Mitch, I've already named Carter worst president ever. Maybe even the worst three presidents ever, worse than Nixon, Harding, and Buchanan _combined_.

Our family lived through the "Carter malaise", and I agree, the worst president ever. Remember the little TV appearance, where he told us all to wear sweaters. ? Arrrggghhhhhh

Oh, Lordy, I still feel guilty every time I'm in the house without a sweater on. That was him wasn't it? Gaaaah.

From Fox News... this is pathetic on so many levels: SPRING GREEN, Wis. — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (search) told voters in America's Dairyland on Monday that President Bush had a secret plan that would hurt milk producers after the election.

Kerry tried to convince voters in this rural community, where he is practicing for Thursday's debate, that he would look out for dairy farms here even though he hadn't always in the past.

In the 1990s, Kerry supported the Northeast Dairy Compact (search), a regional pricing program that propped up prices for Northeastern dairy farmers over objections of their Midwestern counterparts....

"We've had a difference between the Midwest and the Northeast," Kerry said. "I'm going to be very upfront with you about it.

"As a senator representing Massachusetts, I fought for the dairy compact and fought to have our dairy farmers get help," he said. "I'm running for president of the United States now and I intend to represent all the farmers of America."

There's the 'yet another of Bush's secret plans for after the election' aspect. (by my count that's now 3 secret plans Bush has -- and they say he's stupid!) There's the 'Yes, I worked to screw you in the past but I won't screw you now' aspect. No wonder he's going to get his magic hat handed to him in Wisconsin! No wonder they need to start crying about cheating 1 month ahead of time. Mitch and Hugh are right, though: It's not even going to be close.

Yes, Jimmy Carter is a menace. He is slightly less of menace than when he was president, but too many people still listen to him. We can only hope that ordinary people recognize him for what he is. He is in "Michael Moore Territory" with this latest rant.

Too many people depend on CBS, NBC, and ABC for their news, so they are fed misinformation like this. The truth still creeps into print, however. I heard a man telling his wife about the forged memos from a story in the Dallas Morning News, not a conservative news outlet. Some of this is too big a story for liberal news outlets not to give it some coverage, however biased. We are blessed with a generally conservative populace in Texas, so even typical Democratic constituencies are socially conservative.

This blog is the classic divisive rhetoric that makes me repulsed by conservatives and the Republican party. You spend so much time focusing on Liberals and Conservatives and dedicate so little time on how to FIX the major problems in our country, I find this a alarming waste of time and intellect.
Here are some proactive topics you might want to discuss;
how to make health care affordable,
how to work down the budget deficit
how to fix the mess we have in Iraq
how to stablize the economy so that human beings can reliably work
how to fix the deplorable state of our education system

Liberals may not have the answers, but at least they are trying to fix problems that affect the lives of everyday Americans rather than just attack other Americans views.

Mike B.-

This a blog not a freakin' think tank. If you don't like what Mitch is talking about, go someplace else. It's a big internet out there, and I'm sure you can find some white papers online to better utilize your precious time and intellect.

Mike B,

Bullsh8. Conservatives at large, and I in particular, have suggested ways to deal with each of those problems. We need to bring market discipline to healthcare (i support medical spending accounts), cut spending to erase the deficit (and make up the rest with increasing revenues due to a thriving economy), win the war on terror, teach people to think *ahead* of the economy so they can train themselves to be ready for changes and the normal business cycle, and privatize education.

None of these are new, to conservatism or to this blog. But, Mike, I don't suspect you've read this blog for very long, or understand conservatives very well.

But I'm happy to help.

Mike, I am a reformed liberal who got sick of the fact that liberal solutions do not work. It is not that conservatives are only those who have it great and don't mind if everyone else suffers. I have been laid off. I pay my own health care.
Make health care affordable? Step one is stop lawyers like John Edwards from bringing bogus lawsuits that drive up the costs for all of us.
Work down the budget deficit? Grow the economy through tax cuts (which contrary to what you've heard do not primarily benefit the rich).
Fix the mess in Iraq? For starters stop giving aid and comfort to the enemy who are emboldened every day by the negative messages of America's liberals (I thought liberal used to mean anti-tyranny -- I guess not any more). The insurgency would run out of gas if they knew both candidates for president were equally determined to beat them, and the average Iraqi would be less hesitant to show support for the new government if they knew the Ba'athists were gone for good.
Stabilize the economy -- what does that mean? Stop jobs from going overseas? After you're done doing that I have a dixie cup you can catch all the rain in. We lift tariffs we'll have no export market. Global forces are at work (all of them to the benefit of people in 3rd world countries liberals care about so much) that are changing the economic landscape. No matter who is president you can't count on spending the next 30 years doing the same job with a high school education and making a good living. If someone promises you differently they are lying. The point is to better prepare people for inevitable changes, not lie to them and say the changes can be stopped. The opportunities in this economy are endless -- for everyone with imagination and determination.
Fix the deplorable state of our education system -- Step one, stop the strangle hold of the ultra liberal NEA.
You are correct liberals don't have all the answers. They have precious few.
But in my experience the level of debate and commentary at this site is incredibly civil and cordial compared to what you'll find in the fever swamps of the democratic underground and the like.
We welcome your viewpoints and honest debate, welcome!

