose of the Obama town halls is not to learn but to teach. He does not acknowledge he has anything to learn. Frankly, an Obama town hall reminds me of the Gospels, where lawyers, scribes, Pharisees, the disciples & ordinary people challenge Jesus. Jesus always has the right answer, & his questioners are always wrong. As in the Gospels, in an Obama town hall meeting, there are no follow-up questions. I don't know Jesus, but I'd say Barack Obama is no Jesus.
As for all of us Obama supporters who aren't invited to the town halls, we seem to be of no interest whatsoever to him. As Paul Krugman noted yesterday, "the [Obama] administration seems to go out of its way to alienate its supporters."
Until President Obama learns from Presidents Carter & Clinton to "feel the pain" of the American people -- especially the pain of those of us inclined to support him & other Democratic candidates -- & to adjust his policies to accommodate us, no matter whether he is a one- or a two-term President, he will not be remembered as a good one. Maybe a tall man needs a high horse, but really, Obama should climb down off his.
In the video below, the President appeals to his base to get behind Democratic candidates. This self-justification is ideal as campaign rhetoric, but it is pretty useless as an answer to a constituent's question about her specific situation. Unfortunately, the President's appeal here is almost indistinguishable from the sort of "answers" he employs to respond to public questions from town hall participants:
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