Posted on 11/05/2008 11:56:58 AM PST by JWinNC
1976 was a great year for a 13 year old boy living in central Georgia. It was hot. The creek out back was cool. Girls were getting less weird and more pretty. My friends and I were within walking distance of the 7-11. “Now-Laters” and a Cherry Coke Icee were the treats of choice if we could get enough change together or beg a dollar from someone’s mom.
That Bicentennial Year had both optimism looking backward and trepidation looking forward. Where were we going as a country? Fresh wounds from Vietnam, the Cold War, Watergate, Agnew’s resignation, Nixon’s resignation, inflation and recession, everything had a feel of uncertainty.
I was a little young to grasp it all, but I knew one thing: the peanut farmer had the answer. James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr. had a toothy grin, a down-home southern drawl, and an infectious optimism. The thrust of Carter’s campaign for President was the reorganization of government (i.e. change). He attacked the status quo and offered a quasi-religious healing for the nation's wounds. Carter was very decisive about his run. He got into areas ahead of other candidates and grabbed some early recognition by winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. He traveled thousands of miles and delivered hundreds of speeches.
The media supported Carter. In his book “The Carter Presidency and Beyond,” Lawrence Shoup wrote: "What Carter had that his opponents did not was the acceptance and support of elite sectors of the mass communications media. It was their favorable coverage of Carter and his campaign that gave him an edge, propelling him rocket-like to the top of the opinion polls. This helped Carter win key primary election victories, enabling him to rise from an obscure public figure to President-elect in the short space of 9 months."
Unfortunately for our nation, the change and optimism of the man from Plains did not translate into Presidential success. Energy crises were responded to by calls for conservation, lowering thermostats and wearing sweaters. Government borrowing and spending increased. The federal budget deficit ballooned. The economy suffered from massive inflation, high interest rates, oil shortages, high unemployment, slow economic growth and sharp declines in productivity.
Fortunately this story had a happy ending that can be described in three words: Ronald Wilson Reagan.
That 13 year old boy has learned a lot through the years. I pray for Barak Obama and I pray for this great nation, may God bless. I won’t judge President-Elect Obama before his term even begins, but I can’t help but feel that I‘ve seen this show before. It’s 1976 all over again.
jw
It may be 1776 soon. That’s the rumblings I’m hearing.
I have been thinking 1968, only the roles are reversed. The candidate talking anti-war got elected ‘now’ and ‘later’.
Hillary will challenge BHO in 2012.
He’s in over his head now. Two years from now will be a good Republican year.
I have been thinking 1968, only the roles are reversed. The candidate talking anti-war got elected ‘then’ and ‘later’.
I hear ya!
I believe it will be a lot like the late 70’s, we already have had the gas lines and we will all be wearing sweaters. I am looking forward to the 80’s already.
"Where is my Reagan? Don't say it's John McCain. Where have all the conservatives gone?"
More like 1861.
I’m up for that!
w00t! Mullets all around!
Me too. :)
The novelty of a black president will soon wear off.
I hope you're right. I fear those rumblings sound like 1861.
I see obama and the democrats raising taxes on the “evil” corporations, and as those taxes always get passed on to us, I see a period of inflation.
I remember Carter and the inflation that his policies brought about. It was my first year of marriage, and we had no cash. It was tough going to the grocery store and seeing prices rise every week.
What are the best casual defences that one can take against inflation on a daily basis? Buy stuff now, before the price rises? What will rise with obama’s priorities, besides energy? I fully expect my electric bill to go through the roof.
Look if they push the fairness doctrine through, you might not know what is going on. The MSM will not report bad things on Obama and The democratic congress. They are in the tank for them!
I was 18 that year, voting in my first Presidential election in my freshman year in college, and cast an absentee ballot for Jerry Ford. I recall working at our campus radio station the night Carter was elected, as we got the news on yellow tractor paper freshly spit out of a giant, four-foot tall UPI teletype machine.
I ripped off the sheet and brought it over to the news desk, and distinctly recall thinking: "Oh, well. It's a fresh start for the country".
Yeah, that worked out well.
Does that mean that in a few years, we’ll have another Reagan, and hair metal, ripped jeans and big hair all make a comeback?
Please make it so!!! That would rock!
I agree but we will recover and fight on.. conservatives have to rebuild over the next few years. I believe we have some up and coming leadership with Jindal and Palin.
I hope you’re right. I fear those rumblings sound like 1861
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