The Carter-Obama Comparisons

This is a "kiss and tell" entry. I adored President Jimmy Carter, and wrote him a fan letter after he was turned out to pasture by Reagan (and I received a thank you note which I kept on my refrigerator for at least a year). However, at first I thought he was a wonderful ex-president going about inspiring people with authentic Christian good works (Habitat for Humanity). However, as he got older and more restless he began setting a really bad example for future Democratic ex-presidents and ex-vice presidents. (This doesn't seem to be an affliction of Republicans.) He began to act as though he still mattered to the American public, that people cared what he thought. That said, I still admire a man who will defend his record while working out of a cramped apartment with a Murphy bed rather than living it up in high style the way other Democrats do. Old clips seen on 60 minutes a few days ago, however, did bring some unfortunate comparisons with my least favorite president, Barack Obama.

"Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz, for instance, told Fox News in August 2008 that Mr. Obama's "rhetoric is more like Jimmy Carter's than any other Democratic president in recent memory." Syndicated columnist Jonah Goldberg noted more recently that Mr. Obama, like Mr. Carter in his 1976 campaign, "promised a transformational presidency, a new accommodation with religion, a new centrism, a changed tone."

But within a few months, liberals were already finding fault with his rhetoric. "He's the great earnest bore at the dinner party," wrote Michael Wolff, a contributor to Vanity Fair. "He's cold; he's prickly; he's uncomfortable; he's not funny; and he's getting awfully tedious. He thinks it's all about him." That sounds like a critique of Mr. Carter.

I don't think Carter is the narcissist that Obama is, nor is he a Marxist, but he is a liberal, finger wagging whine. When I saw that 1970s clip of him lecturing the American public on their morals, it just sent a chill down my back. Excuse me if it sounds racist, but that was way too much blue-eyed, elder soul for this former fan.

John Fund: The Carter-Obama Comparisons Grow - WSJ.com