■H
opinion
Champie says
Carter cheating by not defending his failures
By Dan Champie
Of The Print
President Carter is cheating
the American people by not
coming out of the White House
and defending his domestic
and foreign policy failures in a
debate with other Democratic
presidential candidates.
Carter says his reason for this
is that he cannot devote time to
partisan
political
activity
because he is handling delicate
international situations in Iran
and Afghanistan.
I think it’s time we all took a
step back and looked at the
current world situation,and
compared it to past situations
when presidential candidates
engaged in debates? Is the
current, so-called “World
Crisis” worse than when the
Germans and Hitler were
rolling over countries with their
Blitzkrieg, or when he had
people fighting in Vietnam (at
the time of the Kennedy-Nixon
debate)? If you think so, you’re
just as hysterical as Carter.
Carter did not have the
foresight to see that when he let
the Shah enter the U.S., the
militants in Iran would take
some sort of action against our
people over there. When they
did, Carter and his ad
ministration went into sheer
hysteria.
He also lacked the foresight
to see that, when the old
Marxist regime in Afghanistan
was having problems, the
Russians would go in and
replace it with a new Marxist
regime. When they did, he and
his adminsitration were so
caught off guard that they reac
ted by trying to restart the draft.
Mention of the draft, by the
way, was the only time in Car
ter’s State of the Union Ad
dress in which he mentioned
the American people at home.
Some “State of the Union” ad
dress.
With the election of a
moderate president in Iran,
and with him getting support
from the Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini against the miliants
who are holding the U.S. Em
bassy hostage, and with the
Russians more than likely to
carry out their plans in
Afghanistan, and with a
Russian troop withdrawl likely
in the next three or four weeks,
it’s time for Carter to come out
and face the music. It will not
be “Hail to the Chief” when he
has to defend his domestic and
foreign policy failures.
Let’s take a look at a few of
his biggest failures.
Inflation and the Economy
We have lived through four
years of an unmanaged
economy. When Carter took
office, he promised economic
growth and stable prices. In
stead, he has delivered a
threefold increase in the in
flation rate, and a no-growth
economy. The dollar has
declined drastically against
world currencies. The world
has lost faith in the dollar under
his presidency.
Carter has handed the con
trol of the economy over to his
appointed Federal Reserve
Chairman G. William Miller,
who moved interest rates to
MAINTAINING THIS
CRISIS IN IRAN HAS
CERTAINLY HELPED
YOU IN THE POLLS?
their highest level since the
Civil War, threatening a severe
recession that will throw
millions more people out of
work, while continuing to
punish
retired
persons,
homeowners, working women,
small businesspersons, young
families, students and farmers.
Carter has also attempted to
shift the responsibilities for the
faltering economy from gover
nment mismanagement to the
American people, and has
blamed the people for failing to
solve the problem on their
own.
Energy
Carter’s record shows:
Decontrol of oil and natural
gas prices, prior to passage of a
WAIT'TIL M3U
SEE HOW I'M GOING
TO WIN THE
ELECTION/
windfall profits tax, has fueled security benefits for funeral
inflation and victimized con disability and education ol
dependents.
sumers;
Heath Care Costs
—A Department of Energy that
While running for preside
has
been
hopelessly
disorganized and has frequen Carter pledged to suppd 1
tly bowed to oil companies' in comprehensive national heal
insurance. After his electiol
terests;
—A low priority on domestic Carter delayed the introduce
coal development so that we of any national health insura
imported twice as much foreign ce legislation for three yel
and finally offered just a]
coal in 1979 as we did in 1977;
—Continued promotion of piecemeal approach, with
nuclear power, while the severe limitations on benefits
critical issue of safety remains and no cost controls.
With this extraordinarily
unresolved.
poor record, it is no wonder
Social Security
During his 1976 campaign, that Carter prefers to hides in j
Carter pledged support for the White House, instead ou
coming out and debating with'
America’s social security
system. Yet, after he was elec the other Democratic cari
didates.
ted, he sought to cut social
feedback_______________ -
Take a look at our good relation, China
To The Editor:
4,
It has not been my policy to
get involved with “politics.” In
all my wide-eyed experience
with life, politics has always
struck me much the same way
as getting too close to a hot
burner. In the back of my head
I always heard a little voice
saying, “No, no, Joey. HOT.”
So I have always kept my
fingers away and my ears
open. But with all the
allegations, threats, and huffing
and puffing about what is or
what is not “ours,” we’re
missing a very important
corollation in this mess and I
just want to point it out.
With the Soviet troops in
Page 2
Afghanistan, the Olympic
boycott, and the trouble in Iran
headlining the daily news, no
one pays much attention to the
stories of steadily improving
trade relations with China. Af
ter all, this is a good thing,
right? Oregon itself stands to
make a considerable amount of
money as a major port in the
exporting and importing of
goods to China. “Wonderful,”
you say. “So what?”
So this. As our relations with
the Soviet Union steadily
decline, our relations with
China steadily improve. And
any high school history student
can tell you that the Soviet
Union and China have been
snarling enemies for centuries.
So where does this put the
U.S. Avay? Right in the mid
dle, sweety. Let’s face it—all
the hubbub with the little coun
tries (including our swaggering
little buddies in Iran) is small
peanuts. The REAL power (s,
and always has been, in the
hands of the Soviets, the
Chinese and (perhaps a little
overwhelmingly) the U.S.
And now the pendulum
swings the other way. We’re
pissed at the Soviets and teary-
eyed mushy about our long-
lost friends, the Chinese. True,
the Chinese haven’t been in
troduced to all the wonders of
nuclear warfare yet, but we,
the capitalists, aren’t going to
turn down the chance of a
profit if they’re interested. We
haven’t yef, have we? Even if
our government says, “No, no,
China. HOT,” there’s bound to
be a private citizen in here
somewhere willing to disclose a
secret or two for the right price
and a good bomb shelter.
So what happens if the
Soviets are in a Cold War with
us and we’re busy trading
goods and teaching nukes, to
the Chinese? Well, as the
saying goes, “Two’s company,
three’s a crowd,” and I don’t
much like the looks of this
crowd.
What do we do? Hell, I don’t
know. I just thought I’d take the
focus off what ISN’T that mt^hj
of a threat and do a pan shot
on what looks to me ¡like
something noteworthy.
Keeping things in perspective,
as they say.
Frankly, I’ve got no com
ment on the American
hostages in Iran, the Soviet!
troops in Afghanistan, orlthe
possible Olympic boycott. It all
looks like cops and robber®
me. But if I were the American 1
public, I’d keep my eye on the '
Big Boys. The ones with the
bucks and The Bombs.
Joey Rose
Thea^l
_
Clackamas Community College