Mike B.,
Here it is, but I can guarantee you (and to be honest, a lot of people) will not like it.

1.) Health care more affordable:

Eliminate a subsidized demand and return to a full supply and demand economy in the health care field. You do that by eliminating Medicaid and Medicare. If you eliminated those two cash cows the states would be full of Doctors looking for ANY patient. Hell, they'd even make house calls. This draconian proposal would take Health Care from an "Industry" and return it to a "Service".

2.) How to work down the Budget deficit: See Number 1 above.

3. How to fix the "mess" in Iraq:
Stay the course. Things are "messy" in Iraq, but they're not a mess. There is an Iraqi government and it is functioning. There will be elections in January and there will be in excess of 250,000 Iraqi security forces by then. You need to widen your news sources to include something other than the Democratic Rhetoric. Look at some of the Iraqi websites, see what the Iraqis are saying.

4.) How to stabilize the economy so that human beings can reliably work:
I think (obviously you do not) that the economy is perking along just fine. I can't see why you would consider almost 5% annual GDP growth would be unstable. Our economy took a double hit with 9/11 and the anthrax attack. We were down for a while after but now we are rapidly recovering. As for employment, our unemployment rate is currently 5.2%, the same as it was in the Clinton Administration. What do you want?

5.) How to fix the deplorable state of our education system:
This one is simple - create competition. You do that by issuing vouchers and make school choice an issue. Those schools that are doing what they are supposed to be doing - educating our children - will be in demand, as will the successful teacher. Those that fail will go the way all businesses do that fail - they will disappear. The successful system will flourish and expand. I have a grandchild that I have put in a Montessori school and I intend to keep her there until she is 12 years old (currently 5) If I can find a secondary Montessori school for her I will put her there. I am paying for this and it is a BIG budget bite, but it is worth it to me.

I wish all of our national problems were this easy to solve. The problem is that no politician on the left or the right has the guts to propose #1.

Admittedly I have only checked in to this blog every so often, and have not perused the archive in detail, but in the thumbing through the last several months of this blog I have seen nothing but partisan rant.
One could argue that it is a presidential election and this site merely reflects the media circus, but is that the purpose of this blog? To reflect (in perhaps a less accountable manner) what's going on in mainstream media?
Mitch is clearly well read and writes very well, and I do not question his integrity. I just think that these last several months (I apologize for not digging deeper) I haven't seen a shred of real debate over issues that matter. In fact, it seems that any time there is a dissenting position people like "the elder" attempt to shout people down.
So if the intent is to preach to the conservative choir, then by all means, continue the rant, then yes I will continue living in the "big internet" and not bother with this site. If you are looking to win over moderates or convince liberals that some conservative points of view are valid, I propose opening up the lines of communication rather than shutting them down (and stop swearing, it's beneath you).
That being said, I'd love to read about what a conservative really is. What are the answers to the questions that have been posed?
Spare me no detail, I promise to read the whole thing.
School me.

Now THIS is more like it. Real communication!
Thank you RLS and Chris.

I promise to continue this discussion after the kids go to bed...

The crew on Brit Hume's Fox show put Carter's comments right where they belong...the wastebasket. Earlier this summer Carter declared Hugo Chave's victory in Venezuela fair...Castro-ite strongmen hold fairer elections then Americans?

Except for the day in April 1975 when we fled Saigon in ingnominy...Carter's presidency was the lowest point of a bad decade...

Mike,

The elder says "This a blog not a freakin' think tank."

Well. Mitch lays out his positions in these comments, and I suspect elsewhere on his blog. If you want some "freakin' think tank," go to my blog, which is http://www.policyguy.com

I work with think tanks. Lots of 'em have some pretty interesting and powerful ideas. Follow the links on the front page. Some all of the think tanks listed there are conservative / free-market, most are. And peruse the text of the site itself, which has a lot of commentary on stuff recently published by think tanks. (Short story, though: Mitch, Chris, and RLS have already offered some good ideas.)

... and by the way, mike b, most of the really innovative and interesting policy research is happening on the, um, non-Left (Cato to Heritage). The policy-guy has links.

