Jimmah Crack Head
Jimmy Carter on Middle East peace:
I don’t think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that’s justified, no.
Jimmy Carter on the Amerian people:
Unfortunately, after Sept. 11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism…
Jimmy Carter on Castro:
He is two years younger than I am, so he’s not beyond hope.
Jimmy Carter on Jimmy Carter:
I think there is a substantial portion of American people that completely agree with me.
Fortunately, a more substantial portion agreed with Ronald Reagan in 1980. But how did Carter get elected once?
But how did Carter get elected once?
Nixon.
Dear Mr. Green,
You need to explore in detail the photo electric effect explained by Max Planck and Albert Einstein in 1900 and 1905. Then you can reach the intellectual level that people had attained 100 years ago. Since you don’t know about the photo electric effect, you are not there yet. When and if you pick up a elementary physics book and learn about Planck’s formula which explains the photo electric effect, which is the first formula to establish the existence of the quanta of electromagnetic radiation, then you might have a chance to understand what Jimmy Carter said. And then when you read Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, based upon Max Planck’s work, you will understand Jimmy Carter’s words even better. But since you are too lazy to do any of this your opinions are worthless. You see, Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer in the US Navy. He is very familiar with Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Ernest Schrodinger, Kurt Godel, Neils Bohr and Enrico Fermi’s work. You don’t even know who these people are, what they did or what they were talking about. Jimmy Carter does. So shut up.
I’m sorry Steve. Like you, I went through a US education system which placed almost no emphasis on learning … science, math, history … or anything at all. They just graduated us whether we paid attention or didn’t.
Now here’s the payback. I paid attention in high school and I went back to the library to cover for what the teachers were too lazy to teach me. You thought that you got by in school and so you could relax, but in fact you lost and I feel sorry for you. So take the time now to play catch up. Try this. What is the third lightest element? Here’s another. What is the single source of all elements heavier than iron on Earth? Here’s another. Which force, the strong force or the weak force, is responsible for the Earth’s core not cooling after 4.5 billion years, and which two elements are primarily responsible?
You’re a smart guy, Steve Green. You say you are. Answer the questions like any ninth grader could.
“When and if you pick up a elementary physics book and learn about Planck’s formula which explains the photo electric effect, which is the first formula to establish the existence of the quanta of electromagnetic radiation, then you might have a chance to understand what Jimmy Carter said.”
Astonishing. None of Jimmy Carter’s inane pronouncements were on the subject of quantum physics. Whatever in the world would lead you to believe that quantum physics is at all relevant to an assessment of Mr. Carter’s political opinions?
If only Mr. Carter had continued with his naval career instead of drifting into such fields as politics, in which he is notoriously inept, this world would be a far better place.
I was very reassured when Carter pointed out that he’s 2 years older than Castro.
Doug, I must have determined the momentum of your argument exactly, because I have no idea where your point is.
Mike G. in Corvallis.
Mr. Carter’s understanding of quantum physics is of immediate interest because he understands the basic concepts, unlike the sitting POTUSA, who doesn’t. The presidents of Russia and Iran have a better understanding of basic science than the POTUSA.
This is not good since the POTUSA should be fully versed in the basic physical principles which underlie his country’s nuclear arsenal (ie. beta decay, the weak force). This principle has been taught in high schools since the 1960s but POTUSA seems to not understand it or evince an interest in understanding it.
As a US citizen, I find this disturbing. POTUSA should know this stuff hands down. Vladimir Putin knows it. Ahminenehad knows it. Jimmy Carter knows it. A POTUSA who does not even know how his most deadly nuclear arsenal goes “boom” is not fit to be POTUSA. The USA cannot afford this level of scientific ignorance in a Commander in Chief in 2006.
A POTUSA who does not even understand how nuclear weapons actually explode cannot be expected to effectively intervene in a Mideast conflict and make sure that US Marines are not killed and maimed for no reason in the Mideast. Before sending in the US Marines, POTUSA needs to understand and anticipate every threat the Marines may face, must support them when they need it, and must not leave them extended unable to meet their goal. Sending Marines into war means the POTUSA must be subject to or at least deeply understand Marine basic training and what that means. This POTUSA has not done that nor even faked it. Marines enlist and complete their service obligation to carry out the mission they have been charged with, without excuse. POTUSA has not fulfilled his part of the bargain to the Marines who are serving now in Iraq.
