It's subjective. What makes a line wild? Is "The buck stops with everybody" wild or is it stable genius?
I see (because I looked it up) that Trump was talking about the government shutdown last January, and combative journalists were trying to get him to accept the classic Truman slogan "The buck stops here." He said, "The buck stops with everybody." Everyone's responsible.
Truman's slogan is a play on the expression "passing the buck":
The expression is said to have originated from poker in which a marker or counter (such as a knife with a buckhorn handle during the American Frontier era) was used to indicate the person whose turn it was to deal. If the player did not wish to deal he could pass the responsibility by passing the "buck," as the counter came to be called, to the next player.Trump's play on Truman's play is not passing the buck. It's a rejection of the idea that the buck can be passed. All are always responsible. Trump's slogan is not wild. It's a sound observation, cleverly stated, aptly deflecting a reporter who must have thought the old Truman line would work to pin blame on Trump. Trump always fights. He's never going to concede to a reporter you've got me this time.
Here's Jimmy Carter delivering a dismal lecture to America while sitting behind Truman's "The buck stops here" sign:
Watch that if you can. Carter is the opposite of Trump. He speaks of limitations and how were going to have to accept pain. It's such a downer. You feel the hope drain out of you. We're running out of energy! Indeed, we were.
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The modern prog-left are so utterly completely horrid and corrupt they have managed to make Jimmy Carter sane, reasonable, honest and good.
There's an old shape note hymn "A Beautiful Life" that makes the point in a different way.
The singer(s) realize that, at the end of their life, they go "to meet the deeds I've done".
The faithful (or to an atheist "superstitious") realize that there is a judgment on one's life. So yer danged right--everyone is responsible for what they do--or didn't do when action was called for.
Well, maybe not 'Julia'. The government's responsible for her from cradle to grave.
Jimmy was at war with his Congress even though they were all Democrats. He did appoint Volker, who died last week.
I remember that speech -- what a humorless pedant!
I had forgotten how early it was in his term (April '77). His other famous "malaise" speech was July 15, 1979, so I reckon, like most folks, we conflated the two.
Not an inspiring figure, that Carter fella......
Everybody = Nobody.
Great catch, Ann. Low energy Carter prepared the way for low energy Jeb.
He didn't accept the reporter's framing of the shutdown as his fault and he shouldn't have. I don't recall reporters asking Obama about where the buck stopped during the shutdowns that happened when he was President.
"His other famous "malaise" speech was July 15, 1979, so I reckon, like most folks, we conflated the two."
I will never forget the malaise speech: He was wearing a sweater and sitting by the fire. In the one I've embedded, he's at his desk, with Truman's sign in front of him.
The bus stops here. Refers to throwing people under it.
From a 2009 NPR article about Carter's malaise speech:
"But one thing always wound up driving the president crazy: His need to rely on others to perform tasks that produced mixed results. The drafted speech he stared at was a case in point. He could barely make it past page four. For sure, it had its moments, talking of patriotism and American independence and the need to extol the key virtue of war – sacrifice for the common good – while battling dependency on OPEC oil. Those were ideas Carter could get behind. The speech also mentioned an incident where a pregnant woman was violently attacked in a Los Angeles gas line. That frightening story might send shivers up the spine of the public's conscience. But the rest of the speech read like a laundry list of vague energy plans. After falling asleep reading it, Carter went to bed. Later that night, First Lady Rosalynn Carter stumbled across it on a coffee table. Suffering jet-lag related insomnia (she had accompanied Jimmy overseas), Rosalynn read the speech and then told her husband the next morning it was awful. She had a much better ear than the president for the way a speech like this might play politically, and her judgment mattered immensely to Jimmy. That was it, Carter thought, there was to be no speech, at least not this one...."
No, I'm wrong about the "malaise" speech. He was at the desk.
What's the speech in the sweater??
Carter was saying: America can never be great again. Just accept it.
Paraphrase by Meade. I'm just the transcriber. My response was: "I believed it at the time."
