I think you would have had to have lived in America in the late 70's to understand. Gasoline rationing is no fun.
Sure. But it's not that Carter could do much about it. It was the oil states cartell that didn't leave much choice. But of course I understand leaders often get blamed for things they can't do much about it. For example, I think Bush received a lot of unfair blame because of that hurricane. So does Obama because of the oil spill.
That recession you talk about later, Carter's financial policies were pretty much the major cause of it.
Hm, I haven't heard that before, but then, I am hardly an expert on economics in general or this recession in particular. Maybe it's also common that in the sources I read about it here, the political implications and blame was not much of a topic. Naturally, Americans are more interested in this aspect, to know how they can judge the responsibility of politics.
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He stood up to Communist agression and the Soviet Union when no one else would, not West Germany, not the UK, no one (except maybe the mujahadeen). Also, Reagan was elected in 1980, trust me the recession was still in full swing.
Yeah ok, but that was more show than anything else. And don't forget it was Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt who came up with the idea of establishing new NATO mid-range rockets in West Germany, and used his full political weight to get it through.
In the end, it was not Reagan's approach that caused the USSR to collapse. It was because the East Bloc was economically rotten beyond repair anyway, then because of Gorbachev's policies -- but more than anybody else, the many courageous people in the East who went on the streets to push for freedom made it! Reagan did a good show, I give you that (like this "tear down this wall!"-speech, or the microphone test when he ordered a nuclear first strike, pure gold!), but in the end, his policy had only minor influence on the situation in the east. Maybe it even slowed down Gorbachev's attempts, by playing into the hands of the Soviet hardliners.
I really don't care where he sticks his "little willy" either. But that's not really the issue now, is it? See my previous post.......it's perjury, plain and simple, a Federal Offense in our country...and he got off scott free. I do give him credit for the budget surplus and do not believe he was one of our worst. I would classify his Administration as perhaps slightly above average. He just got a little too "cocky" :mrgreen:
Yes, I understand you are angry Clinton lied. I agree that's not what a President should do. But then, in comparison, Bush lied much more often, on a much larger scale, with much more extreme consequences (dozens of thousands of people died because of it). By that standard, Clinton's lie was relatively marginal. But of course, it was still wrong. I just think the good sides outweigh this bad side.