by Kenneth T. Walsh

Issues like unemployment, energy, and healthcare are the same, but the governing style is different

Although briefly sidelined by what doctors said was a stomach viral infection, former President Jimmy Carter has been making the rounds of TV studios and book-signing events to promote White House Diary, his new look back at his four turbulent years as president from 1977 to 1981.

Many Americans and historians have dismissed Carter as a failure, partly because he presided over such a terrible economy. He also alienated many in Congress with his arrogance and sanctimony, misjudged the Soviet Union, which invaded Afghanistan on his watch, and seemed powerless when Americans were held hostage in Iran for a year. Finally, Carter seemed to blame the country for his shortcomings as a leader, with his famous "crisis of confidence" speech in 1979.

Carter doesn't provide any big, new disclosures in the book, but he does finally admit to making a variety of mistakes, such as overburdening Congress "with an array of controversial and politically costly requests," confusing Congress and the country by "advancing so many proposals simultaneously" and not setting clear priorities, " 'micromanaging' the affairs of government and being excessively autocratic," and quarreling with the news media.

In a passage that has particular relevance today, he highlights what hasn't changed in 30 years. "I've been surprised by how many of the major challenges I faced still confront President Obama, which suggests the continuity of history -- or the inability of any one administration to resolve difficult issues," he writes. "Some of the more important ongoing problems are energy and the environment, comprehensive health care, civil liberties and human rights, nuclear proliferation, the economy, abortion, and narcotics. Looking abroad, we continue to face complex challenges in Russia, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Cuba, and the Middle East."

One of the key lessons from the Carter era that has lasting importance is that a president can't really govern as an outsider.

As Princeton historian Julian Zelizer points out in his new book -- Jimmy Carter: The American Presidents Series: The 39th President, 1977-81 -- that Carter rose to fame as a peanut farmer and former governor of Georgia who promised not to lie -- a simple and effective message in an era of Watergate and Vietnam deceptions -- but his presidency showed that running as a Washington outsider was far easier than governing as one.

As Zelizer says, Carter was popular during his first year in office, but he was soon mired by the economy and by crises in Afghanistan and Iran, problems that parallel what Obama is facing today.

As an outsider, Carter wouldn't compromise enough to get things done. He abhorred making deals with members of Congress and he disdained the news media, attitudes which hindered his effectiveness.

By contrast, Obama has been willing to wheel and deal with Congress and shows respect for the media. This has given him an advantage in governing.

But Obama's crunch will come if his Democratic Party loses control of one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections. Obama would then need to adjust to having the Republicans as partners in governing. GOP leaders complain that, despite his genial veneer, Obama hasn't compromised as much as he should have because he has governed largely with the Democrats. White House officials make the counterargument that the GOP has resisted Obama at nearly every turn.

Regardless of who is right, Obama will have a difficult task bridging the partisan divide. He would have to show much more flexibility, facing the same problem of accommodation that bedeviled Carter.

On another score, Obama is starting to sound like Carter as he complains about how he isn't getting the credit he deserves for trying to change Washington and for winning passage of important legislation. He says liberals who supported him in the past are showing bad judgment by threatening to sit out the midterm elections. He told Rolling Stone recently, "When I talk to Democrats around the country, I tell them, 'Guys, wake up here. We have accomplished an incredible amount in the most adverse circumstances imaginable.' " Vice President Joe Biden was even more blunt when he inartfully advised liberals last week to "stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives."

A final point of comparison is that Carter seemed too cerebral and distant from Americans' everyday problems. That's a criticism of Obama today. Even his own party's strategists say he needs to do better at connecting with Middle America -- as he has tried to do with backyard chats -- if he is to avoid Carter's fate of being a one-term president.

 

Available at Amazon.com:

Jimmy Carter: The American Presidents Series: The 39th President, 1977-81

White House Diary

The Feminine Mystique

The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy

The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics

Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House

 

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What Barack Obama Can Learn From Jimmy Carter | Politics

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