Odd how many media types believe their own spin that Trump is a dope, someone who should be helpless in their gotcha! games. The one thing team Obama got absolutely right was their view that the class of journalists covering politics in DC was a bunch of no-nothings who would always toe the party line. Yes, indeed.
As for Carter, he has worn about as well as most other '70s fashions.
which was Obama's message as well, we had to accept limits on our energy consumption, on economic growth in general,
The left were always such downers! Woe is us, the world's gonna blow up, there's no use looking forward to the future...had ME convinced.
Then the Soviet Union fell. Sheesh, who saw that coming? They were just always going to be there and we just had to get used to it and deal.
They're probably wrong about everything else, too.
...on economic growth in general...
the new normal as coined by a prominent economic pundit, who remarkably still practices his trade on TV...
“CNN. The most trusted name in news.”
Now there’s a wild line.
I bet we could come up with more than 199 wild lines by Chris Cillizza (like how buying Alaska was a mistake or something about "feet") but this thing with Trump's remarks seems to be a recurring theme for him.
"The 40 wildest lines from Donald Trump's impromptu Friday press conference" - 11/8/2019
"Analysis: The 51 most outrageous lines from Donald Trump's NC rally" - 7/18/2019
"The 45 most outrageous lines from Donald Trump's rambling interview with Sean Hannity" - 4/26/2019
"Wait, what? Trump’s wildest lines of 2018 | With Chris Cillizza" - YouTube video, Dec. 2018
What good did it do having the buck stop with Carter?
What's the speech in the sweater??
I recall watching that one- I believe it was the fireside chat about energy, which didn't go over as well as expected and later begat the Carter as grim reaper speech...
Carter was a Southerner, but a "nicer" version of the more famous and popular (and infamous) George Wallace (Dem Gov -- Alabama).
Because of Nixon's Watergate problems and resignation in 1974, it was kinda sorta a fait accompli that some Dem would beat Ford, and win 1976.
Nobody knew who Jimmy was, but he seemed like a nice fellow, and seemed squared away (nuclear engineer Naval Academy), so he won a slight victory over Ford, 50-48..
The problem which became apparent through his dreary speeches, was that Jimmy had no clue how to deal with Soviet Union, nor the domestic economy. So, Reagan came and slammed his sorry butt, and the rest was history.
and seemed squared away (nuclear engineer Naval Academy),
Never qualified but that was the story for the campaign.
Here's the speech with the sweater. I got malaise just watching a couple minutes of it.
Can you imagine Trump in a sweater in a comfy chair doing a speech?
I can't even picture Trump in a suit in a comfy chair and leaning back as oppose to sitting on the edge of it, manspreading, and holding his hands in that triangle shape he does — that white power symbol or whatever. Just kidding. As far as I know.
Why does everyone say Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer?!
That always makes me laugh.
"But one thing always wound up driving the president crazy: His need to rely on others to perform tasks that produced mixed results.
One Carter story was about his first briefing about how he would be whisked out of the White House if an emergency occurred. Like nuclear war.
He said, "OK Show me."
It was a fiasco.
I think the main problem for progressives has always been that they're the party of negativity. They have to be, it's baked in. The reason we have government is to deal with problems, problems between people, between nations, the economy, the environment, infrastructure, whatever.
Genarally progressives believe in having a more involved and a more expansive government. They want a government that manages any and all sorts of possible problems. But in order to justify a larger and more expansive government all these problems actually have to manifest. In essence, progressives need problems in order to make their arguments about growing government. They need problems to get elected. They need existing problems to become worse. And they need to constantly point out new problems.
Contantly focusing on the negatives really isn't persuasive when things are actually going well.
that white power symbol or whatever
No, no, no. It's Illuminati. Obviously.
I got malaise just watching a couple minutes of it.
Trump has been clinically proven to effectively control malaise. Ask your doctor if Trump is right for you...
"Trump's slogan is not wild. It's a sound observation, cleverly stated, aptly deflecting a reporter who must have thought the old Truman line would work to pin blame on Trump."
And that is the job of reporters, isn't it, to pin blame on Trump.
