Deja Vu - Remember the Peanut Farmer?

Many Americans who voted for Barrack Obama are too young to remember the peanut farmer from Plains. Jimmy Carter is a top contender for worst president in U.S. history. He contributed to the disaster in the middle east by turning Iran from an ally into a deadly enemy when he abandoned the Shah and let Islamic fundamentalists take over under Ayatollah Khomeini. His twiddling after the invasion of the American embassy and hostage crisis made America appear to be a puny weakling in the eyes of the world. It took Carter five months to even respond to Iran's act of war and suspend diplomatic relations. He gave away the Panama Canal which was built and paid for with America's blood, sweat, and tears. His weakness contributed to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Carter's disastrous domestic policies gave us price controls, long lines at the gas pumps, and two new federal agencies. The Department of Energy he created was supposed to make us energy independent. Thirty years later what do we have to show for it except another bloated bureaucracy? He also raised up a Leviathan in the federal Department of Education that has busily interfered with the states ever since.

Despite his four-year folly, Carter seems to have met his match. Obama and gang are proving to be so inept they almost make Carter look competent. The president's conduct of the recent visit from Britain's prime minister was embarrassing. State Department officials managed to create a situation that looked like a deliberate snub to the U.K. Whether you like Brown or not he represents a country that has more often been friend than foe. What's the point of gratuitous alienation? But maybe it was accidental which illustrates that the man we've been told is the smartest on the planet hasn't got a clue about foreign policy or even common courtesy. Brad Pitt got treated better at the White House. Perhaps the president would benefit from a quick read of The Ugly American. (The movie with Marlon Brando is terrible; I don't recommend it.)

Is the U.S. safe with Obama at the helm as North Korea steps up war talk and the Saudis he released from Guantanamo Bay return to active terrorist operations? Is his plan under the spending bill to allow more immigrants from Muslim countries that hate us going to make America more secure?

Our adversaries are looking for slip-ups and there seem to be plenty in these early days of the Obama presidency. Time will tell whether Obama will go the way of Carter who entered the White House with an approval rating of 66% and in only four years dropped to 34%. Carter almost single-handedly swept Ronald Reagan into office. Reagan, in what was predicted to be a cliffhanger, carried 44 states and beat Carter in the electoral college 489 to 49. Now is the time for the rise of real conservatives, not liberal wannabes dressed in conservative sheepskin. Read the constitution. It will help you recognize true conservatives when they appear.

By the way, Carter and Obama had one other thing in common - they both were darlings of the mainstream media. Obviously that wasn't enough for Carter. Will it be for Obama?

P.S. No offense to peanut farmers or farmers in general who are typically smarter than professional politicians. In fact, one of my favorite stories is about the lesson a farmer, Horatio Bunce, taught Davy Crockett when he was serving in the U.S. Congress, about Constitutional government. Crockett later penned these words about his political brethren. "Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it." Why is it that most of the Founding Fathers died paupers but politicians today go to Congress and make a fortune? Ask Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd?