The Second Coming

In an interview with JIm Lehrer aired on PBS in April of 1989, Jimmy Carter talked about his performance in the 1980 presidential debate against Ronald Reagan.  He'd made a big mistake.

JIM LEHRER: Two memorable happenings in that debate. You said, "I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day before I came here to ask her what the most important issue was, she said she thought nuclear weaponry." Was that something you had in your mind to say, or did that come to you there on the podium?

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: Well, I had discussed this with my political advisors, not that I would say it, but just the fact that Amy had said it to me... It was important to show that not only I, but all Americans were concerned about a nuclear issue, and I chose the accurate description of a conversation I had had with Amy, hoping that it would prove that this was a matter of great concern. Trying to emphasize the fact that my position on both nuclear arms control issues and nonproliferation was superior to his.

JIM LEHRER: You were ridiculed for it and you were criticized for it. Did you expect that? Were you surprised?

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER: I was surprised. But President Reagan and his political advisers turned it around to I think his advantage by saying that I was getting my advice on nuclear power issues or arms control issues from my teenage daughter.

While the debate was going on 51 hostages remained in Iran, having been held captive for just a few days short of a year by the Islamic regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.  The U.S. Embassy in Tehran had been overrun by several hundred militant students on November 4, 1979, and the Carter administration was powerless to do anything about it. 

All of this reinforced a growing perception at the time that maybe Jimmy Carter really could be getting advice from his teenage daughter.  He seemed to have an enormous faith in the power of good intentions.  All we would have to do is find our inner child and world peace would inevitably follow.

1 AND there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.

2 And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness.

3 And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.

4 But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

5 And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins.

6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them.

7 The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

 Thirty-two years later American embassies are under attack in the Arab world.  But where hostages were taken then, thirty-two years later Ambassador Christopher Steven and members of the embassy staff were murdered.  There's progress for you.  Once again we have a president who says that the lion shall lie down with the lamb, that our humility will win over our enemies.  A second coming, if you will.

Obama is the rod, girded in justice.  Social justice, naturally.  And he shall lead us.  As it turns out, he leads in much the same way that Jimmy Carter did, complete with economic stagnation, and a naive faith that our traditional enemies are not really enemies, but friends that we have somehow alienated.  He seems to think it's incumbent on America to fix that, to redress past offenses inflicted by his less enlightened predecessors.  He's on their side. 

What makes Egypt’s uncertain course so vexing for the White House is that Mr. Obama, more than any other foreign leader, has sided again and again with the Arab street in Cairo, even when it meant going expressly against the wishes of traditional allies, including the Egyptian military, the Persian Gulf states and Israel.

As recently as June, Mr. Obama was calling on the Egyptian military to quickly hand over power to the democratically elected civilian government — a move that helped Mr. Morsi, whose movement has called for greater use of Islamic law, assume power. At the same time, the administration was chastising the military, which has for 30 years served as the bulwark of a crucial American strategic interest in the Middle East: the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

For anti-American unrest to erupt in Egypt after all that could reflect a deeper divergence of a once-staunch ally from the United States.

Obama thinks he is one of them.  He sees the distaste for capitalism as their common ground.  Islamists abhor the great capitalist Satan that is America, but Obama can fix America!  Cripple the capitalist beast with taxes, regulation, and massive debt, and turn it into a workers paradise.  Then the world can love America.

But it might be dawning on him that they're not on his side, those Islamists with whom he had hoped to build bridges.  From Cairo to Iran to Iraq the Arab street shouts "Death to America!"  And in Morocco it's "Death to Obama," which is so unthinkable that mainstream media outlets like the New York Times won't mention it.

Obama's not done, though.  If he can only get four more years.  There's a lot he can do in four years.  He can complete his transformation of America -- into the country that nobody fears and nobody envies.  We're halfway there.

Comments

[Robinson1]

There are some legitimate criticisms that can be leveled against Obama.

The embassy security.

The lax intelligence.

And most importantly, the utterly leftist view about Democracy promotion and what it causes.

Unfortunately, Mitt Romney gives every indication that he is a necon sympathizer. So that last and most important argument is taken off the table.

As for the first two, Romney never used them. He came out with utterly absurd drivel about the President sympathizing with the attackers. Reasonable Americans see through that kind of foolishness.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/14/scarborough-media-would-cover-obama-libya-missteps-if-mitt-romney-had-kept-his-mouth-shut/#ixzz26Sz9ThrK

[Tom Bowler]

Mitt Romney is to blame for the abysmal coverage of Obama's failures? Please. Do you also believe that Sam Bacile is to blame for all of the embassy riots?

[CaptDMO]

Um..
1. "Leftists" have demonstrated their "respect" and "reverance" for democracy EVERY TIME a vote by the majority
systematically end's up in a "sympathetic" court, in front of an "appointed" lower court judge.

2.I'm willing to gamble that an astonishing amount of tax dollars, concerning the "unexpected" world situation, could be saved on "new" political maps and "revised" political assesments,
by simply re-running Glen Beck chalk-talks. Maybe a "neo-con" (who is THAT-by name exactly?)version of a "Silence Rush Limbaugh,et al., Legislative Petition" type effort, only aimed at (ie.)MSNBC.

But a "neo-con" wouldn't even consider that, would they.

[Robinson1]

"Mitt Romney is to blame for the abysmal coverage of Obama's failures?"

Nothing in my comment says that. Try again.

[Tom Bowler]

Rob1, if nothing in your comment was intended to say that Romney is to blame for the abysmal media coverage, what was the point of pasting in a link to the article that said,

"Mitt Romney is the reason why the press failed to hold President Barack Obama accountable for the four dead Americans in Libya and several missteps by diplomatic staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, according to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough?"

[robinson1]

The writer of the article didn’t like the criticism of Romney from Scarborough and I think he allowed that to influence how he paraphrased the Scarborough statements in the opening paragraph that you posted.

If you read what Scarborough actually said, I think he pretty much has it right. He said the conservative critique of the media was fair. The media turned its attention to Romney’s performance rather than asking questions about embassy security.

In my view 90 plus percent of our "elite" media take what is spoon-fed them. Romney spoon-fed them an inept press conference and they ran with it. It's easier than doing actual research.

[Tom Bowler]

OK. So Scarborough says the press comes in for a share of blame for its own failures. I disagree that the press conference was inept, regardless of what the press may believe.

As to the "drivel about the President sympathizing with the attackers," that's not a great stretch. If Obama actually has any sympathies they are with the religious Muslims, not the religious right in the U.S. But they are not "sympathies," they are Obama's strategies.