I promised you 4 years ago that I would never lie to you. So, I can’t stand here tonight and say it doesn’t hurt.
Jimmy Carter (Nov 4, 1980)
I owe Jimmy Carter an apology. These pages have not been kind to him, using his presidency as the benchmark to illustrate the incompetence of Joe Biden. On his worst day, President Carter was better than President Biden. I’ve actually met Mr. Carter – on a plane flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta (we were aisle mates) – and can tell you he’d be the nicest neighbor anyone could have. Let me help with that project. Let me feed the dog while you’re away. Get the picture?
The similarities are, of course, Democrats elected to restore decency and normalcy after two-party decay (Carter after Johnson-Nixon…Biden after Obama-Trump). Both had embarrassing relatives (Jimmy had brother Billy…Joe had son Beau), suffered humiliating defeats (Carter in Tehran…Biden in Kabul), and were blamed for higher prices. Neither was a good orator, and both administrations were besieged by disloyal leakers and a condescending press. The similarities end there.
After one term as Georgia’s governor, Carter campaigned as an honest outsider. It’s probable Johnson’s Vietnam War, Nixon’s Watergate, and Ford’s pardon of Nixon, pushed voters toward inexperience to end establishment corruption. After forty years inside the Beltway, Biden campaigned as a competent insider. It’s probable Obama and Trump so frightened the center-right and center-left, a majority of voters just wanted solace – even if it meant a president in cognitive decline.
The point here is that Carter, despite inexperience, had intelligence and integrity Biden clearly lacks, meaning the current Democrat in the White House is what his approval numbers say he is: a one-term president. If you can find some intellectually honest Biden voters, I’m sure they would trade out Uncle Joe for Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter in a New York minute. Let’s compare Biden to three high-character Carter moments.
Biden’s handling of the economy has Americans evenly divided: 48% disapprove and 48% approve (source: PBS/Marist). Inflation is worsening – and I’d argue higher prices for goods are better than no goods, which is increasingly the case. Jobs are not rebounding as promised. And the President’s plan? “The thing we need to do, all of us, is to stick together [and] finish the job of passing my economic agenda.” A $3.5 spending plan and higher income taxes is unlikely to halt rising costs or create jobs.
With Biden, all woes are “transitory” or Trump’s fault. In August 1979, facing 13% inflation, President Carter owned his bad economic team. Fed chairman Bill Miller was out after proclaiming the economy in “great shape,” and Republican Paul Volcker was in. Treasury secretary Blumenthal was replaced by Miller. Volcker raised interest rates until inflation was whipped; thereby ensuring four decades of steady economic growth. Credit Carter for making the hire.
If Biden has has over-arching flaw, it’s rewarding political support (campaign cash) with narrow, partisan policies. By pandering to teachers unions (closed schools) and increasing regulations (no fracking), he’s hurt American families. In contrast, Carter deregulated airlines, railroads, and trucking; reducing the cost of transporting people and goods. Reagan is lauded for taking on air traffic controllers, but Carter (Staggers Act) enabled big-box retailers to deliver low prices.
Right now, President Biden wants to raise capital gains tax rates to 39.6 percent, offering this justification: “we’ll still have millionaires, billionaires, corporations that do incredibly well, and CEOs that make a lot of money.” He’s only right if he worded it some millionaires – just not as many. Thus, every investor – regardless of political stripe – should remember President Carter did not veto the 1978 Steiger (R-WI) amendment that reduced capital gains tax rates to 25% (down from 49%).
Why, you may ask, does a conservative laud a one-term Democrat president? Because Joe Biden does not even pass the Jimmy Carter threshold for leadership. Biden would rather dissemble facts and invoke Donald Trump than replace Janet Yellen or Jerome Powell, de-regulate any industry, or lower any tax rates. Sadly, he’s met low expectations for a man who secured his party’s nomination as the Not Bernie candidate, and won independent voters as the Not Trump candidate.
Friday, 40 percent of Joe Biden’s own party said they’d like another Democrat to run for president in 2024, an echo of Ted Kennedy’s almost successful run to replace Carter on the 1980 ballot. It was a non-starter, as far as ideas go, because it required President Carter to release his primary ballots (he did not), but it does prove how fleeting Biden’s internal support might be.
If Joe Biden were denied his party’s nomination, do you think he’d channel Jimmy Carter to put his presidency and defeat in context for the American people? I promised you 4 years ago that I would never lie to you. So, I can’t stand here tonight and say it doesn’t hurt. Don’t hold your breath, because he’s not a nice man like Carter. To be sure, things have not broken Biden’s way in August, but false claims and pointing fingers have only made matters worse.
I lived (and thrived) under Jimmy Carter’s presidency. I’ve met Jimmy Carter, and Joe Biden is no Jimmy Carter. In fact, he’s not even close. In fact, that’s why 40% of his own party has turned on President Biden.