George W. Bush 3
joek? weird lurkers?
― iatee, Sunday, August 8, 2010 6:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
^^^
i didn't end up voting. i just felt there was too much i'm not familiar enough with.
― goole, Monday, 9 August 2010 15:50 (thirteen years ago) link
like this:
View of Jimmy Carter and his Presidency
That was a reader request. Matt Yglesias offers some background, as does Kevin Drum. On the plus side there was airline deregulation, support for Volcker and disinflation (later), willingness to lose the Presidency to see disinflation through, and he didn't push for a large number of Democratic ideas that I would disagree with, though he did create the Department of Education. Recall that he came from a party of McGovern and Kennedy and you can think of him as a precursor of the better side of the Clinton administration. Price controls on energy were a big mistake and that idea is hard to justify.
I'll call his support for the Afghan rebels a plus, because it helped down the Soviet Union, but I can see how you could argue that one either way. His conservation efforts could be called mamby-pamby but still they were a step in the right direction. He gave amnesty to Vietnam draft dodgers, a plus in my book, as was giving away the Panama Canal and bribing Egypt into better behavior.
At the time I thought Carter was a reasonably good President and it was far from obvious to me that the election of Reagan would in net terms boost liberty or prosperity.
I do understand that he was a public relations disaster and he shouldn't have fired his entire Cabinet and that he botched the Iran invasion.
Still, I think of Carter as a President with some major pluses and overall I view his term as a step in the right direction. He also seems to have been non-corrupt -- important so soon after Watergate -- and since leaving office he has behaved honorably and intelligently, for the most part.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 8, 2010 at 09:29 PM
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/08/view-of-jimmy-carter-and-his-presidency.html
― goole, Monday, 9 August 2010 15:53 (thirteen years ago) link
He also seems to have been non-corrupt -- important so soon after Watergate
haha kinda sad to actually have to list this
― iatee, Monday, 9 August 2010 15:55 (thirteen years ago) link
That the people who voted LBJ weighed his overall achievements against Vietnam is, I should point out, a good thing. Very different from the way he's treated by people in his party running for office today, where he's still mostly relegated to the margins. During the '08 convention, I remember them talking on CNN about how strange it was that there was no acknowledgement on the floor of LBJ's birthday.
― clemenza, Monday, 9 August 2010 15:57 (thirteen years ago) link
20th century major progressive achievements are basically taken for granted - the narrative of social security isn't really 'yay FDR' it's 'oh shit this is an expensive beast how are we gonna pay for it, deficits, deficits' - same w/ the great society stuff and LBJ.
― iatee, Monday, 9 August 2010 16:05 (thirteen years ago) link
100th birthday, I should have said--that's why the omission was so bizarre.
― clemenza, Monday, 9 August 2010 16:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, Dems really should hit that stuff harder IMO - "imagine a world before these things...", I mean it's meat-and-potatoes base-rallying stuff but if you go through the poll options here just in terms of "great, enduring achievements in domestic policy that we can't imagine not having today, or wish to god we had back again," the Dem record looks pretty good.
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 9 August 2010 17:36 (thirteen years ago) link
see, this is why i didn't vote. i feel like i didn't know enough past the very basics on all of these individuals. this is super interesting to me, and potentially hugely important
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/08/somewhere_mitch_mcconnell_is_s.html
Coincidentally, I've been reading Nelson Polsby's "How Congress Evolves," which focuses on changes in the House of Representatives during the '40s and '50s and '60s. People forget this, but back then it was the House, rather than the Senate, that was the primary impediment to liberal legislation. The Rules Committee, which was led by an arch-segregationist, could kill legislation on its own and did so regularly.
This led to the predictable circular firing squad, as everyone spent a lot of time arguing over who deserved the blame for the failure of these bills. But it wasn't until John F. Kennedy came into office and partnered with Speaker Sam Rayburn to reform the Rules Committee that the underlying situation changed (and I'll note that you never hear people demanding that the Rules Committee regain its power to hold legislation).
― goole, Tuesday, 10 August 2010 17:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh yeah, that was a big deal, and even then JFK's entire legislative agenda stalled.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 17:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Did you study post-war US politics Alfred or are you just very, very interested? Because I'm slightly in awe of the detail of your responses itt.
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 17:58 (thirteen years ago) link
thank you! Naw, I study this stuff on my own: I'm a history and lit guy.
― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 18:46 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah impressively knowledgable, but then 'literate' americans should be at least fairly well read re their imperial apogee
might have voted truman here but don't know enough about his domestic work
― nakhchivan, Tuesday, 10 August 2010 20:30 (thirteen years ago) link
Terrible at dusting, average at sweeping/vacuuming, pretty handy with laundry and ironing, tended to break dishes when cleaning up after dinner.
― Un peu d'Eire, ça fait toujours Dublin (Michael White), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 20:36 (thirteen years ago) link
I will at least give JFK credit for not incinerating a third of the human race in Oct '62, which I feel confident Nixon and Gen. LeMay would've managed.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 20:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Le May did want to attack Cuba during the CMC.
― Un peu d'Eire, ça fait toujours Dublin (Michael White), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 21:02 (thirteen years ago) link
and Dick would've said Go!
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 21:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Probably. The Russian field commanders had been given authority to launch, too.
― Un peu d'Eire, ça fait toujours Dublin (Michael White), Tuesday, 10 August 2010 21:19 (thirteen years ago) link
today is 50th anniv of Ike's "military industrial complex" warning.
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-military-expansion-50-years-later
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 17 January 2011 13:58 (thirteen years ago) link
I find it curious that Eisenhower is not more widely lionized in the modern day GOP. Democrats are more than happy to cite FDR, so I don't think it's strictly a "too long ago" thing.
― ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 20 January 2011 20:14 (thirteen years ago) link
like, Ike presided over the golden era of white male Xtian privilege, battled communists, um liked playing golf...
― ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 20 January 2011 20:15 (thirteen years ago) link
no major scandals or disasters on his watch (unless you count ignoring civil rights, which is entirely legit)
― ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 20 January 2011 20:16 (thirteen years ago) link
doesn't morbs' revive show how eisenhower's reputation is more complicated than fdr's?
Ike presided over the golden era of white male Xtian privilege, battled communists, um liked playing golf... = any of the presidents itt, not really buying the mendesite clichés of the fifties as some singularly untroubled age
― Nigie Dempstah (nakhchivan), Thursday, 20 January 2011 20:44 (thirteen years ago) link
A complicated legacy.
― Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 January 2011 20:49 (thirteen years ago) link
A first-rate, brief account of a forgotten episode in Cold War geopolitics: the Suez crisis. Eisenhower emerges as a master strategist and politician. The book takes advantage of thousands of pages of declassified meeting minutes, notes, diplomatic memoranda, etc. It's fascinating to think that even the CIA thought that the Dulles bros -- Allen at CIA, John Foster at State -- positioned Ike as a smiling figurehead while they ran foreign policy, when actually Ike wrote every memo and delivered every order. After reading this, I'm almost tempted to toss my vote for LBJ aside.
― My mom is all about capital gains tax butthurtedness (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 April 2011 02:21 (twelve years ago) link
That looks really good...will have to check it out!
― VegemiteGrrl, Thursday, 28 April 2011 02:24 (twelve years ago) link
Quite good:
http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/144490000/144498918.JPG
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 02:20 (eleven years ago) link
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 02:21 (eleven years ago) link
so nice you posted it twice, huh
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 02:42 (eleven years ago) link
once for each american!
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 02:59 (eleven years ago) link
yes
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 03:01 (eleven years ago) link
Mo Dowd, waxing nostalgic over Poppy.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 10 June 2012 12:21 (eleven years ago) link
some kind of dimwit convergence going on when liberals are starting to love bush pere and conservatives, clinton.
― goole, Sunday, 10 June 2012 15:01 (eleven years ago) link
era of bipartisan consensus iirc
― the route is ban (k3vin k.), Sunday, 10 June 2012 15:02 (eleven years ago) link
luckily the Clinton years were devoid of partisan sniping
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 10 June 2012 15:03 (eleven years ago) link
A review of the Poppy doc.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 June 2012 12:41 (eleven years ago) link
Bush I was "liberal" in some ways from today's perspective, Clinton conservative/corporatist from almost any.
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 14 June 2012 13:15 (eleven years ago) link
LBJ. Did not expect that.
― pplains, Thursday, 14 June 2012 14:03 (eleven years ago) link
Fuck the lot of them but fuck Jimmy Carter most of all for the whitewashing of his record.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Thursday, 14 June 2012 16:58 (eleven years ago) link
? why does alfred's link go to this thread?
― the route is ban (k3vin k.), Thursday, 14 June 2012 20:32 (eleven years ago) link
it's self-referential!
http://tv.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/arts/television/41-george-h-w-bush-documentary-on-hbo.html?ref=arts
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 June 2012 21:16 (eleven years ago) link
Jean Edward Smith's new Eisenhower: In War and Peace is so far the best definitive bio on Ike I've read. Thanks to his knowledge of U.S. Grant, Smith is able to compare and contrast the general's performance historically. He's also written the first thorough analysis of Ike's tenure as president of Columbia.
About to start the presidential years.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 September 2012 13:49 (eleven years ago) link
This looks like fun: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/books/review/ike-and-dick-by-jeffrey-frank.html?ref=review
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 16 February 2013 17:03 (eleven years ago) link
read "this" a couple days ago: one of the best popular histories I've read (Frank is a novelist). I agree with Russell Baker's judgment: it's impossible to regard Ike's insistent contempt for the young Dick Nixon without feeling a wee bit sorry for the bastard.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 22 March 2013 17:40 (eleven years ago) link
IDK if there's a better thread to put this in, but I found this interview with the author of a new book on the Dulles Brothers fascinating:
http://www.npr.org/2013/10/16/234752747/meet-the-brothers-who-shaped-u-s-policy-inside-and-out
What really struck me was that you had a guy openly saying that the entire goal of US foreign policy at the time was to cynically further the interests of US corporations -- the kind of stuff you'd expect to hear on Pacifica but not on an NPR station.
― #fomo that's the motto (Hurting 2), Monday, 21 October 2013 14:29 (ten years ago) link
^^^Yeah, the NYTBR piece on that Dulles book last week began "If you want to know why the US is hated across the globe," read it.
The critic also wrote that Truman abjured interfering in/toppling foreign govts, but Ike was gung ho -- I guess that's true. So fuck rehabilitating the general.
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 22:25 (ten years ago) link
Ike in essence empowered the CIA. It got him out of invading Iran, Hungary, and so on.
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 November 2013 22:26 (ten years ago) link
some fairly harsh commentary on ike (and a p disturbing story in the initial post) in this LGM thread:
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/03/eisenhower-2
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 9 March 2018 20:42 (six years ago) link
https://graphiq-stories.graphiq.com/stories/5037/ranking-presidents-least-most-conservative#13-Overall-Ideology-Comparison
― Moo Vaughn, Friday, 9 March 2018 20:49 (six years ago) link
that chart has some v strange results -- clinton and even carter as 'more liberal' than LBJ is hard to figure.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 9 March 2018 20:57 (six years ago) link
omigod I was just about to post this
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 9 March 2018 21:09 (six years ago) link