Feeling optimistic about the human condition

[rah]

He got 41% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...election,_1980 despite having people on the left and the center run against him.

JM

I don't think using the vote as an indication of whether people thought he was a good leader is valid. If you think 41% is an indication of him being a good leader, you'd have to think that Bush was a great leader.

[DanS]

41% is getting beat like a drum. Only slightly better than Mondale.

[Jon Miller]

He got 41% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...election,_1980 despite having people on the left and the center run against him.

JM

[rah]

Gotta agree with dan here. You can't be a good leader if the people of the time don't trust you to lead, by definition.

[KrazyHorse]

That's because you live in a town based around that illusion

[DanS]

I never discount the importance of political leadership, even though its effect is hard to measure. No matter how you define leadership after the fact, the people of the time didn't judge Carter to have it. So he didn't.

[KrazyHorse]

Science is a global pursuit

[DanS]

How does a Canuck end up in Sweet Home Alabama? There's an interesting story in there somewhere.

[KrazyHorse]

I was never sure if you were can see usa or swe can usa

[SpencerH]

Canada. A grunt during the Carter years then a spook during Reagan's first term.

[KrazyHorse]

What country's forces were you with?

[SpencerH]

Now granted, I was born in the 80's so I never knew the Carter presidency but Carter seems to me to have been a genuinely nice guy. Maybe that's not the same as charismatic and maybe that's not what you want a leader to be like but Carter just strikes me as a fundamentally honest, straight-forward, and good-intentioned president. He may have been ineffective but any 'worst president' should have a questionable moral sense and be a smarmy politician, right? LBJ and Nixon did more but they were closer to the latter than Carter was.

And why the military became a joke under Carter, HC? Anything you say about it being weaker or perceived to be weaker in the late-70's would probably have much more to do with Vietnam than anything Carter did.

The end of the draft, insufficient funding, and poor leadership at many senior levels including the President were the major reasons why the american military was in steep decline during the Carter presidency. After training with and against them on many occasions during that time I can say with all honesty that the army and marine units we faced were pathetic at small unit tactics and that the equipment they used was not well maintained.

[Elok]

I don't think even North Korea knows what North Korea wants. Possibly the thought hasn't even entered their heads, as they seem almost as trapped by the present situation as we are. They have to keep extorting aid out of us with their nuclear program or their government/country will collapse.

[Hauldren Collider]

If war broke out with North Korea, it would be the end for them. So I don't see the craziness in thinking the North Korean government wants peace.

[Wezil]

I doubt they want peace as the status quo suits them fine. Peace would make it hard to blame outsiders for their plight and the natives would get restless.