Better off now than 4 years ago? Ryan says Jimmy Carter's leadership was better than Obama's

[trailmonkee]

Source: AP

Paul Ryan delivered a scathing criticism of President Barack Obama's stewardship of the nation's economy Monday, arguing that even conservative punching bag Jimmy Carter's presidency was better as Democrats streamed to the state to nominate Obama for a second term.

"The president can say a lot of things and he will," the Republican vice presidential candidate told more than 2,000 supporters in East Carolina University's student recreation center, about 230 miles east of the Democratic National Convention site in Charlotte. "But he can't tell you that you're better off. Simply put, the Jimmy Carter years look like the good old days compared to where we are right now."

The message, comparing today's economic problems with the troubled economic conditions of the Carter administration, is part of a broader GOP strategy to ask voters whether they are better off now than they were four years ago. Polling suggests the criticism may resonate with voters who continue to like Obama personally but are frustrated with the pace of economic recovery two months before Election Day.

"Team Obama can't say the country is better off after four years," said Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer. "This will be the most effective counter-programming effort ever conducted by the GOP."

Read more: http://www.newser.com/article/da12gjio0/better-off-now-than-4-years-ago-ryan-says-jimmy-carters-leadership-was-better-than-obamas.html

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[still_one]

1. They did this at their convention also, try to put down Jimmy Carter. These are real thugs. /nt

[HereSince1628]

20. Carter is the dark rainy cloud that the light of Reagan cleared away

Or at least that's how their fairy tale goes...

no one remembers Reagan's recession and the fact that his stimulus spending was very Keynesian and his Iran-Contra activity criminal.

[still_one]

22. The tale never mentions Iran/contra or how they delayed the hostage release until after the election

[Mnpaul]

29. But in reality

Carter created more jobs per year than Reagan

Reagan fixed inflation by changing the way it was calculated(CPI was changed - home prices were replaced by home rental costs)

Reagan also lowered unemployment by changing the way it is calculated(he added soldiers stationed here in the US and undocumented workers, an estimated number, to the number of people working)

Reagan also oversaw the greatest number of bank failures - ever

[Octavemando]

32. Dems, please please honor Pres Carter to their face!

My hope is that the Dems present President Carter and honor him for his term, remind us that if we had followed his energy policy we might be energy independent now, remind us of what a fine man he has shown himself to be after his presidency.....Obama needs to embrace the greatness of Carter, not fall for the Rovian ploy....Carter is a giant in my world.

[qwlauren35]

39. Carter isn't getting mentioned, but his video was VERY good.

I've heard that he doesn't like Obama (on foreign policy), so it was very powerful to hear the ringing endorsement from a former president. Rahm Emmanuel's speech was similar. At the end of the day, the president makes complex decisions that nobody else gets to call. Carter says that Obama is the right person to make those decisions. I liked Carter (and like him now, too!) so I was pleased with what he said and how he said it.

[yardwork]

2. The Thuglicans are trying to scare older voters into supporting Romney. This is really low.

Sheesh. Is this the best they've got. Drag out the old Jimmy Carter bogeyman and kick him around some more? How shameful.

[MADem]

3. Well, Ryan lies about everything, so who cares what he has to say? Marathon Man is a huge BSer! nt

[Politicalboi]

4. If Obama is Jimmy Carter

Then Rmoney must be Raygun.

[Tom Ripley]

5. Since Ryan was 6-10 years old during the Carter administration, he must be an expert

[Iliyah]

6. Lyin'Ryan should know cause he and his fellow GOPpers

obstructed and still is obstructing everything that Pres O is trying to do to help the economy and help create jobs huh. All the Dems have to do is highlight Ryan's voting records and his effed up comments.

[madrchsod]

7. i`m sure that will not go unnoticed....

i`m not sure if carter will reply but i`m sure someone will .

[cognoscere]

8. I hope he's stupid enough to try that approach in the debate.

Joe Biden will shove that so far down Ryan's throat, it will stick out his lying ass. Four years ago, just off the top of my head: Deep recession approaching depression; DOW at 6500 something; major auto companies going down the tubes; major banks threatening to fold; bleeding jobs faster than W could lie about them. There is a long list floating around the Net of the things that O's actions improved. Joe Biden will know it by heart and will have additional facts and figures to back it up. Can't wait to see Lyin' Ryan do that pouty face thing he does after Joe kicks him squarely in the nuts.

[SoapBox]

18. And always one of my favorites...

The "off budget" war funding!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

WMDs?

[byeya]

9. My opinion, Carter was a sad sack, governed as a conservadem and was similar to Obama. Still, both

are light years ahead of the team of Romney/Ryan/Queen Victoria.

[BeyondGeography]

10. Ryan was watching Happy Days in his pajamas during the Carter presidency

and his politics have remained just as current.

[craigmatic]

11. That's true depending on what you're talking about.

I think President Carter was great when it came to recognizing leftist popularly elected governments like the Santanistas and giving fair treatment to the third world. President Obama really hasn't done any of this although he has been fairer to Cuba than just about any president since the embargo. Another thing President Carter was good at was calling for us to sacrifice which Obama hasn't done but I still like both and I'm tired of people looking down on a great man like President Carter.

[carolina blue]

12. My family is better off...

than we were 4 years ago. I was born in '71, and my wife and I have better jobs than my parents ever did. We struggled to make ends meet during the W. years. It became obvious during the Bush presidency just how poor the job situation had become, years before Obama took office. I went back to school at night and graduated spring of 2010. By April 2010, I had already found a job two months before graduation. My family has gone from scraping by to paying extra on our mortgage, contributing 10% to my 401K, and adding monthly to our personal savings.

