History’s Latest Greatest Monster!
Glenn Reynolds is near obsessed with comparing Barack Obama to history’s greatest monster, Jimmy Carter. He opines that a “Carter-era rerun is a best-case scenario at this point.”
But Reynolds may be somewhat sheltered. His internet stomping appears to be confined to sites within the right-wing bubble, including Pajamas Media, Ann Althouse and Gateway Pundit.
But normal people, outside of the bubble, have a new standard for a terrible president: George W. Bush. You know, that guy whose greatest hits include launching two quagmires, frittering away a budget surplus, fiddling while New Orleans drowned, and leading the country to the brink of a depression.
Carter was certainly a poor president, but a lethal combination of arrogance and disdain for reality (which still pervades the right-wing bubble) made George W. Bush a catastrophe.
What exactly is the point of this post? We all know Bush was a horrible president. You supported Nader over Chuck Baldwin. A wasted vote for a socialist over a wasted vote for a constitutionalist. How proud you must be to boast your conservative bona fides here at Pat Buchanan’s magazine.
I disagree, but you libs certainly have a right to your opinion.
Yes, the Bush years were nothing short of a calamity. No argument.
By the way, there was never a surplus during the Clinton years. It’s a myth, despite all the propaganda to the contrary.
Do you really believe that W was running his own show?
Blog posts are supposed to have a point? I’ll make a note of that for the future.
Here is a handy link to the mentions of Nader here at “Pat Buchanan’s Magazine.”
http://www.amconmag.com/search.html?v&m=2&search=ralph+nader&start=0&end=25
Steve,
Sorry to burst your bubble but you are wrong.
In 1999, Federal spending results showed a surplus of $1,920 billion in the “On-Budget” of general fund (everything other than the trust funds, primarily Social Security and Medicare). In 2000 Federal Spending had a surplus of $86,442 billion for “On-Budget” spending. The more commonly reported numbers that include both “On-Budget” and “Off-Budget” (trust funds) had surpluses of $69, $125, $236 and $128 (all figures in billions) for the years 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. The “Off-Budget” or trust funds have been generating surpluses that have “masked” the deficit of the general fund (defense, interest payments, medicaid, etc) or “On-Budget” since Social Security taxes were increased by Saint Ronnie and his buddy Alan Greenspan.
For historical comparisons, the last surplus in the “On-Budget” number was in….1961!
And please by all means, Monsieur Hogan, feel free to refute these numbers. All the above info came from the Goverment Printing Office at:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/hist.pdf
Sorry I made a mistake: the surpluses in 1999 and 2000 were $1.9 billion and 86.4 billion.
Jeremiah, Stooks voted for Nader because he is a leftie who for some reason writes for this site. He used to write a lot about the dangers of global warming but as that balloon has deflated he now spends his time attacking neo cons. Don’t get me wrong, they are often incorrect but at least some of the times they get it right.