So this is about quantum physics. Marines might not know all the details of it, I don’t, but it requires a rigorous and unyielding obedience to detail, knowledge and understanding of the matter at hand. Marine recruits are not allowed to graduate unless they demonstrate this acuity under conditions you and I would find unlivable. But they do it. For that they are owed a commensurate commitment by the POTUSA. He has not delivered. He has treated Marines lives, limbs and families as if they were expendable cannon fodder. While he is cutting brush in Crawford, Marines are losing their arms and legs in Iraq and returning armless and legless to places like Saugus, Massachusetts.
Understanding quantum physics is now part of the basic knowledge that everyone should know. It as developed by Werner Heisenberg and Ernest Schrodinger in the 1920s. The basic formulas were the foundation of nuclearl weapons and nuclear energy. Every president of the USA and head of state should now understand these principles since they have been in the public domain and taught in high schools for the past 80 years. Where were you? US Marines are taught these basic principles since they may be killed by them. If US Marines can understand them then the POTUSA should be able to understand them too. Jimmy Carter does. In 2006, not understanding quantum physics and beta decay and U-235 is about as ignorant as not understanding gravity.
Doug,
ya’ll be trippin
Mr. Watts,
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over? I fail to see how a knowledge of nuclear/quantum physics has a lick of relevance to understanding mid-east politics. (Said by an engineer, non-nuclear, but I’ve had my fair share of physics over the years) One does not need to know how to build a nuclear weapon to understand the implications of having it in one’s arsenal, heck, anything beyond “it makes a big honkin’ boom, and then there’s this fallout stuff, and it’ll make a lot of people really mad at you” is largely unnecessary to understanding the implications of using a nuke. On the other hand, being able to design nuclear weapons sure doesn’t make you an expert in politics or international relations.
Can’t understand Carter without understanding Plank? Jimmeny Christmas, that’s just nuts. My head hurts now.
The answers are:
1. Lithium is the third lightest element.
2. The source of all elements heavier than iron is supernovae.
3. The weak force is responsible for the continued heat within the Earth due to the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium.
So this means that you folks have no clue of basic 11th and 12th grade high school physics. So why should your political opinions be given any credence? Why should anyone listen to the political opinions of people who cannot even comprehend basic high school science stuff?
Last chance. Name the element after uranium on Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table of the elements. Bonus points: explain its historic significance.
Since Jimmy Carter knew this answer in 1947 and you still don’t it today, tell me why you know so much more than him.
Mr. Aught Six,
Good Point. Harry Truman probably thought that as well. If the US is to remain a scientific and technological superpower, its highest in command needs to understand this stuff hands down. The basic physics of nuclear weapons are now 80 years old. This is not new science or technology. So, to answer your question, why should POTUSA understand the underlying science. Good question. Because this should now be knowledge understood by every American over the age of 18. Vladimir Putin and Ahminejehad of Iran understand it. Ahminehjehad has Ph.D. in civil engineering, for christ’s sake. The guy is smart. Book smart. The US needs at least that level of intelligence in its Congress and POTUSA. The US cannot fall behind in science or China, India, Russia or Iran are going to schmuck us. We have had a long term lead in science but we are now are losing it. Science has given us the military supremacy we have. If the US does not stay an order of magnitude ahead of other countries in science, then we are screwed. And China is hard on our ass right now. That’s my whole @#$%^ point.
Doug, he may know a lot about engineering, but he seems kinda shaky on Israel’s right to exist, and I think his presidency’s actions in Iran pose a long-term threat to this country.
And that’s just Carter. Goes double for Ahmadinejad
-a name which you’ve misspelled in three distinct ways. Google’s not just for the hard sciences anymore, Doug.
Hey kids,
so now you know more about what actually makes nuclear weapons go boom than our sitting President does. It’s actually pretty cool. i learned about it when i was 12. the basic reaction, beta decay, is still not completely understood, since it involves a neutron decaying into a proton, an electron and an anti-neutrino but nobody has yet figured out exactly what an anti-neutrino weighs. they are really hard to capture and measure.
this is very important because about 70 percent of all matter in the universe cannot be accounted for. neutrinos and anti-neutrinos are thought to maybe account for 30 percent, but they are nearly impossible to capture and weigh, so we don’t know how much they all weigh. as for the other 50 percent, nobody knows.
Duggie, you know one of the things I have learned in my 51 years is that people that have to try to impress others with their intelligence or class have neither. This appears to fit you to a tee.