Data point #3911 showing that the MSM do not share Althouse's values.
Why does everyone say Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer?!
Jimmah was a nuclear idiot
Ms Slotkin finds that impeachment is not the flavor of the month with her constituents.
Carter didn't pronounce the l in nuclear, which is better than pronouncing it nucular.
You are always responsible for your actions- always.
Shared or shifted responsibility? Hopefully, he will address progressive prices first.
Why does everyone say Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer?!
He did serve in the Navy's nuclear research program, but not as an engineer. He also attended a Navy school on reactors, but left the Navy before serving on a nuclear submarine.
It sounds more impressive to call him an engineer though. Think of it like every Southron gentleman who ever served in the military been called colonel.
Carter there is an example of the people in charge being unable to conceive of a different world because that implies the possibility of a world where they are not in charge.
My sloppy comment: "Nobody knew who Jimmy was, but he seemed like a nice fellow, and seemed squared away (nuclear engineer Naval Academy), so he won a slight victory over Ford, 50-48."
Yeah, you guys are right .
For the record, Jimmy served an engineering officer on a nuclear submarine, was trained on nuclear reactors, and obtained a Bachelor of Science at Canoe U (Naval Academy), but "nuclear engineer" is a stretch.
Still a humorless uninspiring President!
Holy crap, the energy speech is so amazingly terrible! Unless I watched it as a kid and have forgotten, I don't think I ever saw it before. In retrospect, it seems wildly wrong on multiple levels, in addition to being delivered dully and as negatively as possible. In just four minutes I see why half the country regards him as the worst president of modern times.
I mean, he announced the end of the oil age because there was no way to continue producing enough in 1977. 42 years later, with the world population doubled, his party is freaking out because we're producing TOO MUCH of the stuff.
"No, no, no. It's Illuminati. Obviously."
Yeah. Pyramid.
In 1976, my social studies teacher required us to volunteer to work for a political campaign. She didn't care what party or candidate we supported (really!) but wanted us to get involved. So I stood in front of a grocery store handing out Carter/Mondale fliers. I was 16. We lived in a blue collar Democrat neighborhood but there were still people who shook their heads, frowned, or swore at me when I tried to give them a flyer. My feelings were hurt. How could they not like Jimmy? He seemed so down-home and sincere!
Watching those Carter speeches made me realize what a waste of my youthful time it was to campaign for Mr. Mush Mouth Malaise.
I remember telling my father that we were going to run out of oil and soon, that all this driving and flying around would come to an end and soon. Why was he in denial?
He said he knew the petroleum was there — "It's in the ground."
He worked for an oil company (Sinclair/Atlantic Richfield) and he was a chemical engineer (working in petrochemicals).
For the record, Jimmy served an engineering officer on a nuclear submarine,
No he didn't. He began training to do so, but left the Navy before the first nuclear sub was finished.
It’s CNN/NYTIMES/WASHPOST. If they aren’t smearing someone, they aren’t working. The quicker they go under the better off we will be.
Althouse: "He worked for an oil company (Sinclair/Atlantic Richfield) and he was a chemical engineer (working in petrochemicals)."
Oil and Gas companies have always known the Peak Oil lefty/LLR-lefty lie was just that, a lie. Their livelihood depends on being right about things like that.
After all, Oil and Gas personnel are not hack FBI/CIA jokers who are allowed to fail up over and over and over again.
Seeing that single frozen frame of Jimmie is enough to make me queasy.
You think I'm gonna press PLAY?
"Ann Althouse said...
I remember telling my father that we were going to run out of oil and soon, that all this driving and flying around would come to an end and soon."
Name one long term lefty gloom and doom prediction that has played out.
If Jimmy Carter was still President, it would be about day 14,900 of the Iranian hostage crisis. And Ted Koppel would still be covering it every night.
Cillizza is a humorless soy boy who cannot understand people who are different than him. Most of those are just Cillizza whining about Trump telling jokes.
Seeing how wrong Carter’s predictions of doom and gloom turned out, is it any wonder that some of us are skeptical about the climate change alarmists’ predictions of doom and gloom?
Who has Jimmie endorsed?
Watch that if you can. Carter is the opposite of Trump. He speaks of limitations and how were going to have to accept pain.
Jimmy was not a bad man, but he was the last Democrat that I voted for. Reagan was the first Republican.
Early in my practice, I had to meet with a mid-level agent at the IRS's regional office in Indianapolis for a client. On his desk was a sign that said "The buck doesn't even pause here." That is still my favorite variation of the old expression.
Still a humorless uninspiring President!
After the Nixon / Agnew / Ford drama, most people wanted someone less "exciting". Carter filled the bill. Until "dismal" set in.
Kind of like now. Wouldn't a boring, competent president be a relief from the current incumbent?
Be careful. Be very careful what you wish for.
By the way, Jimmy is still eligible for another term!
well ford, was as exciting as melba toast, now Stansfield turner, was right about the pretext of the the Halloween massacre, but not the substance,
Carter was, without a doubt, the worst President in my lifetime. Looking back he looks even worse than I remember. Entirely well meaning, he reinforces and exemplifies the saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Because of Carter I am convinced that all good leaders need to have modicum of narcissism. Beware the leader who like Carter, lacks that trait. In order to handle all of his haters, Trump needs more than most good leaders- in fact it is what psychologically protects him.
I read it as kind of the opposite of Obama's "you didn't build that." It's telling people that they have agency, and that their decisions matter, and that they own a piece of this society we all live in together.
Homer Simpson was a nuclear engineer too!!
Ann,
So you were a sap for lib propaganda even then. Explains why you voted for Obama
Professora - you need one of these
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"Carter was saying: America can never be great again. Just accept it."
Repurposed as "the new normal" during the Obama administration.
I don't know if it's the same one, but I remember Carter's little chat wearing a sweater. I was in high school.
He told us to turn down our furnace, and sacrifice this and that. My parents, both democrats, blew their lid, and called him every name in the book.
Being democrats, the still voted to re-elect him over Reagan.
Libs hated Carter at the time, but got all sentimental about him years later. I realized it was a crock at the time, just a shot at Reagan.
Which was the beginning of my wising up.
Bay Area Guy said...
Carter was a Southerner, but a "nicer" version of the more famous and popular (and infamous) George Wallace (Dem Gov -- Alabama).
Because of Nixon's Watergate problems and resignation in 1974, it was kinda sorta a fait accompli that some Dem would beat Ford, and win 1976.
___________&&&&&&&&&&&==========
I have heard that Reagan broke promise to campaign for FORD to improve his own chances for later.
what is that you say about 11th Commandement?
Wild chicken: not true, I voted for him over Kennedy. He did seem strange, though.
I remember when I was in HS and i heard about the details of that crazy Iranian hostage rescues mission. That's when i stopped respecting Carter. I was just a HS kid, and i see that it was crazy, it was one of those "everything has to go like clockwork" in order to work.
My apolitical mother despised Carter. Mention Jimmy Carter and she'd go into a rant about Double digit inflation, high unemployment and double digit interest rates.
The 1980 campaign was the 1st I followed with any intelligent interest. I kept wondering why the Liberal D's were supporting Ted Kennedy - a man who left a woman to die and ran away like a coward.
I didn't really know liberals then.
Carter's engineering expertise = unclear
...but speaking of 'Stopped Bucks' -- how's ol' Ed doing in prison?
HOW IS IT?
that when we were a country with a population of 220 million; we were running out of energy?
and now that we are a country with a population of 350 million; we are EXPORTING energy?
i mean,
if we were running out in 1978; shouldn't we have LESS now?
if we were running out with 220 million people; shouldn't we need MORE now?
very confusing! It's Almost as if the energy crisis, was actually policy caused
I wonder how that compares with the CLIMATE Crisis?
</snark
The interesting thing about the disastrous Carter speech is that it was widely praised in the press right afterwards and the polls showed a Carter bump.
widely praised in the press right afterwards and the polls showed a Carter bump.
The same thing that happens today. You're just now wise to it.
I wonder if that's why people turn conservative as they grow older. You can only live through so much bullshit before you stop believing. I remember peak oil. That was a scientific fact. We were someday in the foreseeable future going to run out of oil unless, of course, we all perished first in a nuclear war. That was the other given. All arms races always ended in war. It was just a matter of time....I spent a good deal of my youth worrying about things that never came to pass.....I suppose some day there will be an extinction event, but I don't think it will be in my lifetime. It would be kind of cool if it happened the day after I died a natural death. Okay millennial, suck on that. We boomers have the truly last laugh.
That was the MEOW speech — moral equivalent of war.
William said...
I remember peak oil.
To be fair, they Were kinda right about peak oil*... Just not quite the way they meant
peak oil* https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-mexico/articles/2019-02-12/us-expects-record-domestic-oil-production-in-2019-2020
It’s your fault!
The malaise speech.
I prefer Morning in America.
And I’m liking the 2017 version too!
NOT TIRED OF WINNING!!!
Democrats are so dour and serious. Sheesh, lighten up Francis.
Reagan, Bush, Bush, Trump, happy warriors always with optimism and faith in America.
Carol,
"Then the Soviet Union fell. Sheesh, who saw that coming? "
Jerry Pournelle, and some of his associates. Heck, they didn't satisfy themselves with seeing it coming, they helped make it happen!
Somewhere in that annotated online version is a footnote or comment from Jerry, about the co-authors' estimate of the percentage of Soviet spending that went to the military. Whatever number they had come up with was so much higher than the official (read "CIA") that they were concerned would take them seriously, so they scaled the number down quite a bit, though still significantly higher then the official estimate.
Well, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it came out from USSR official records that their actual military expenditures were even higher that Pournelle et al's original, unbelievably-high estimate!
"He said he knew the petroleum was there — "It's in the ground."
My dad was also in the petroleum industry. In the 1980's he told me that when oil reached $90 a barrel and stayed there, fracking would become cost effective and the price would never go higher for a hundred years. He didn't realize that the technology would become cheaper and the ceiling price would drop.
It's a corollary to Michael Crichton's Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. The experts and engineers in any field have a much better understanding of what is true than the politicians, activists, press, and general public. They have to make things work. Technology and science details are boring, mathematical, hard to understand, and not very exciting. Hysteria plays to peoples fears, and generates support (and donations) for politicians and activists.
People also get paid better for claiming they're an expert - the best job is being an expert that doesn't have to make anything work or have any prediction come true. Great work if you can get it. I'll let you figure out the best examples of that but we just had a thread on how the IC missed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Hammond blames the voters, for abdicating freedoms and concomitant responsibilities. Government is your employee, your servant. You have neglected to supervise.
Even the Democrats in Georgia disowned Jimmy. It was strange moving there and seeing him basically being ignored at the local Dem watering hole down the street from the Carter Center. Of course some attention was paid, but there was a palpable lack of affection for the man.
He really is a egocentric twat. No people skills. Every few years he would publish another book of terrible poetry. Who does that? And the Carter Center is responsible for defending some really ugly Marxist dictatorships. So what if he swings a hammer for five minutes at a Habitat for Humanity house for the cameras? His increasingly visible Anti-American ideas and politics have caused great harm throughout the world.
Hey, Jimmy promised never to lie to us. Ok, he could get too Sunday School teacherish but
we gas gluttons needed the explaining. OPEC had jacked the price up and they were about to jack it higher. US in the next couple of years was gonna go from world's #1 creditor to #1 debtor. Off the gold standard you'd think some people worried how that'd play out in international finance. Yo. Japan, you want that in small or large bills? Saudi's overplayed their hand with the 1979 increase. Price reached a point where everybody decided the risk was worth taking in making the extra investment needed to get at some of the oil. And gas. Part of Carter's schtick is he was a Washington outsider. He was gonna bring needed change. He made a big point of pointing out he was not a Liberal. And Hunter Thompson had vouched for him. So there.
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