John Warner: Jimmy Carter Was Right

[bananas]

Source: NPR Science Friday

John Warner: Jimmy Carter Was Right
posted by Ira Flatow on Friday, August 1. 2008

It took 30 years, but Jimmy Carter finally has gotten recognition for the wisdom of his energy policies. Speaking on Science Friday, Senator John Warner, a Republican from Virginia who first entered the Senate during Carter's term in office, said that Jimmy Carter "was right" when he called for a massive program of energy conservation and alternative energy research.

Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat from New Mexico, agreed. As chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, one would expect a fellow democrat to back the former President. But I must admit I was a bit surprised to hear Warner readily agree. Jimmy Carter has a tough time being called "right" about anything in his administration, let alone from Republicans. Warner has recently discovered the threat posed by global warming through his discussions with Pentagon brass who are concerned about the submerging of Naval ports around the world as the oceans rise. Though he is late to the ball, Warner readily admitted the country was asleep at the switch for the last three decades.

However, concern for global warming is universal on Capitol Hill this week or even bi-partisan enough to extend the tax credits for the development of alternative energy sources like solar and wind. Bingaman, a champion of the credits, complained that huge alternative energy projects on the drawing boards will reamain there, if the credits are not restored. Once again, for the up-teenth time, not enough Senators voted for extension of the credits.

Read more: http://www.sciencefriday.com/blog/index.php?archives/323-John-Warner-Jimmy-Carter-Was-Right.html

---

I heard this with my own ears.
Audio archive will be at http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200808011

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Better late than never..but I sure hope it is not too late....

[rucognizant]

50. THANKS Warner!

You have been making decisions that affect MY life for 30 years, in utter ignorance?
What a legacy!

[ixion]

2. Carter was a great president and is a great humanitarian and visionary

just my two cents.

[ngant17]

6. JC was one of the greatest presidents in US history

When Pres. Carter was in office, it was actually legal for US citizens to travel to Cuba.

I bet a President Obama couldn't even touch that one! And not a Dem in office since JFK, none has ever been so bold.

Can you think of any wars which happened on his watch? I can't.

American celebrated its bicentennial during his term, and it was one of the most peaceful times in our usually bellicose history.

No other president can even begin to think of having peace in our time.
Not even Obama. And McSame, yukk!!

[karynnj]

12. His treatment by the Democrats was appalling

He was not invited to speak at Mondale's, Dukakis', either of Clinton's or Gore's conventions. Kerry did give him and Gore, who had not yet published his book or movie, speeches - and they were both very good.

[dmr]

48. and through it all, he remains a man of grace and humility

I wrote him about 3 years ago. I can't tell you how honored I felt when he wrote back. For some reason, I want to also add that it was written on such beautiful stationary.

:)

[tblue37]

66. He has always been one of my heroes. n/t

[pleberio]

70. Carter has spoken at Dem conventions

Sorry karynnj, but I know that President Carter did speak at the 1984 (Mondale) and 1988 (Dukakis) conventions, and of course at the 2004 (Kerry) convention. I'd have to double-check, but I believe he was invited to the Clinton conventions, but for some reason or another, Pres. Carter declined.

[NCDem60]

18. Travel to Cuba was not

legal during the Carter administration. Hasn't been since 1959.

[Cooley Hurd]

51. Not true...

The restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba lapsed on March 19, 1977; the regulation was renewable every six months, but President Jimmy Carter did not renew it and the regulation on spending U.S. dollars in Cuba was lifted shortly afterwards. President Ronald Reagan reinstated the trade embargo on April 19, 1982.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba

[rpannier]

56. Define what you mean by greatest presidents

Great person on some levels -- yes.

Great President -- I disagree. What were his accomplishments as President that makes him one of the greatest. Having great ideas and not getting them enacted, for whatever reason, IMO does not make one a great President.

Please provide what he accomplished while he was President that made him one of the greatest.

on edit: He was elected in November 1976 and took office in January 1977. The Bicentennial celebration took place in 1976 did it not?

[RaleighNCDUer]

59. He started the dismantling of the American empire -

he relinquished control of Panama; he brokered a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt; he put human rights front and center in international relations where it has remained (though more often in the breach than the observence) ever since.

He may not have been one of the must successful presidents, but he certainly ranks among the greatest.

[burythehatchet]

61. Any president who attempts to dismantle the CIA black ops is Great, though I

certainly agree that "great" is a subjective term open to individual interpretation and judgment.

[speedoo]

3. Did Warner mention what that great rethug, Reagan, did when he moved into the WH?

How, the great Ronnie removed solar panels from the WH roof, that Carter had installed?

[kath]

41. yes, that was one of the VERY first things that Ronnie Rayguns did.

Asshole. In so many ways.

[knixphan]

43. Nobody seems to talk about that...

[eleny]

4. It's about time they stopped crapping on his policies

[DavidDvorkin]

5. And Reagan was wrong

About everything. He was a smiling pile of shit.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. They'll never admit that.

Sadly.

[DavidDvorkin]

28. No, he's Saint Ronny

Who saved the world and America and deserves a place on Mount Rushmore. Ugh.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

31. Remember when the anti-France whoopers were talking about

replacing the Statue of Liberty with a giant Ray-gun statue? :rofl:

[DavidDvorkin]

36. Oh, God!

We did end up with his name plastered all over the country.

I'd like to see some future Democratic president undo that Republican nastiness. Not just the Reagan names; start with renaming Camp David to Shangri-La.

[jwirr]

68. They fail to see the connection between raygun's policies and *ss. nt

[xxqqqzme]

62. I think you do piles of shit a disservice.

[ohio2007]

7. We lost "The moral equivalency of war"

we are addicted to foreign oil more then ever.

[RaleighNCDUer]

60. Yet another defeat in the Republicans' column. nt

[nomorewhopper]

8. this thread was the top link on reddit

kinda cool. it was the top link on reddit about 15 minutes ago.

[bananas]

13. Wow - thanks!

Found it - it's at #313 now.
Some funny comments:

http://www.reddit.com/comments/6ujg5/john_warner_jimmy_carter_was_right/

John Warner: Jimmy Carter Was Right (democraticunderground.com)
submitted 1 hour ago by wang-banger to politics
4 comments

MyaloMark: Jimmy Carter's presidency may have been a disaster in many areas, but I still hold that he was the last honest man to take the position.

wang-banger: Ronald Regan was honest in a Lil Abner kind of way. He just forgot the bad stuff.

qwho: I think you mean "Alzheimered"

wang-banger: Lil Alzheimered.

[TommyO]

9. How interesting that global warming isn't real

until it becomes a threat to military interests.

[awoke_in_2003]

49. makes one sick, doesn't it? nt

[bemildred]

10. The alternative to Jimmy Carter is "RoadWarrior".

Is is nice to see any of these fuckwits show signs of engagement with reality, however shallow.

[jaybeat]

20. Yeah. I can't wait for the fun to start... (not)

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. It will take another 30 years to get this point through to the Republicans.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

14. President Carter was right about a lot of things during his...

...administration, and continues to be right about a lot of things today -- case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xscq2nIKLHM

[baldguy]

26. Yep

[fascisthunter]

15. Carter was a Visionary

[Kaleko]

16. Of course, Carter was right then, and he still is now.

But who is going to listen to him?






Just a bunch of bright beings on Du, huh? :grouphug:

[defendandprotect]

17. And you would have had to be a really confused individual . . .

NOT to have recognized that at the time ---

confused or corrupt --- !!!

[jaybeat]

19. Lots of people agree (belatedly). Too bad we're 30 years on...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x374173

[DirtyDawg]

21. What gets me...

...is that even when these guys, like the media, are reporting that Carter had indeed been right about something during his term, they can't bring themselves to give him credit for it. Just this week, on one of the lame-ass cable news networks - not Faux cause I removed it from my channel selection list - they were talking about Jimmy's call for an energy plan and that 'if he had been able to SELL us on it' we would be so much better off now. So it was, according to this dingbat, Jimmy's fault that he couldn't get the plan in. What he should have said was that 'if the Reagan/Bush campaign hadn't bribed the Iranians into not releasing the hostages, thus denying Carter any chance of winning in 1980, then a second-term Carter Presidency just might have been able to make this a reality.

[me b zola]

22. Does anyone have a link to Carter's energy policy?

There was a terrific thread about a year ago which linked to Carter's energy policy, but I can't find it.

When Carter is bashed, usually by republicans, I'm never sure what I feel more strongly--anger or sadness.

[cosmicdot]

32. here's a link to a speech he gave re energy policy

Primary Sources: The President's Proposed Energy Policy

Jimmy Carter delivered this televised speech on April 18, 1977.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_energy.html

[NBachers]

33. Carter's Energy Speech

Here's a link to the televised speech Carter gave to kick off his energy plan, and acquaint America with what we had to do. It was a special "The President will address the nation tonight" kind of thing. I remember watching it in a house I was renting in Miami. I loved the speech - I felt like, at last, someone's saying what needs to be said, and leading us to where we need to go.

How tragic the fascist republican shit scum shit pieces of shit jesus christ I'm blind with fucking hate.

Let's start over: How tragic the fascist republican shit scum neanderthal assholes destroyed Carter and his plan for us. We would never have seen this crisis.

There was a while, where I needed to stop paying attention to our nation's republican atrocities. I couldn't handle walking around ready to explode with outrage every second. I gotta get off here now before I start advocating things that will get me in trouble.

Anyway, here's the link to Carter's speech. Read it and weep . . . for what could have been . . .

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_energy.html

[iconicgnom]

23. uh. 30 years too late. Talk about on the ball. The assholes.

[DianaForRussFeingold]

25. Finally...Truth... Obama should run with this...

:patriot: Jimmy Carter really was the greatest president in my lifetime...
Time for Obama's campaign to look to the past to gain insight for the future.

30 years ago a President installed Solar Panels on the Whitehouse-a great visionary,
who foresaw the seriousness of the energy crisis.
Electric with Wind, Wave, Geo-Thermal and Solar.
Just think how far this technology would have progressed by now.

Obviously the Energy Crisis could have been solved by now.

It's time to be patriotic about ending the energy crisis.
President Carter set a good example.... :patriot:

:dem: I hope Obama's legacy will be ending our dependency on foreign oil...
as well as an end... to the wars that incurred--due to that dependency... :kick:


"Blast From the Past: A look back at the EV1"
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=bpYdHUxdMTI
What really happened to Electric Streetcars?
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wFhsrbtQObI

[DailyGrind51]

27. I heard Bob Brinker of "Money Talks" admit the same thing about 2 years ago.

We need a president with the visions of Jimmy Carter and the leadership of FDR to reverse course on energy and the environment.

[FREEWILL56]

38. You got that right for the one we got forced on us for the last 7 years

would rather fight than switch. I'm giving away my age on that comment as it was a takeoff on the old cigarette commercials for lucky strike, but applied to somebody that rather than change his ways he went to war to get more of the same by force which has backfired, though he'll never admit it as he thinks he does no wrong. Carter predicted going to war because of energy, but not quite how he envisioned it coming about.
I too heard Jimmy Carter back then and although my interests in politics were low, he did strike an area of interest in me for solar power. If you think it's expensive now, back then it was astronomically high. If Carter's plans would've pushed through the price would certainly be cheaper now for solar than it is and many things would've turned out differently than they did, like for instance the California rolling blackouts that occured years back with other energy companies gouging and taking advantage while stressing our grid system. Ok, I concede the greed would still be there, but think how it would've turned out and changed many aspects of our recent history and the future that has yet to come.

[timtom]

52. Hate to be a cigarette nazi, but

it was Tareytons, not Luckies.

Sorry.

B-)

[DailyGrind51]

53. My cousin has solar panels on the roof of his apartment building

and, during the sunny summer months, the wheel on his electric meter turns in the opposite direction. Although he has six occupied units and I only have mine, last month, his electric bill was lower than mine, and I didn't even use air conditioning! If he gets an electric "plug-in for recharge" car", he give the finger to "Big Oil" too!

[DemoTex]

29. My old friend, Jimmuh! I campaigned for him in Viet Nam in 1970 (for GaGov)!

As much as I could, among my fellow Georgians.

[valerief]

30. Well, at least we can take comfort in knowing Sen. Warner lived

very well the last thirty-plus years off his oil investments.

[bvar22]

34. Jimmy Carter was also the first President....

...to be effectively Swiftboated by Corporate interests.
Downhill since then.

[EFerrari]

45. That's very true. And he still carries the taint today

despite the fact that we know so much better how that works.

[Bob Dobbs]

58. Carter was sabotaged by the CIA (daddy bush)

The embassy in Tehran could have easily been evacuated earlier but the workers were left there until they were taken hostage to destroy the Carter administration. busholini sr made the deal with the Iranians to hold the hostages until after raygunz inauguration.

Treason.

[DailyGrind51]

67. It was none other than Oliver North who planned that bungled helicopter rescue mission

which really made the Carter administration look incompetent. So, "Ollie" gets a job with the Reagan administration, because he set Carter up.

[DeepModem Mom]

35. K&R

[man4allcats]

37. Jimmy Carter didn't get enough credit.

People should at least LISTEN to scientists.

[Frisbee]

39. K-n-R baby, K-n-R! n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

40. Sorry, but "Jimmy Carter was right" isn't good enough for me...

Of course he was right. At this stage of the game that concession is ridiculous.

What I want to hear from the thugs is an admission of the fact that their entire party policy is and has always been based on a dangerously myopic perception of the world. Then I want to hear the dems who've stood on the sidelines admit that their condescension is and always has been equally destructive.

But it'll never happen. All these assholes can think about is the next election.

[digidigido]

42. Jimmy Was right, and Al Gore would have taken up the same course

The Supremes, and the fascists that took control of the country may have destroyed it.
Can you imagine the political will for an energy policy that fought global warming and
weaned the country off of it's dependence on foreign oil after 9/11? And to think we
would be seven years down that road. Bush's energy policy after 9/11 a tax deduction
to businesses that buy cars over 5,000 lbs. Stupid is as Stupid does.