To try to defend this worthless piece of peanut shell with these flimsy arguments is ludicrous. Jimmuh is in my (and many others) opinion the most worthless, inept and useless POTUS in history. He even begins to overshadow some other world leaders such as Chamberlain.
Jimmuh has one overlying mantra – we can talk all our differences through to a peaceful outcome. This is laudable and if used with adequate strength behind your “talk” can have satisfactory results however, when you come into the discussion with no intention to back up your statements with cold, hard steel and lead in the case especially with Islamofascists you will be not only wasting your time but endangering the USA to boot.
People like you who advocate from limited resources (your book learning is all I see) make me sick. Obviously you are a child – if not in age then in mentality and will likely never grow up. You should have been spanked more when you were young – perhaps you would not be such a rude, obnoxious brat who cannot put together a valid argument to save their soul. You also appear to have had everything handed to them and if you had to actually “work for anything in your life you would say “who me?”.
By the way, your arguments are all wet – just like Jimmuh’s powder.
Douglas-
I have a doctorate in computational chemistry and have studied quantum physics and quantum chemistry.
That being said, Jimmy Carter is still an idiot.
Don’t paint Israel into the “good guy” role just because you are pissed at the Arabs. They are, as far as generalizations are appropriate, a hard edged folk. One of the perceptive and best lines I heard while I was working over there came from a kibbutznik kowboy who said, “When power doesn’t work, use more power.” This delivered after he kicked the balky circa 1932 machine he was working on into a mangled tangle of crumpled metal.
At the present time there is an appearance of a neat dovetail between the US & Israeli interests. It will not always be the case.
Wow, Mr. Watts, if that is satire, it’s utterly brilliant. Poignant, subtle, and hard to tell from genuine idiocy.
On the other hand, if you’re on the other side of that thin line, may I suggest that you put down the physics books and look up non-sequitur.
Going back to the actual question asked — how did Carter get elected?
I think the answer is that Carter was a different person when he was elected President. He had a bad time in office, during a period that was bad for the nation in general, and the few attempts he made at fixing things failed. I think that his failures in office plus his embarassing defeat by Reagan, really broke him mentally.
I actually managed to feel some pity for Carter a few years ago, when I first read about the Walker spy ring. (For those who don’t know the case, John Walker ran a spy ring for twenty years that gave the USSR the keys to most of the US’s naval ciphers.) For all of Carter’s term in office, the Russians were reading many of the US’s Top Secret codes, and knew everything Carter was planning to do before he did it. So from his point of view, he was being continuously outmaneuvered by an enemy with almost magical abilities. That would depress anybody. The Walker spy ring was exposed in 1985 … and it was just about then that Carter’s attitude really changed for the worse. In hindsight the spy ring was incredibly obvious. He should have guessed long before, but he didn’t. I think the shame of that drove him very quietly nuts.
It’s worth noting that something similar happened to Gorbachev while he was trying to deal with Reagan. A supersecret naval operation in about 1986 gave Reagan a tap into Top Secret Soviet communications, and he used the information he got from it to outmaneuver Gorbachev in a couple of summit conferences. Wasn’t too long after that that Gorby started trying to Westernize the Soviet economy….
I think Doug Watts is borderline insane, a satirist who doesn’t know when to stop, or just a dirty ol’ troll. The idea that intimate knowledge of physics is necessary for the POTUS is just silly and really should go without saying.
And while Carter is most definitely a sad bitter man, I do think his Castro comments are being taken out of context. Believe me, I’m not trying to stick up for every dictator’s best friend, but if you read the interview it seemed like a value free comment. He later goes to discuss the Cuban embargo and says that if it was lifted it would bring a quicker end to communism and Castro’s regime. And he actually says that like it
I won’t address this to anyone in particular, but here’s my take on the lying Jimmy…
When he stood in front of the nation and said he understood “nuc-u-lar engineering” I knew he not only hadn’t, he couldn’t even pronounce the most important word in that field. Everything else just followed from that.
Ford lost the election because he pardoned Nixon. Carter was the cipher the Democrats ran who won by default.
The painful Carter/Tip O’Neill years were the nation’s punishment we had to pay because we missed out on impeaching Nixon. At least we got rid of Carter after four years; Tip managed to outmaneuver Reagan on domestic spending and built huge deficits. Imagine what the Bush I economy would have been like if Tip had actually lived up to the budget agreements he made?
