President Obama and President Carter

As a general rule, I attempt to avoid politics. Seeing as this is virtually impossible, I still attempt to avoid it as much as possible. This is one of the few times I will venture into politics.

I have two close friends who are Democrats. One is more moderate in his political views. We get along because we do not attack each other. We attack the position the other holds. In early 1979, the less moderate friend noted that President Carter had been a good campaigner. He was not happy that President Carter was not doing well in the polls. I bring this up because it looks to me that President Obama is a good campaigner, and it looks like he is still on campaign. This is a tactic that obtains political advantage and is necessary to help rally support. However, as I have noted before, politics and war do not mix well. Some issues have no political solution.

President Obama has offered to use carrots to tempt a number of hostile governments to become less adversarial. President Carter attempted this strategy as well. It did not work well for him and the U.S., although only time will tell if President Obama can do better. President Obama has the advantage of very low interest rates when beginning his presidency. This should not be a major problem during his first term. Ronald Regan did say in one of the debates with President Cart that it was nice to be liked, but more important to be respected. It is far too early to pass any judgement upon President Obama and the war. We will just have to wait and see.