"Carter's responses to these problems only exacerbated them however."
Well, that's a common view.
But it's not true.
Carter, who was trained as an engineer and is a successful businessman, had many good ideas for conserving energy and for making other energy sources available. I myself took advantage of the generous tax credits for insulating and in other ways improving the efficiency of the house I bought then. The previous owner had been consuming 1800 gallons of fuel oil per winter. I cut it to about 350 gallons and then converted to gas. The tax credits were a strong incentive to go ahead and spend the money that made this possible.
Eventually competition from oil producing countries lowered prices, making Carter's ideas seem even more useless. But they were intelligent measures that even, partially implemented, restrained energy consumption and hastened the price drops.
Carter did a lot to restore trust in the office of president, as did another under-appreciated person, in this case a Republican, Gerald Ford. I guess I am a contrarian in the matter of presidents. I liked George Bush.
Since Clinton will not answer direct questions, there would be no point in asking him this, but I do wonder what he would say if forced to reply to the question, "If what happened was not a sex act, what was it? A medical procedure?" Or perhaps, "Oh, do you mean that it was a form of sodomy, and that's different from sex?"
I think he had better say that not only was there no excuse for what he did, but that there is no excuse for his excuses. I think he should have to go into a closet and not come out until he is ready to tell the truth.
At the same time, I think that most normal male human beings have more untold sexual secrets than what is now known about Clinton. Of those who don't, some might fit the class described in J. V. Cunningham's epigram:
You ask me how Contempt, who claims to sleep
With every woman who has ever been
Can still maintain that women are skin deep?
They never let him any deeper in. |