[progressivebydesign]

13. Hi. welcome! I am better off too, as are all of my friends and family.

I think the GOP is desperate to trot out this old meme... hoping it will stick. Seems they try a new tactic every week.

When Bush finally left the White House, we had lost our home, my design business had died, my now-ex had just been laid off, and we were left with massive debt, bank fees nearly 3k in one month. This was Bush's "gift" to us as he left.

Now? Found a great rental home, the ex is now working for a company (joined right after the President took office) that has doubled their staff within the past 3 years, and can barely keep up with orders (for a product that is not essential.) I am working, have been for 3 years, plus making money in design again. Bought a new car last year, as did literally almost every single family member. Also have several friends how have purchased houses this year, after having to go through bidding wars to get them. My realtor friends work 7 days a week again, and are begging for listings as they can't keep up with the demand.

Not everyone is doing better, but a vast majority of people are. The Lyin/Lyin '12 campaign just can't seem to stick with a line of attack, and this new one stinks like the rest of them.

And again welcome!!!

[carolina blue]

19. Thank you!

I am glad things turned around for you as well.

[Deez-eyeN-4life]

35. Yes! most certainly I'm better off now. . .

Thanks to Obama's 'Making Home Affordable' initiative - I'm still in my home with a hard fought for mortgage modification. It wasn't easy, took 2 years, went through two rounds of legal foreclosure proceedings (both now dismissed without prejudice) - all thanks to the bank's inability to both play fair AND get things done in any kind of logical manner - but I finally just recently closed on a modification. It would NOT have happened without Obama. I would have lost this beloved house. There certainly would not have been any help under either Macain or Romney. Thank you President Obama! I wish I could shout it to the world! Have never posted to a blog before, this is the first step towards getting my voice out there as to why, YES, I AM BETTER OFF NOW than four years ago, as many people are, when a good life was sliding into hell, all thanks to the irresponsibility of a Republican administration. Hallelujia there was a change at the helm, who knows where we would be otherwise, I don't even want to think about it.

[Warren DeMontague]

36. Thanks for weighing in, and welcome to DU!

I agree with everything you've said.

[sofa king]

14. Said the guy who never even led...

... a pack of runners.

[NHDEMFORLIFE]

15. A steaming pile of crap

Anyone who is old enough to remember (and to have suffered) during the late 1970s and into the early 1980s will gag at Ryan's comparison. Unemployment was not quite as high (though when Raygun had been in office for a couple of years it spiked from a little over 7 percent to nearly 10 percent), but inflation was absurd, interest rates were so high the housing market all-but collapsed, and we endured our first (and worst) oil shortage.
Ryan, apparently, doesn't remember lines at gas stations going on for block after block.
Obama should insist that the country is better off than it was in the final days of the Bush presidency because it is. One need not have a long memory to understand that.

[high density]

16. So Republicans say no to everything for four years

and then complain that no progress has been made. And they'll get away with it because the media has no memory or ability to analyze anything.

[AndyTiedye]

31. Repigs Get Away With It Because the MSM is In Their Pocket

So Republicans say no to everything for four years and then complain that no progress has been made. And they'll get away with it because the media has no memory or ability to analyze anything.

It's easy when you own the news.

[SoapBox]

17. Coupon Care Ryan...Asshole.

This slimy weasel (and his thin lips) makes me vomit.

STFU.



p.s....And just keep telling your Bagger friends, that this clown has been in Congress for almost FOURTEEN freak'n years!

"Assumed office January 3, 1999" Wikipedia

What the hell has he done while there?

ZIPPO!

[cstanleytech]

21. Shouldnt Ryan be in the Guinness Book by now for most lies told within the shortest period of time?

[NYC Liberal]

23. "most effective counter-programming effort ever conducted by the GOP"

Put that in the same file as "They'll greet us as liberators" and "Mission accomplished"

[Frank Cannon]

24. Jesus Christ, these guys are reaching back to Carter now?

In three weeks, these clowns will be attacking Harry Truman for taking credit for ending World War II.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. "counter-programming effort conducted by the GOP": program all the Ryan bots. Here's a real chart:

[unblock]

26. yeah, because the stock market always doubles when the things are getting worse....

[olddad56]

27. I'm certainly better off than I was 5 years ago, and Jimmy Carter was a better president that Bush.

[DeSwiss]

28. Well, they've certainly got something in-common.....

...because both were elected to office primarily to clean up yet another Republican mess.

- And messes are the things at which Republicans most frequently excel......

K&R

[SnakebiteSnakebite74]

30. romney is better off than he was 4 years ago

the rich are better off, why are they mad?

[Odin2005]

33. I have noticed that RW Gen-Xers like Ryan are obsessed with Carter and Reagan.

It's like their whole political universe is stuck in 1980, every Democrat is Carter and every Republican is TEH AWESOME ST. RONNIE.

[oldsarge54]

34. Much as I Hate myself for saying this

What did Carter do that was actually wrong, in the long run? Encouraging energy conservation? If it took then, would we have the problems we are having now? I will grant that Carter was not good for the military, and resented the hell out of it at the time, but in retrospect, was it the President, or an entire nation taking it out on the military for "losing" Viet Nam? Amnesty for the draft evaders? Well, maybe it was time to close that chapter. I mean Ford pardoned Nixon, right? Oh, please don't call me names, I'm just asking, is it time to revisit our judgment on the man? Feel free to dialog, rap as we used to say. This is a fairly new concept myself in rethinking Carter. I could be off, I could be right. Help me out.

[Mnpaul]

37. He created more jobs per year than Reagan

Without running up a pile of debt

[Mnpaul]

38. and here is the chart that shows how Carter "gutted" the military