RNC Women

The comparisons between Jimmy Carter’s failed presidency and President Obama’s term in office are now being made even by Carter’s Vice President, Walter Mondale. 

Mondale said this week that the public is reacting to the Obama presidency just as it did to Carter’s in the 1970’s.  The comparison is easy to make.  Both presidents lost touch with the American people and  failed to take the steps necessary to jump start the American economy. 

A Time Magazine article printed in 1980 sounds as if it was ripped from last week’s edition.  The magazine wrote, “By last week it looked as if the President's promises of a tame little downturn for 1980 were wishful thinking. The Labor Department reported that during April the nation's jobless rate ballooned by a startling .8%, pushing unemployment to a full 7%, tossing some 825,000 workers into the street, and swelling the ranks of the nation's unemployed to 7.3 million. It was the largest rise in overall unemployment since January 1975…”

As we enjoy the first day of fall today, we can look back on the Obama Administration’s promised “Recovery Summer” and see clearly the parallels on the economy between presidents Carter and Obama.  President Obama, faced with an economy that has shed more jobs than it has added since the “recovery” supposedly began over a year ago, continues to refuse to extend the Bush tax cuts for every American taxpayer.  This resistance to tax relief, and reliance on government spending, to boost the economy will extend our country’s economic uncertainty and make it more difficult for small businesses to create jobs. 

Perhaps the only silver lining in the comparisons between Obama and Carter is in how the voters are set to respond.  In 1978, Republicans picked up seats in the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate and six governorships.  In 1980, Republicans won the White House and the Reagan Revolution began in earnest. 

President Obama, should he stay on his current course, seems set not just to match Jimmy Carter in this regard, but even outdo him.  As in 1978 and 1980, the American people are ready to turn the page to a new Republican majority.