The Republican propaganda machine is trying to paint Jimmy Carter as a terrible president, worse than GW Bush. I have lived thru both, and I know it's a lie.
Another commenter on
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/01/paul-krugman-th/comments/page/2/#comments
summarized things well:
Stephen Kriz says...
Someone needs to investigate the "deep events" that occur when a Democratic administration is coming into office following a Republican administration and vice versa. There is an ugly pattern here:
* In 1960, Kennedy was handed a failed Bay of Pigs invasion already planned by Ike and a CIA stirring up trouble in Laos. This set the stage for a troubled foreign policy.
* In 1976, Carter was handed an economy that was in the tank with out of control inflation and low growth. George H.W. Bush was CIA chief and put in place Team B, which exaggerated the Soviet threat.
* In 1992, Clinton was handed the largest budget deficit in history to date, and Bush had already started to gin up pointless investigations into Clinton's past, starting with the passport file flap, that would plague Clinton's presidency.
Compare this to incoming Republican administrations:
* In 1968, Nixon had a budget surplus, the Vietnam War was winding down and Henry Kissinger, working for LBJ, gave Nixon inside information about the Paris Peace talks that would give Nixon credit for ending the war.
* In 1980, George H.W. Bush, working behind the scenes in an October Surprise, negotiated with our enemy, Iran, to hold the hostages longer so that Reagan would get credit for their release.
* In 2000, George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus, a booming economy and a world at peace.
You think any of this is coincidence???
Posted by: Stephen Kriz | Link to comment | January 09, 2009 at 02:18 PM
