annoyed

[winterbadger]

A review in Foreign Affairs of David Remnick's new biography of Obama, The Bridge, refers to him as "the first Democratic presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote since Lyndon Johnson in 1964."

This is manifestly untrue. Jimmy Carter got over 50% of the popular vote in 1976. I know that no one in the world but me likes President Carter or thinks he was a good president, but in a year when no fewer than ten candidates received over 40,000 votes for president, Carter won not only the electoral vote, not only a plurality of the popular vote, but the majority of the popular vote.

Get it right, FA!

ETA: The review itself is still worth reading.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

That's such an easy thing to check too.

[winterbadger]

Now, admittedly, I thought it was way more wrong until I was reminded how many people get votes in presidential elections. Gore and Clinton both got more of the popular vote, but not a majority.

But with idiots claiming that Phoenix is the second-most kidnappy city in the world, clearly facts are, as usual, taking a back burner in American politics...

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

An egregious error. Also, I campaigned for Carter. Twice. I think he was a good president, and I'm thrilled at the richly deserved respect he's garnered as an elder statesman.

[winterbadger]

Love the icon. :-)

And I'm glad to hear of another Carter fan. It makes me sad how little he is appreciated while people like Bush(es) and Clinton are adored.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Eh, I like Clinton, too. I just didn't fall for the right-wing BS that he was liberal of the worst order. Obama either, for that matter. Nope, but pretty centrist, at least to my mind.

[winterbadger]

I think it's hysterically funny, in fact, when Republicans go on about how "socialist" and "liberal" Clinton and Obama are. Clinton as president was *forced* to be centrist and is, IMO, by nature a negotiator and persuader rather than an ideologue. I don't dislike him--like many people, I find him (almost troublingly :-) charming and compelling. But he's definitely a new-school Southern Democrat--middle of the road on most issues but with a Progressive outlook and philosophy--and more of an opportunist than a visionary.

Obama... I find it upsetting and more than a little confusing how many liberals I know who are upset at him for not being their standard bearer. Were they not *listening* during the campaign? Did they not *get* that he wants to plow a middle furrow between the politics of extremes, to try to unite the country after decades of increasingly rancorous bitterness? Of *course* the GOP leadership has refused to go along with this, but that just makes for an even greater opportunity to isolate them and their politics of hate. But only if the Democrats stop acting just like them, demanding that the president be more and more partisan. It's like both parties are devolving to Tammany Hall days: "We won, so let's rape, burn, and pillage everyone and everything that isn't part of *our* faction.

I firmly believe that people elected President Obama because they want to get AWAY from that sort of thing and find a way for both sides to work together. Democratic and Republican leaders don't seem to agree; it's just that the GOP are a little more honest and made their non-cooperation known from the outset, whereas I sense Dems thought "We'll just let the Republicans be arseheads and then point fingers at them and go about business the same way, having been inoculated by the GOP rejecting bipartisanship first."

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

It's because Obama is a Socialist, a Communist, and a Fascist, all at the same time. He is also fostering Anarchy because he wants to create a New World Order.

Didn't you get the memo?

[winterbadger]

When I hear those people use those words, I wish I had real-life animated icon I could hold up, of Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya, with the words "[image one] You keep using that word. [image two] I do not think it means what you think it means."

:-)

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Honestly, even if they got that part right, it would still be No Good™ because Obama is really a Muslin.

[winterbadger]

And not really a natural born Amurkin.

(I am a strong supporter of the Hatch amendment, but I suspect that most of the Know Nothings in the Tea Bagger movement are not.)

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

All them damn furriners is ruinin' the place!

[winterbadger]

Yep.

("ruinin' or running" ;-)