THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 148, June 21, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
FROM JIMMY CARTER TO BARACK OBAMA: A HORROR STORY
By Alan Caruba
TAKING A LOOK AT THE LINE BETWEEN TWO LIBERAL LEFTIST PRESIDENTS OF THE U.S.A., JAMES EARL CARTER &
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA: THEIR MISHANDLING OF THE IRANIAN PROBLEM -- THEIR BAD ENERGY POLICIES -- HIGH
TIME FOR AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES TO START PREPARING TO NEUTER THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY IN THE
CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS OF 2010 & TAKE AMERICA BACK FROM THE LEFTWING LIBERAL DEMOCRATS & IDEOLOGICAL
ENVIRONMENTALISTS, WHO ARE RUINING THE COUNTRY IN PURSUIT OF THEIR RADICAL POLITICAL AGENDA
FULL STORY:
U.S. President John F. Kennedy, standing in front of the Berlin Wall, said “Ich bin ein Berliner” to declare his solidarity
with West Germany, divided from East Germany by the compromises with the Soviet Union at the end of World War
II. President Ronald W. Reagan would later demand, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” as well as declare his
solidarity with the Polish people seeking to free themselves from Soviet domination.
I have heard two versions of what President Barack Hussein Obama has done in response to the Iranian uprising. One
says that he was right to keep a low profile so that the United States would not be blamed for the rebellion against the
tyrannical ayatollahs. This, it is said, provides “deniability” in the event the regime successfully puts down the
rebellion. The other version says he should be more outspoken in his support for the Iranian people.
History will decide whether President Obama has chosen the right course of action, but we know he has already made
major efforts to reach out to the “Supreme Leader” and his mullah cronies. Death to the U.S.A. and Israel has always
been the rallying call for the thirty-year-old Islamic Revolution. We are the external enemies by which the mullahs assert
their right to run Iran. At the same time, by distancing himself from the Israelis, President Obama has let the whole of the
Middle East know he has cast his vote for Islam.
In 1979, there were crowds in the streets of Tehran that drove out the Shah. President Jimmy Carter appeared to have
been caught off-guard by what happened. So were the U.S. diplomats and the CIA who apparently had no idea how
deep the hatred ran for the Shah. The exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini tapped into that hatred. Soon our diplomats
were to be held hostage for 444 days, released only when Ronald Reagan took the oath of office and Jimmy Carter was
rendered a powerless and defeated one-term ex-President.
Jimmy Carter was incapable of demonstrating the power and the will of the American people to free our diplomats. He
blamed earlier decisions regarding Iran as a buffer state against the Soviet Union and a source of oil to the West. Did
the CIA “meddle” in Iran’s affairs, engineering the overthrow of a prime minister in 1953? Yes, along with the British,
we did, and, from what I can determine, it was the right decision.
By the time Carter became U.S. President in 1977, the memories of the 1973 oil embargo were still fresh in the minds of
Americans. The members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries used the embargo to punish the
U.S. for supporting Israel, re-supplying its military during the Yom Kippur war.
Despite later negotiating a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, it is safe to conclude Carter was no friend to
Israel and that animus has deepened over the years. Israel relinquished the Sinai desert, just as it would later withdraw
from Gaza in a vain hope of peace. There's a museum in Cairo devoted to the "victory" Egypt claims it secured in the
Yom Kippur war.
Seldon B. Graham, Jr., points out in his book, Why Your Gasoline Prices Are High:
“On January 23, 1980, President Carter announced
to Congress that the U.S. would defend the Persian
Gulf area by military force, if necessary. Thus, the
official energy policy of the United States
abandoned USA oil and gave the supply [job] to the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).”
Carter had already called for a “windfall profits tax” on U.S. oil companies and Graham calls it “a death notice for USA
oil,” noting that “Many US oil and gas companies went bankrupt because of the Windfall Profits Tax.” During his
election campaign, President Obama called for a similar tax.
In the wake of that earlier tax, not one single new refinery has been built by U.S. oil companies because (a) they cost
well over a billion to construct and (b) there was no way they can be sure another such tax would not be imposed.
Exploration for America's vast reserves of oil have been meager as well. Virtually the entire continental shelf of the
nation was put off-limits to exploration and extraction. An effort by the Bush administration to lift the restriction was
swiftly rescinded by the Obama administration.
Congress still will not let oil companies drill in Alaska's ANWR.
Carter's actions effectively left the United States dependent, to a large degree, on Middle East oil, although, these
days, the U.S.A. now imports much of its oil from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela.
Denying the U.S.A. use of its own vast energy reserves and attacking its energy producers has been a consistent
theme in a straight line between President Carter and President Obama.
President Obama apparently also hates coal, vowing to “bankrupt” any company that attempted to build a coal-fired
plant to provide much-needed electricity to our growing population. In addition to rescinding the opening of the
continental shelf to exploration, one of the first acts of the Obama administration was to cancel leases to explore for
oil deposits in states where it is known to exist in large quantities.
Both the Carter and Obama administrations display the weakness Liberals have for despots and despotic regimes of
every description. In their hearts, they see them as an appropriate way to keep people in bondage.
The leaders of many foreign nations have already taken Barack Obama’s measure.
The North Koreans hold him in such contempt they intend to fire a ballistic missile at Hawaii, probably on
Independence Day. If he really wanted to show some character and a clear intent to defend the nation, he would
destroy it in flight because we have the capacity to do this. He won’t.
Obama’s Democratic Party majority in Congress is beginning to back away from his disastrous taxing and spending
proposals. It is widely rumored that the proposed “Cap-and-Trade” legislation, based on the bogus global warming
hoax, will fail in Congress.
Similarly, the panic in the White House as it attempts to cope with a failing economy can be smelled a few blocks
away on Capitol Hill. Obama’s constant drumbeat of one “crisis” after another is beginning to wear thin, and it is
likely, too, that his healthcare “reform” will fail as well.
Raising taxes in the midst of the worst recession since the days of the Great Depression is not likely to find much
favor either.
On Independence Day, nearly 1,500 or more protest rallies, “Tea parties,” will be held in America from coast to coast.
Their message will not be lost on Congress, though you can be sure the slavish mainstream news media will do what
they can to mislead the public into believing they were minor events.
Only they will not be minor events, nor will those that will follow. Americans will be in the streets in the weeks and
months that follow. They will reflect the same determination of Iranians who want the freedom we too often take for
granted.
In October, 2010, Americans will have an opportunity to neuter this narcissist, this pretender in the White House. It
is time to prepare for the midterm elections. It is time to take America back from the Liberals that are ruining it.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com and a weekly commentary at
http://www.anxietycenter.com, the website of The National Anxiety Center.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity