The American Spectator

Mr. Samples is certainly correct in his comments on “The Great Society.” But I believe Mr. Obama is more accurately compared to the illustrious Mr. Jimmy Carter.

If we review Mr. Obama’s comments about the environment and national security he sounds like Mr. Carter reincarnated.

Mr. Carter relied on peaceful dialogue to make the world love “a more reasoned America,” as the democrats now say. That reasoned dialogue resulted in communist influence taking root in Central America, where there are today, three governments of that ilk or at the least moving in that direction, all of whom hate the USA.

It resulted in the abject humiliation the U.S. in Iran, where our sovereign territory was invaded and our people captured by a renegade government. Mr. Carter’s response? None that anyone can recall. When finally, desperate to resurrect his political life and career, he finally authorized military action he botched that as well. Too little too late and our troops died to no avail. (see also, Harry Truman: Korea; Lyndon Baines Johnson: Vietnam; and Bill Clinton : Mogadishu, Somalia)

The Russians felt emboldened, by all this dithering and reasoned conversation, to advance their agenda of world control in Africa, the Middle East, and in Afghanistan. This time Mr. Carter reacted forcefully! He refused to allow American athletes the opportunity to compete in the Moscow Olympics. By God!

Mr. Carter’s other shining legacy is domestic: The Department of Energy. It is a monstrous bureaucracy into the alimentary canal of which hundreds of millions of dollars have been pushed without a single energy bowel movement to show for it.

From close attention to Mr. Obama’s words, it seems he will reenact the Carter years, talk to our enemies, provide them with endless “If you do that one more time….” chances; create even more bureaucracy and throw in the socialist hijack of our medical system.

Our hope for the future must lie in Mrs. Clinton’s assertion that words don’t mean anything. I remember Neville Chamberlain, in 1939, waving his Hitler-signed paper and saying “we have peace in our time.”

p>You know, Maybe Reverend Wright is right and God has damned America. br> — Jay Molyneaux br> North Carolina /p>

It was nice to see John Samples highlighting one of the least reported aspects of LBJ’s call for a Great Society. Jonah Goldberg highlighted this very same tendency in what he termed Liberal Fascism. The idea that politics can have spiritual dimension first appeared in the Progressive Politics of the late 19th century. However, as late as the 1990s Hillary gave her “Politics of Meaning” speech. Obama continues this trend.

I would like however, to point out a big difference between LBJ and Obama. LBJ, for all of his flaws, paid his dues with 30 years of yeoman service to the Democratic Party. His was a New Deal Democrat who began his political career on the dusty plains of Depression era Texas as a congressional aid. He attended a teachers college and not Harvard Law. By the time he was nominated Vice President in 1960 he spent 30 years in politics, with over a decade of service in the U.S. Senate. By contrast, Obama is a first term senator, who spent only 8 years in the Illinois State House. Obama appeared to be on a fast track to the Presidency the minute he graduated from Harvard Law. He brings no significant accomplishments in public service other than his CV.