[FogerRox]

44. Fuckin yeah he was right, "Moral eqiuvalent of WAR". How ironic

[othermeans]

46. What about our governor in California? Governor Brown was blasted for his energy policies.

They called him Governor Moonbeam. True Democrats are always ahead of the curve. Impeach Bush

[Wetzelbill]

47. You see what Carter did at Camp David, plus a few other ideas of his

And you can understand that he was far, far ahead of the curve on this stuff than everyone else. Jimmy Carter was a president in a tough time, he had his flaws but now it's more than obvious that he did a solid job. How do you think Bush would have handle the Iran hostage situation? Do you think Bush or McCain would have gotten them back safely, or even kept working on the problem after losing an election? I doubt it. We know how Reagan dealt with a similar issue, he was oblivious and allowed Ollie North to sell arms to terrorists in a crackpot deal that was a national embarrassment.

People now are still trying to work on problems that he had ideas to solve decades ago. We're in worse positions now in the Middle East and with energy policy than we were when Carter realized we needed to heavily invest in solutions to these problems. If we had 28 years of intense fair diplomacy in the Arabic-Isreali conflict, and 28 years of viable policy focus on energy issues like Jimmy Carter was pursuing, we wouldn't have almost all of the problems we are facing today. With regards to those issues, I mean. Jimmy was, and remains, light years ahead of the curve.

About the only people I can think of that have Jimmy's foresight on energy and global warming issues, are Al Gore and, maybe, Brian Schweitzer. On the Arabic-Israeli conflict, Carter remains the standard for diplomacy. Nobody has done what he did at Camp David since.

[4dsc]

54. Because we are NOW 30 behind the 8 ball

Because this nation wasted the last 30 years, the mitigation to another fuel source after the oil become scarce is going to be that much harder..

[Turner Ashby]

55. Jimmy Carter reduced the nation's dependence on

foreign energy by 1/6th. That number is never put out there. For a host of reasons, corporate and for other reasons as to why we have to "dominate" the Middle East, such as client states that run American foreign policy, Jimmy Carter was dangerous. He had to go, and this could not be acknowledged.

[BrklynLiberal]

63. Where would we be if Carter's policies had been followed??

In the late 1970's, President Jimmy Carter implemented CAFE standards to combat an oil shortage driven by policies of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The standards raised fuel efficiency in American cars by 7.6 miles a gallon over six years, causing oil imports from the Persian Gulf to fall by 87 percent. Our economy grew by 27 percent during that period. Detroit, predictably, figured out how to build more fuel-efficient cars largely without reductions in size, comfort or power.

The CAFE standards worked so well that they produced an oil glut by 1986. That's when the Reagan administration intervened to rescue America's domestic oil industry from gasoline price collapse. Ronald Reagan's rollback of CAFE standards caused America, in that year, to double oil imports from the Persian Gulf nations and to burn more oil than is in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

According to a recent report by Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, if the United States had continued to conserve oil at the rate it did in the period from 1976 to 1985, it would no longer have needed Persian Gulf oil after 1985. Had we continued this wise course, we might not have had to fight the Persian Gulf war, and we would have insulated ourselves from price shocks in the international oil market. Fuel efficiency is a sound national energy policy, economic policy and foreign policy all wrapped into one. Every increase of one mile per gallon in auto fuel efficiency yields more oil than is in two Arctic National Wildlife Refuges. An improvement right now of 2.7 miles per gallon would eliminate our need for all Persian Gulf oil!

Yet the Republican Congress in 1995 made it illegal for the Environmental Protection Agency even to study higher CAFE standards. The result is that America now has the worst energy efficiency in 20 years.

more info and links at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6574396&mesg_id=6574700

[wurzel]

57. Republicans win because they know most Americans are children.

I want. I want. I want. Now! Now! Now! WHAAAAAAA. And they just keep handing out the poisoned candy. The fact is most Americans hate adults.

[BrklynLiberal]

64. K & R

[bananas]

65. There's a transcript at Federal News Service

It requires a subscription, without a subscription it gives this teaser:

MR. FLATOW: Senator Warner, was Jimmy Carter right 30 years ago when he tried to talk us into this conservation, setting up alternative energy funding and get us going back then?

SEN. WARNER: Yes, I was privileged to know him quite well. He was a naval officer as he started life, and at one time I was secretary of the Navy and we developed a friendship between the two of us. ...

http://www.fednews.com/transcript.htm?id=20080802t1965

[Cha]

69. YES~! but to have John Warner

say so it absolutely incredible. I guess he's not one of these dyed in the wool dead enders.