The correct answer is that Jimmy Carter was president during America’s worst nuclear accident — Three Mile Island, and he did not prevent it, despite his nuclear background. Plus his military background did not prevent the fiasco of trying to rescue the hostages.
Guys. Please. Don’t waste your time with little Dougie. The proper response to people of his class is as follows:
“That’s very interesting. Now could you fetch me another martini? And then go back to the kitchen. The adults are trying to have a conversation here.”
Did any of you see the episode of “Friends” where Joey only had enough money to buy the “V” volume of the encyclopedia and afterwards tried to direct every conversation to Viet Nam or Vesuvius? I don’t know what made me think of that.
Jimmy Carter – the highest ranking useful idiot in American history.
Oh, something I noticed in passing while reviewing the comments: Dougie’s argument is all wet not only for its irrelevance, but because he got it wrong himself even as he was pompously castigating y’all.
How did he get it wrong? He claimed that nuclear weapon technology is based on the weak nuclear force. [buzz] Nope. Nuclear fission (which underlies the A-bomb) is a momentum interaction: a flying neutron hits and splits (fissions) a uranium, plutonium, or thorium atom. Nuclear fusion (which underlies the H-bomb) involves fusion of hydrogen to helium, which is a strong force interaction.
“How did Carter get elected once?” I’m afraid that’s my fault. I voted for him in 1976. I was worried about increased government spending and Carter had said he would institute zero-based budgeting. He got into office and didn’t ever bring up the concept again. But I’m sure Douglas Watts would say I just didn’t understand because I didn’t know the atomic number of beryllium. Is someone checking his strait jacket every now and then for structural integrity?
The fact that Schrodinger’s cat may have better physics knowledge than our sitting POTUS, that doesn’t mean I’d trust the howling feline with geo-politics.
Id rather have a John Wayne MBA in the big seat than some commie loving pseudo intellectual. At least you know where the cowboy stands.
Douglas Watts, Jimmy Carter did not know or understand the things that you say, despite his lies in the 1976 and 1980 campaigns. He is not and never was a nuclear physicist. He was a naval engineer and there is a BIG difference between the two.
Carter proved in office and in retirement that he is not an intelligent man.
Mad bikini blogger – how poetic and true. John Wayne MBA huh? Guess it is true, never considered it this way. Just thought he was on “our” side and wanted what is best for the USA and ultimately this will be what is best for most of the world…not the islamofascists or norks I fear. kimjungeel be afraid, very afraid and dinnerjacket, you better get fitted for a suit – you will need it for the dirt nap surely to come your way.
Albert Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile.
Einstein’s reply was “I don’t know. Why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in 2 min. in any standard reference book?”
Einstein taught us a big lesson. He felt it was more important to use your mind to think than to use it as a warehouse for facts.
Imagine if Einstein were President and could not answer THAT question? Obviously, Einstein is an idiot.
Rosignol, first out of the gate, had it right: Nixon elected Carter, all by his lonesome.
My take on Carter is that he’s trying to prove what a good Christian he is by turning as many cheeks to as many terrorists and dictators as he can.
How about this: Being pacifist and supine will get you killed. When all the pure, pacifist, supine people are killed and in Heaven, God can bring about Judgment Day and destroy the world (which by then will be filled only with un-Christian non-pacifists, so it’s OK).
That’s as least as plausible a theory as the one that says Bush supports Israel because of “Christian Zionists”. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’m going to spread it around, anyway. If that’s good enough for the Guardian, it’s good enough for me.
Douglas, if that’s satire, my hat is off to you. (Do you happen to know Witheld?)
If it’s not, I’d like to extend your logic and suggest that unless you can explain to me precisely how cytochrome P450 works, you should cease wasting valuable oxygen.
Sorry to sidetrack us into inorganc chemistry, but as mike in ftw nicely points out, we all like to direct the conversation to what we know.
(Randy Rager: “Don’t waste your time….” I know, I know. It’s like wiggling a loose tooth; you know you shouldn’t but it’s so damn hard to resist.)
Cater was a miserable mistake as a President and as an Ex-President he is a traitor with his many comments and mouthing off about America.
Bridgekeeper: Stop. What… is your name?
Galahad: Sir Galahad of Camelot.
Bridgekeeper: What… is your quest?
Galahad: I seek the Grail.
Bridgekeeper: What… is your favourite colour?
Galahad: Blue. No, yel…
[he is also thrown over the edge]
Galahad: auuuuuuuugh.
