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To: DeFault User
You are fortunate to have missed the "malaise" of the Carter years: inflation so bad mortgage interest rates were in excess of 15%; unemployment in double digits; the practice of buying as much as possible this week because prices were going up next week; and a pervasive attitude in the US that our best days were over.

I remember that. I caught things on the way back down - My first mortgage in 1984 was at 13.25%. It wasn't but 3 or so years later that I refinanced at 9.25%. Went to a shorter loan and reduced the payment by $75 per month (and that was an important $75; about the same as my electric and gas bills combined.

I was too young to grasp the total situation, but I remember the "attempt". I just didn't realize where the fault was.

Thank God for Ronald Reagan! His policies not only got the economy going strong, he restored the confidence and pride of Americans, empowering us for the future. One shudders to think of what we would now be like without him.

He sure got things turned around, and in so many ways. The military, the economy, international relations. He made Mr Gorbachav tear the wall down. That alone is as huge a success as we've had since the end of WW-2.

Anyone who wasn't alive or aware at that time may find the descriptions difficult to believe, but they are unfortunately true. I hope no American has to experience any president like Carter or Clinton again.

I was around, though barely an adolescent. I remember gas lines, 68-degrees, and high heating bills. The energy crisis. What I didn't realize then is how much of a wimp Carter was - sacrificing the comfort of all Americans to avoid a conflict. He simply would not negotiate from a position of strength - He squandered our military might.

69 posted on 01/31/2003 6:08:56 PM PST by meyer
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To: meyer
Oops! This:

"I was too young to grasp the total situation, but I remember the "attempt". I just didn't realize where the fault was. "

belongs after this:

All that was topped by the helplessness of the Iranian hostage situation--a President who made one half-hearted attempt at rescue and was afraid to confront the mullahs.

75 posted on 01/31/2003 6:12:44 PM PST by meyer
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