Burn of the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
What was interesting about Carter was that he’d been a naval officer (in a demanding section of the Navy), run a business, and been a state governor. His dispositions in regard to policy were a cut above the norm of the Democratic congressional caucus at the time. In spite of adequate experience as an executive, he couldn’t set priorities or delegate properly. Eighteen hour workdays bogged down in minutiae. He had poor people skills and could not build relationships with Congress. (To be fair, his cabinet did not have much turnover, so he could not have been that difficult). A manager with performance deficits and no leadership qualities.
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On the plus side, his preferences on policy were a cut above the norm in the Washington Democratic Party and some of his worst policy mistakes came from following courses of action you’d expect if you were listening to mainstream Democratic wonks. (See the Carter Administration’s monetary policy).
That cartoon is one of the most asinine I have ever seen. Notice the avatar for Mr. Bevan – the logo for the Seattle Supersonics, the NBA team that relocated to Oklahoma City years ago. Bevan apparently carries the political mentality of Seattle, a city detached from reality.
The message is ludicrous, but the art is well done.
Aside from the obvious “difference in stature” message, Carter’s compression of Reagan’s stance puts his head into an ape-like alignment. Thus, the artist makes him look more like Bonzo than the Gipper. Furthermore, Carter’s stance is reminiscent of Camelot era Kennedy.
Like I said, clever execution – too bad the message is stupid.
Mr. Bevan is passing along a piece in the Washington Monthly. The piece is an edited transcript of a Q & A session with Jonathan Alter and Kai Bird. Alter is a longstanding regime media denizen. Bird used to work for The Nation, a cheesy red haze outlet.
Tom is a Chicagoan PF and as conservative as they come. His post was in the “can you believe this’ vein.
One other thing. Victor Navasky, The Nation’s longtime editor had recurrent project of attempting to rehabilitate the reputations of (1) Alger Hiss and (2) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The last effort in this failing enterprise was an article by a Navasky associate in The American Scholar contending the Soviet agent named ALES in the VENONA transcripts was not Alger Hiss but a public relations officer named Wilder Foote. The thesis was based entirely on a minor discrepancy in a timeline. Mr. Foote was during the 1930s a small town newspaper publisher in Vermont; the notion he was some sort of deep cover agent biding his time is a trifle implausible and it was taken apart in short order by subject specialists. Mr. Foote’s grandson was furious with these characters and said their correspondence with him had been laden with deception.
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The lead author of this article was..Kai Bird.
I stand corrected. Thank you, Mr. McClarey.