Interestingly enough though, the Cato institute has been a very vocal critic of the bush administration's policies. In particular his running up of debt and his pre-emptive strike doctrine. That's the difference between a libertarian and a neo-conservative, a libertarian doesn't have to back a guy like Bush, they can speak about policy, stick to the issues (if not the facts) and keep personal attacks to a minimum.
But even the Cato Institute, for all it's brilliant insight (which is extremely skeptical of "foreign military adventurism"), is still driven by contributions by large corportations in an effort to redirect intellectual activity to justify what they want to do. Hence, it should be taken with a grain of salt, as ALL media outlets / intellectual hotbeds.

Mike,

Yes, Cato is a vocal critic of the Bush administration. If its view of domestic policy is "government will screw it up," it view of foreign policy is pretty much the same. Its vision for foreign policy is rather modest (and in my view, delusional). So naturally, it will part company with Bush. On fiscal policy, I don't think that Cato is upset with deficit spending as such (though I've not read their fiscal policy stuff in a while) as much as they are simply unsatisfied (rightly so) with the spendthrift ways of the Congress, and Bush's lack of restraint/active cooperation with this spending increase.

But conservatives have also had their differences with Bush, and have not been afraid to say so. The Heritage Foundation, for example, frequently panned the "give granny free meds" plan for Medicare (and rightly so.) I should also point out that Heritage also does a good job in sticking to the issues (AND the facts). Neither Heritage nor Cato emphasize the personalities of politics.

Finally, I would question the extent to which Cato (or Heritage, or any decent think tank, for that matter) is "driven by contributions by large corporations." This implies that they are merely intellectual whores. Not so. First, the link between "large corporation" and a non-leftist ideology is not so cut and dry.

"Large corporations" are not uniformly "conservative" or "libertarian." Indeed, they can profit from eating from the pork barrel (Cato) or from being part of, oh, a health care system that depends on government for half its financing. (Corporations love the new Medicare benefit--they either drop their retiree's health coverage, or continue the coverage and take government bribes to do so.)

You've also got many large corporations in which the CEOs/foundation people actively believe in "social responsibility," which usually translates into leftist policies.

Finally, some "large corporations" avoid giving money to conservative/libertarian groups because that would cause controversy among some of the constituency, and corporations are not in the business of causing or responding to controversy.

Rather than the ideas following the money, it has been my experience that money follows ideas. I have known think tank executives (personally), who have turned down money rather than tailor their publications to the wants of a would-be donor.

I've been meaning to ask the forum, how well do you think de-regulation of power went in California? How about New York? Were they successes or failures? Having worked in the public sector once or twice, I can speak first hand that government cannot successfully blow it's nose without running over budget or making a BIG mess. It can take months to come to a consensus on an issue that would be taken care of in a New York minute in the "real world" of private enterprise.
The point that I'm coming to (perhaps more slowly than I had intended) is for as pro-market as I am, I personally find it very difficult privatizing certain key areas of the economy.
some failures of deregulation (in my opinion)
- the power industry (California Enron)
- radio / TV
- the toll-ways in Illinois (sorry these were the 3 that popped into mind and I'm too lazy to look up any others right now)

So now let's take a look at what we have discussed privatizing
- Education
- Health care

Well the first issue I'd like to discuss is education.
Vouchers? Sure, so long as they don't go to religious schools or non-accredited schools.
For those who say "what do problem do you have with religious based education"? I say, do you want $15,000 a year of your tax dollars going towards my kids being sent to a Buddhist school or a Muslim school? Why would I want to send your kids to a Catholic school?
Futhermore, these vouchers look remarkably like the Southern school system, which has taken the philosophy that if you can't afford to send your kids to a good school, then you must not care much about your kids education. I don't mean this as a slam to the south, but compare the education systems (public and private) of the Northern states against those of the southern states. The south has test scores approaching a 3rd world country, whereas the north, with a very strong public education system, is what is keeping us in the #22 spot (out of 33).

Vouchers undermine universal public education and they are a cop out to finding a true solution to our public school problem.

I would love to cover this topic in greater detail, especially any concrete solutions. I was also hoping to cover the other 4 topics we had opened up earlier.

John, I wholeheartedly share your view that the Heritage foundation and the Cato institute are almost bullet-proof in their adherence to the facts and are genuine in their dissertations. But like so many other areas of research you can have a great idea, it might be right, but no one wants to fund it. I think NGO based research grants are inherently skewed. It's the notion that someone is willing to pay to prove or bring into focus something that furthers their cause. This is true at just about every level of research. It's not necessarily corrupt, nor a bad thing, it's just something to be aware of.
Part of the reason these institutes are so successful (the RAND, Cato, Hudson Institutes etc) is that they are FUNDED and are able to get their message out. I have read some amazing practical proposals for ways to exact lasting and positive change in a myriad of different arena’s of public concern, that have never seen the light of day because of funding or it gets lost in the shuffle.
Incidentally, that is just as much a criticism of the left as it is of the right, I personally have made inexpensive proposals to the government that would have saved tax payers millions just to have the left tell me literally, “it’s the tax payers money, what do we care?” and the right tell me (in so many words over the course of a year) ”that’s a great idea but we’re going to slash core services instead because that’s a quicker way to save money, thank you for your time and expertise.”
BOTH sides are failing, BOTH sides are wrong, BOTH sides make me sick. The debate needs to center around making things correct.

