My Daughter Meets the Nukes.
Golden moments from 20th Century politics include this brief exchange between the distinguished broadcast media in 1980 (what a cadaverous, gray-haired, slow-spoken and hilariously humorless crowd they appear) and the two lacquer-haired candidates. Ronald Reagan seems somber and deeply engaged in the moment. Carter looks chipper, arrogant, folksy, slow-footed -- until we come to the part where POTUS Carter confides that his daughter Amy regards nuclear weapons as the most important issue for POTUS, and he implies that nukes are more important to his job than are jobs or 12% inflation or the crushing recessions of 1979-1983. Ooops. Reagan makes a firm statement that he will negotiate with the Soviets any time, anywhere to end nukes. Nice detail, six years away from Iceland, eight years from signing the end of the Cold War in July 1988.
My Daughter Meets BP.
This TV debate episode reminds a trusted correspondent of the POTUS Obama moment in the now-troubling and infamous BP press conference of May 27, 2010, in which POTUS Obama recounted how his daughter asked him, while he was shaving, about "the hole." State policy by child-rearing anecdote is not useful for the long-term credibility and gravity of the speaker, but it does provide witty outtakes. The Obama linkage to Carter is freshly fixed. Not a glowing event. What is also odd is how POTUS Obama has recently and repeatedly emphasized nuke disarmament just as if it was the 1980s and he was competing with Carter and Reagan. Odd. Nukes are critical re rogue and failed states such as Iran. But not for the powers. The early 1980s was the moment that POTUS made the transition from basketball tyro on Oahu to chain-smoking slacker in Los Angeles (and tourist in Pakistan). POTUS Obama is said to have written of nuke disarmament when he was at Columbia College in 1981-82-83. It can seem as if POTUS Obama is stuck in presidential time as he understands the office. The office is often understood as crisis management in between the celebrity bits. It is not going well. POTUS dependence upon Steven Chu and the Brain Trust is sentimental, inert, childlike, futile, reminding of a 1930s radio serial (read by Reagan) that calls upon geniuses to solve time travel and deep-sea diving. POTUS Obama has some loose gears. Everybody is funny. Yet it is a conclusion that POTUS Obama would have gained by spending a decade as a manager of troubled enterprises where he would have learned not to rely upon experts for anything but grief.
Liberals still despise Ronald the Great, so well spoken, so passionate. Won the Cold War without firing a shot.
Would Reagan reach out to Radical Islam? No, but he would declare Jihadism to be intrinsically evil, something few are willing to do today. Recall it was quite fashionable to show sympathy towards the Soviet Union, especially in Academia and Letters. Many still believe the Rosenbergs are innocent.
Criticizing Radical Islamic Jihad is considered bigoted by many on the left to this day. US Attorney General Eric Holder refusing to even mention "Radical Islam" when questioned by Congress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOQt_mP6Pgg
Carter, Chamberlain, Holder, and Obama are all appeasers and have their special place in History.
Getting back to the Gulf, Obama needs to be more hands on. There will be more failures, but nothing beats staying in the Mississippi Delta, talking to the Shrimpers and Cajuns, visiting churches. Campaigning.
Interesting juxtaposition between then and now. Not much has changed. Reagan represents the leader we all long for. Carter represents a failed presidency. The only real difference is the press that does not appear to consist of a gaggle of blushing school girls – reflecting, perhaps, a more sober national audience.
I didn’t know the detail about Obama vacationing in Pakistan. I wonder when they started having theme-based jolly camps (can't say 'jihad' anymore) over there. This is of course nothing new to the Democrat party. Wasn’t it Clinton who vacationed in the Soviet Union (at the Soviet government’s expense, no less) for a time? I never heard that one repeated too often; right along with Robert Byrd’s early association with the KKK.
Steven Chu, I’m afraid, might be next to be thrown under the bus. I believe he’s being set-up to take the hit for a whole basket of failures. There are any number of ways he could go. He fits the profile of a high-level Chinese mole to a tee. No doubt, when the time is right, Justice will make a move. Steven will learn that Obama does not assemble experts – only fall guys.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
President Obama may yet need a nuke to solve his oil spill problem. Obama is the child yearning for someone just to make it all go away - note to the President - it never goes away.
Recall there have been several mine disasters in WV and China where the bodies of miners could not be retrieved. The low hanging fruit for energy is gone, Mining a Drilling companies are now going into harder and tougher areas to find fuel.
The easy to reach fuel is protected by Environmental Zealots and Nimbys, We shall see who wins in the long term. Self-interested Nimbys would rather have a nice ocean view over a clear conscience.
Energy has always been a risky business, financially and physically. Reducing the physical risk costs money BP!
That is a very nice photograph of Nancy Reagan.