Sean Braswell @ "The Stimulist"History doesn’t repeat itself, Mark Twain once said, but it often rhymes. Barack Obama’s young presidency is off to an undeniably impressive start, but before he gets too cocky, the president would do well to look back a few decades. At the end of April 1977, roughly 100 days after his inauguration, then-President Jimmy Carter’s approval rating was 75%, about ten points higher than Obama’s today. The young Washington outsider carried an ambitious legislative agenda, even confiding in his diary that “everybody has warned me not to take on too many projects so early in the administration, but it’s almost impossible for me to delay something that I see needs to be done.” Carter’s hubris was present from his very first “fireside chat” to the nation in February 1977, during which he wore that (in)famous cardigan and promised to provide within 90 days a comprehensive plan for dealing with energy independence. The talk was only part of his “People’s Plan,” a bid to talk directly to the American people through town meetings, radio call-ins, and televised addresses.
Starting to rhyme yet?
Shortly after that first chat, Carter took to working 80-hour weeks in a futile attempt to make good on his ambitious campaign promise of change. But, despite Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, Carter’s efforts to cut pork-barrel projects and enact comprehensive reforms on energy and other matters strained the White House’s relationships with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Carter and the American people would follow a similar trajectory, culminating with his disastrous “crisis of confidence” speech during the energy crisis of 1979, a sanctimonious sermon in which he admonished Americans about the hazards of self-indulgence and consumption. The address became known as Carter’s “malaise” speech, and it only served to galvanize the public’s lack of confidence in his leadership. After winning by just a few points in ‘76, Carter lost to Ronald Reagan by 10 in 1980.To avoid a similar fate, especially with a party poised to rumble, Obama will need to remain level-headed and keep his hubristic tendencies in check. It probably couldn’t hurt to avoid wearing cardigans, as well.