Bridgekeeper: Hee hee heh. Stop. What… is your name?
King Arthur: It is ‘Arthur’, King of the Britons.
Bridgekeeper: What… is your quest?
King Arthur: To seek the Holy Grail.
Bridgekeeper: What… is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
King Arthur: What do you mean? An African or European swallow?
Bridgekeeper: Huh? I… I don’t know that.
[he is thrown over]
Bridgekeeper: Auuuuuuuugh.
Sir Bedevere: How do know so much about swallows?
King Arthur: Well, you have to know these things when you’re a king, you know.
As a trial lawyer, I learned many years ago that any engineer other than a railroad type would insure an absurb, bizarre outcome to any case. I haven’t kept an engineer on a jury for 25 years and will never do so again. My apologies to those engineers on this thread who sound rational, unlike Dougie. Hey Dougie, all knowing physicist, please tell us how long it took a flaming 185 pound WTC worker to fall 86 floors onto the street with the weather conditions as they were on 9/11/01?
Russ Goble- are you agreeing with Doug?
Reagan didn’t know diddly about physics, except that nuclear bombs scare the hell out of Russians, and they go boom. Good thing to threaten your enemy with. If he was a scientist trying tho build the thing, then I’d have been a little wary, but…
Bush isn’t trying to build one, or for that matter threatening to aim one. I think he should, but that’s besides the point.
Carter is a blithering traitor. He should be locked up in Git’mo with the rest of the Islamofascists, or shipped permanently to Cuba. Damn Ford for not being a stronger candidate in 76.
I also blame Saturday Night Live for the election of Carter. They lampooned Ford so badly that his image was wrecked. That and Betty’s problem with the bottle.
Nobody had been lampooned like that on national TV before. He didn’t know how to deal.
No Bikini, if you read my previous post you’d have seen that. I’m just of the opinion that any chance at quoting Holy Grail should be taken advantage of and you have to admit, the quote is quite funny and apt.
Actually, Doug really reminds me of the Simpsons episode where LIsa and all the intellectuals take over from the mayor and promptly turn into disasters as leaders. That’s probably the appropriate counter to our dear troll Doug.
Watts proclaimeth:
So this means that you folks have no clue of basic 11th and 12th grade high school physics.
…or we didn’t want to play your pompous little game.
HTH. HAND.
If peanut had boomed Khomeini in 79 we wouldn’t be here today.
–Since Jimmy Carter knew this answer in 1947 and you still don’t it today, tell me why you know so much more than him. –
Because history’s proven him wrong on more than 1 occasion????
–The correct answer is that Jimmy Carter was president during America’s worst nuclear accident — Three Mile Island,–
Later known as The Pepsi Syndrome on SNL.
Ackroyd as Peanut.
Patrick: ding ding ding. You win!
Russ: the quote was perfect.
I like Einstein’s philosophy on stuff like this. I don’t know the answers, but I know where to find them, quickly. Much better way to go.
As for Carter: what a catastrophe he was and remains.
Russ- I agree that any chance to quote Python should immediately be seized upon.
And now for something completely different…
Blame me. I voted for him. I was young and I believed all the crap that my teachers were feeding me about Vietnam.
I was very pissed about how he handled Iran.
I’m not positive about this, but I believe that Ford was making up serious points in polls right up to the election and had the election been held a week or two later, he probably would have won. I knew, as soon as I saw the Carter family hauling their empty suitcases as they walked to the whitehouse, that we were in for a long 4 years. The man was, is and always will be an idiot.
Probably either the worst or the second worst President post-WWII – undoubtedly the worst ex-President this nation has ever had.
Doug needs a date..
Doug needs a woman – and not mother thumb and her 4 daughters…..I am soooooo bad.
Many Democrats suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome, but Carter goes farther back — he’s in the final stages of Reagan Deragement Syndrome, in which the success that Reagan enjoyed after his 1980 victory over Carter pretty much turned Jimmy into an embittered ex-pres who will jump at any chance to remain in the limelight, no matter how much it adversely affects his own country. And don’t forget, the Clinton people were pretty angry about Carter’s freelancing in 1994 involving Kim Il Sung and the first big North Korean nucelar crsis, but bit their tounges and let him go on with his inept negotiating in order not to cause a rift within the party by outwardly rebuffing the last previous Democratic president.
