SouthernDemocrat

Ok, since the conservatives on here are claiming that a vote for Obama is a vote for returning to the Carter years, I figured it might be worth actually making a comparison.

First off lets look at Real GDP Growth for the Carter years versus the Bush years:

Avg Real GDP Growth under Carter: 2.81%
Avg Real GDP Growth under Bush II:2.58%

Winner: Carter

Consumer Price Index under Carter: 10.77%
Consumer Price Index under Bush: 2.66%

Winner: Bush II

Energy Prices - Oil Inflation under Carter (2007 dollars): $97.68
Oil Inflation under Bush (2007 dollars): $98.66

Winner: Carter - By a nose.

Sources for the above - Index of /

Economic Cycle Job Growth under Carter - 5.3%
Economic Cycle Job Growth under Bush - 1.5%

Winner: Carter

JobWatch

Median Income Growth under Carter: -1.08%
Median Income Growth under Bush: -5.88%

Winner: Carter

Poverty rate Increase under Carter: 1.2%
Poverty rate Increase under Bush: 1.0% - So far.

Winner: Bush

So we have 2 for Bush and 4 for Carter. Thus, even if Obama were elected and did as absymal of a job as Jimmy Carter, it very well could be an improvement over Bush.

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Charles Krauthammer describing Obama:

"He's got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament."

American

I love this, we've succeed in steering you where we want. BTW, if it was so good under Carter, how come his record and reputation suck?

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It's Obama's fault!

SouthernDemocrat

As I stated, Carter did an abysmal job. Its quite an accomplishment for the Republicans to have actually done a worse job in the Bush Administration than Carter did.

Iriemon

I think your numbers exclude the first year of their presidency:

1977 4.6%
1978 5.6%
1979 3.2%
1980 -0.2%
Average: 3.3%

2001 0.8%
2002 1.6%
2003 2.5%
2004 3.6%
2005 3.1%
2006 2.9%
2007 2.2%
Average: 2.4%


Another measure of performance: Fiscal responsibility. Carter inhereted a large deficit from Ford, and during his term the deficits averaged 2.2% of GDP.

Year-Deficit-% of GDP
1976 -70.5 -3.9%
1977 -49.8 -2.5%
1978 -54.9 -2.4%
1979 -38.7 -1.5%
1980 -72.7 -2.6%
Average 1977-1980: -2.2%

Year-Deficit-% of GDP
2000 86.6 0.9%
2001 -33.3 -0.3%
2002 -317.5 -3.0%
2003 -536.1 -4.9%
2004 -567.4 -4.9%
2005 -493.6 -4.0%
2006 -434.0 -3.3%
2007 -344.5 -2.5%
Average 01-07: -3.3%

Bush inhereted a surplus from Clinton, yet his deficits have averaged 3.3% of GDP.

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Matthew 5:9

MC.no.spin

How any Democrat would want to start a thread to bring up Carter's name in a postive light has to make one wonder if their prescription drug medication renewal is currently on hold.

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The heart of human intelligence is pattern recognition ~ Ray Kurzweill

Tucker Case

To be fair, I think the implication is that the comparison to Bush is quite the negative light. And it does not bode well for Dubya to be compared to Carter either.

Iriemon

It's the liberal media at work, what else?

Carter to an extent was a victim of bad timing. He inhereted an inflation cycle from Nixon and Ford, whose efforts to stop it were complete failures. Carter's initial efforts weren't successful either, but in 1979 he appointed Vockler to the Fed to clamp down on the money supply, which Vockler did. The short term result was that interest rates shot sky high and a recession in 1980, an election year. The medicine worked and inflation came down in the early 80s.

Reagan wrongly is credited for fixing inflation, and Carter gets the credit for high interest rates. But Carter gets the bad rap for providing the medicine that cured the patient.

Tucker Case

Caution, raunchy language:

Jimmy Carter a la: The Onion

Simon W. Moon

I wonder how you think this is a positive light.

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"That is the problem... [we] fell in love with the idea that politicians-- even the slickest and brightest presidential candidates-- were real heroes and truly exciting people. That is wrong on its face. They are mainly dull people with corrupt instincts and criminal children. -H.S.T"

DarkWizard12

A vote for Obama will not bring the Carter years back, only the Obama years, nothing more. Likewise McCain will not continue the Bush years, it will be McCain years and only McCain years.

Get over yourselves people. Obama is not carter and McCain is not Bush. These outrageous statements do nothing but backfire. Obama is not a muslim and McCain is not senile, they just make stupid mistakes because they want to win.