The LuLac Edition #433, March 5th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: SENATOR BARAK OBAMA AND FORMER PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER.

THE PHENOM!

All of my life, both as a child and adult, I have followed politics. Blessed with a family that let this child be seen as well as heard, I had the good fortune to pick up some wisdom and historical perspective on politics and leadership. When I was approaching my last year of college, the 1976 Presideential race was beckoning. As news director at the King's College Radio station WRKC FM, I approached the year with enthusiasm. I had the chance to interview many candidates who were running in the Democratic race that year. (There were about 14). Candidates like Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris, Idaho Senator Frank Church, Texas Senator Lloyd Bensten, Congressman Morris Udall, as well as our own Governor Milton Shapp all were running. They were trying to connect, inspire. None of them did. One candidate though was different. A peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia. He carried his own suitcase, had a mother who was a caustic but loveable granny, a beer drinking, softball playing brother who owned a gas station and a whole host of characters out of a Paul Henning sitcom. He served only one term as a Governor. He was a well rounded man, having been in the Navy submarine corps, as well as a graduate of the Naval Academy. Still, all that didn't matter. What mattered was that Jimmy Carter inspired people in the Democratic primaries. Eking out a win in the Iowa caucuses, coming in second to "undecided" Carter went on a win streak in the primaries vanquishing old Washington hands and household names. He told people "he'd never lie to them" and "that he had a vision for America to be the best". He wrote a book called "Why Not the Best?" asking Americans why can't this nation be the best. A college friend's girlfriend told me that when she met him in Wilkes Barre, "he looked into my eyes as if I was the only person he was seeing". At the old Host Motel, just before Denny's on Kidder Street he met and greeted workers coming to and from meetings. Jimmy Carter inspired. He was different. A nation was starving for redemption after the Nixon years of Vietnam and Watergate. Democrats in the country bought the vision he was selling. He was nominated in New York City before a huge crowd of anti war Dems demolished in the '72 McGovern race against Nixon and the old time party pros that were just grateful to be included in the party soiree after being snubbed four years earlier. No group of Democrats, the McGovernites and the Humphreyites wanted to call Carter out on specifics. He looked like a winner and factions in the party just wanted to be along for the ride. Carter's picking of a Washington insider Walter Mondale helped because it gave him a bit of a level of gravitas. With a more than 35 point lead, Democrats were thrilled at the prospect of retaining the White House and being on the winning side. After all, they were inspired. But as the summer turned to fall, a battered President Gerald Ford began to look more "Presidential" than the media portrayed buffoon people saw on Saturday Night Live. As the election drew near, inspiration was replaced by a bit of perspiration. Democrats and Republicans were asking specifics and the Carter campaign was responding with this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ujaix6ya54. (From You Tube)

There were many more platitudes and by Election Day, Gerald Ford, had he carried Hawaii, would have been re-elected President. Ford had the Nixon pardon to deal with, a split party as well as a national distrust of the GOP since Nixon's resignation. Suddenly the inspiration, the speeches were gone. Jimmy Carter was elected but he needed to lead. And while he was a great former President, many agree that the Carter years (save the 1978 Middle East peace talks) were rudderless.

I see many comparisons to the Obama and Carter campaigns. Well organized to a fault, beating the old boys at their own game and inventing new ways to drive a primary vote. A new, clean cut candidate, different who tells you it's okay to not have the experience others have because look at what experience brought you with Watergate and Vietnam. You can interchange Watergate and Vietnam with Katrina and Iraq. Carter ran against his Democratic brethren as people who were in need of replacing, that a new day had to dawn in Washington. What Carter perhaps did not realize was that those power brokers returned to their old Washington haunts when he was trying to find the keys to the kingdom. We all know the legacy of the Jimmy Carter Presidency. He had good intentions. Senator Obama I'm sure, with all of his inspiration has honorable intentions too. But to quote Senator Joe Biden, a stellar leader rejected as "old hat" by the new rein in the party said, "There is so much damage done by the Bush Presidency, there will be no room for error". As we Pennsylvanians become the focal point of the Democratic race in 2008, we would all do well to note the comparisons between Senator Obama's effort and President Carter's. Once the noise and the hoopla dies down, and the speeches are put away into the history books and the packed arenas return to rock concerts, hockey and craft shows, the next President will have to get down in the muck to fix the numerous things wrong in this country. He or she better know what they're doing.