In hindsight, the world would have been a better place if Clinton had told North Korea that Jimmy represented only himself, not the United States. Bill would have had an angry peanut farmer railing against him for the final six years of his term, but by now, most people think anything Jimmy does that does not involving banging a nail with a hammer for Habitat for Humanity to be a total waste of time.
Genius, I say.
That none of what Doug discussed even touches on quantum physics: pure genius. Even if it relief on quantum physics: so does my computer. I think there are plenty of blemishes on President Bush that can be pointed at that are more relevant than this “he doesn’t understand quantum physics” nonsense.
So, I’m guessing either a really stupid troll, or a brilliantly satiric troll.
Mr. Watts has deftly demonstrated why scientists & engineers (like Carter) should stay in their cubicles, and why the MBAs run the business. No doubt why Carter resorted to personally scheduling the White House tennis courts…something he could handle.
On the “Python Holy Grail” vein…
Don’t forget that Jimmy was attacked by a killer rabbit…
Not being around at the time Jimmy was elected, from hindsight, he was a decent governor of Georgia who reformed state government – where he actually DID introduce zero-based budgeting, got projects on the ground (i.e. he helped Georgia DOT put projects in the ground) and seemed to manage to keep the state despite the tensions between Atlanta and the rest of Georgia. So, I suspect his record of being a decent governor had at least something to do with him getting elected.
Hey, I like Carter. Brilliant man. Great character.
But he was still a shitty President.
Largely because he was entirely unqualified to lead a nation, which has SQUAT to do with physics and engineering and church youth group activities.
Douglas’ argument fits the mold of the classic chickenhawk argument… If you’ve never been a bomb, how can you use a bomb? If you’ve never been a POTUS, how can you criticize one? If you’ve never been a turd, how can you make one? Or something like that.
I’m not sure which day will bring more joy? The day Castro dies or the day Carter kicks the bucket.
no threats here. I just hope that death comes to these horrible men sometime in my lifetime.
“I’m not sure which day will bring more joy? The day Castro dies or the day Carter kicks the bucket.”
Are you kidding? I dread the day St. Jimmah sheds this mortal coil. All of the media commentators who had to grit their teeth and say nice things at Reagan’s funeral will have their revenge. The accolades for The Greatest, Most Moral, and Most Intelligent President of the Twentieth Century will go on for months. Yecch …
I’m not sure which day will bring more joy? The day Castro dies or the day Carter kicks the bucket.
Jimmy’s death will bring me no joy, only relief that it’s finally over.
Mike G – I see your point.
However- Carter may be loved by the media, but Reagan is loved by the people. You can’t fake that. Although, I’m sure the MSM will try.
Anyhow, I’ll still be a little lighter on my feet that day, and whistling a happy tune…
This exchange reminds me of the old Texas Rancher and the Nuclear Scientist riding west on a train to New Mexico in the early 40′s. After questioning the scientist about various animal droppings they saw on the plains and being unable to identify any of them the old rancher says ” You tell me you are going to build nuclear bomb and you don’t know shit.” I think we can all agree no matter what level of knowlege any of us have regarding nuclear physics Jimmy Carter doesn’t know shit.
Carter was elected because Ford pardoned Nixon. Ticked people off. Since Carter was an unknown and had a military background, he seemed like a better choice (especially given how folks couldn’t think of Ford without remembering all those Chevy Chase routines portraying him as a klutz). I voted for Carter but that was back when I drank the Democratic kool-aide and voted for anyone they told me to vote for. Took awhile for me to catch on that Democrats were always smart and wonderful (no matter what they did) and Republicans were always both evil and stupid.
Don’t blame me. I remember that my fifth grade class voted for Ford.
1) Expertise in physics is is not transferrable to other fields c.f.
a)William Shockley on race
b)Linus Pauling on nutrition
In fact, expertise is not transferrable in general which means that accomplished people can make real asses out of themselves when making pronouncements outside their area of expertise c.f. Dr. Howard Dean.
2) If Bush is a bad President because he doesn’t understand physics then where does that leave Bill Clinton?
I think Doug is writing brilliant satire because in 1976 I had people make the argument to me that “I’d rather vote for a nuclear engineer than a football player.” BTW, Jimmy never actually made it onto a nuclear sub as they had not been launched by the time he left the service. As an engineer, I can tell you that the qualities necessary to be a good engineer are rarely the qualities required to be a good leader of people. Jimmy was reported to be quite a micromanager which is exactly the trait that drives subordinates of engineers crazy.