Mike,

It's late and I'm exhausted, but I'm going to take a few stabs here:

"some failures of deregulation (in my opinion)
- the power industry (California Enron)
- radio / TV
- the toll-ways in Illinois (sorry these were the 3 that popped into mind and I'm too lazy to look up any others right now)"

The power industry in Cali was never *really* deregulated. The demand side was more or less unhooked from the California public utilities bureacracy, but the supply side - the building of power plants - was not. The market never really applied.

Radio/TV - deregulation has been a spectacular success. There is must *more* programming, and a vastly *greater* diversity of points of editorial points of view, available now than when I started broadcasting in 1979. The only thing that's decreased is the number of owners; I don't believe it's government's job to subsidize station ownership.

"Well the first issue I'd like to discuss is education.
Vouchers? Sure, so long as they don't go to religious schools or non-accredited schools."

Why? Mike, what is the logical, legal prudential or moral reason, (beyond force of habit or (with all due respect) politically-motivated strawmen), *not* to allow vouchers to to go schools that *work*, regardless of affiliation? College students get grants and subsidized loans to attend religious affiliated schools, and have for decades. Why not elementary students? What, logically, is so much more noxious about so subsidizing elementary and secondary ed? Government money also subsidizes faith-affiliated non-profits. There is *no* constitutional reason not to allow vouchers to go to church schools. The current system, however, subsidizes a key political constituency, the Teachers' Union.

"For those who say "what do problem do you have with religious based education"? I say, do you want $15,000 a year of your tax dollars going towards my kids being sent to a Buddhist school or a Muslim school? Why would I want to send your kids to a Catholic school?"

If the schools teach your kids to read, write or think, I don't care of they're zoroastrian or atheist (whoops, we have those) or Jewish. And it doesn't matter, because your tax dollars already subsidize catholic schools.

"Futhermore, these vouchers look remarkably like the Southern school system, which has taken the philosophy that if you can't afford to send your kids to a good school, then you must not care much about your kids education. I don't mean this as a slam to the south, but compare the education systems (public and private) of the Northern states against those of the southern states. The south has test scores approaching a 3rd world country, whereas the north, with a very strong public education system, is what is keeping us in the #22 spot (out of 33)."

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. First; test scores don't measure education, they measure how well people take tests. Second: There are cultural aspects to the south that have nothing to do with education funding models that affect "test scores".

"Vouchers undermine universal public education and they are a cop out to finding a true solution to our public school problem."

Mike, that sentence makes two statements that beggar logic! First; leave aside whether "universal public education" is in and of itself desirable, Vouchers are an attempt to *save* it (assuming your goal is educating children, and not merely propping up a government owned, union staffed, academy-feeding institution), and it assumes there *is* a 'true solution" to our public school problem. What is a 'true' solution? Who decides whether a solution is "true?"

If you've read my blog - and you clearly have not - I advocate much more radical solutions than vouchers, by the way. I advocate complete privatization; I also believe the traditional "keep your butt in your seat and learn what we tell you" model of education and the educational-industrial complex (the confluence of the unions and an ossified, self-feeding educational academy) are bigger problems than however we decide to pay for it.

Here's what I've written on education:

http://www.shotinthedark.info/archives/cat_education.html

Northern states do as a whole have better test scores than southern states. That's nothing to cheer about. When it comes to education and the use of tax dollars, we should look at absolute, not relative performance.

Example: Kansas is "above average" on national test scores. Yet for math and science, roughly two-thirds of students (4th and 8th grade) fail to know what they ought to know at grade level. (See "How Good Are Public Schools in Kansas?", at http://www.flinthills.org).

We don't like to admit it, but public schools are in fact broken. We've tried putting more monehy into old structures. It's time for new structures, new incentives.

Reading your blogs on education, will be back...
So far a VERY good read...

You should start your own blog mike b. I'm sure there are millions of people who want to spend the rest of their conscious lives talking in circles about the deplorable state of public education and affordable healthcare. This thread started out trashing Jimmy Carter (The Worst President Ever) and John Kerry, the only man who could possibly rob Jimmy of that title.

"You're losing women and Hispanics in droves. Your foreign "policy" "ideas" are being debunked by events, as you are ridiculed for turning viciously on our real allies, and as France and Germany hang you out to dry."

I predict Ted Kennedy will abandon Kerry in his final moments and advise him to sink or swim.
http://www.ytedk.com/intro.htm

There are millions, including Mitch I might add, that want to produce better Americans, I am looking for solutions. It is interesting that these issues aren't important to you.