From: "Michael LaTorra" <mike99@lascruces.com>
>Yes, it's really quite amazing that the intellectually gifted
>Carter could be such a dunderhead in the White House, while the
>less intelligent Reagan could be so brilliant.
Reaan was a talking head, who was good at reading the lines, and
had excellent advisors.
>Carter thought that the way to deal with exorbitant oil prices was
>to ration gasoline and spend billions of dollars trying to extract
>petrochemicals from tar sands. Neither scheme worked.
Nuclear engineering experience, and a socialist in a capitalist
economy....
>Reagan let the market set the price of oil, let the US economy go
>through a short, sharp recession to squeeze inflation out of the
>system, and changed the tax laws to encourage investment. The
>current boom is largely the result of this, and could not have
>started without Reagan's policies. Bill Clinton's economic success
>owes to the fact that he left almost all of Reagan's economic
>policies intact.
That short,sharp recession left me struggling to earn my next meal
for almost three years. I've learned my lesson, but doubt America
has learned hers....
Alan Greenspan is one reason the economy is doing so well, millions
of good capitalists the other. If Clinton had been allowed to do
the things he wished, (National Health Care amongst others) the
economy would be a wreck again.
>Carter said "We have overcome our inordinate fear of communism."
>Then he was shocked when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
I was in Taiwan when Carter pulled the China-Over-Taiwan stunt, we
we're evacuated by helicopter.....
>Reagan called the USSR an "evil empire" and, addressing an
>audience next to the Berlin Wall, said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down
>this wall." Two years later, the people tore down the Wall and
>Gorbachev was soon kicked out of office.
This process was already underway, Reagan had the good fortune to
be in the right place at the right time. Of course being on the
right side helped. He gets some credit for helping the process
along.
>Carter wins kudos for being a "great" ex-president. The tragedy is
>that Americans had to suffer through the Carter presidency first.
>Too bad he couldn't have gone directly from being elected to being
>an ex-president. Now this self-righteous, incompetent prig can
>preen and preach all he likes, and we don't have to worry because
>his hands have been safely removed from the levers of power. When
>Carter speaks, I don't bother to listen.
I'm glad to see he's found something good to do with his time
(Habitat for Humanity) he's also done some good running around
playing diplomat.
We should never confuse serendipity with good acts. Everytime
someone mentions Clinton's name and the economy, I ask them to
point out one thing (besides retaining Greenspan) he's actually
done for it.
Brian
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