July 9, 2008
The Jimmy Carter strategy
One more thing for Labour MPs to worry about. Gordon Brown, or someone advising him, appears to be following the Jimmy Carter political playbook. First it was the cold calls to unsuspecting members of the public, a dubious campaigning tactic pioneered by Mr Carter in 1976. Then there was the appeal to waste no food* and drive electric cars. The call for sacrifice has the ring of Mr Carter’s 1977 address on the energy crisis, a piece of political theatre many Americans find hard to forget.
Sitting by the fireside and sporting a woolly beige cardigan, the president urged people to save energy by putting up with the cold. “All of us must learn to waste less energy,” he said. “Simply by keeping our thermostats, for instance, at 65 degrees in the daytime and 55 degrees at night we could save half the current shortage of natural gas.” It was not his most popular proposal, but it was one of the most memorable.
Without being able to win the confidence of American voters, such statements made it seem as if the president was obsessed with trivia at a time of national crisis. Mr Brown is surely risking the same fate.
Perhaps Mr Brown will lead by example. Mr Carter was so committed to conservation, he installed a wood stove in his living quarters, cut off hot water from some government buildings and turned off the lights on the White House Christmas tree. Can we expect some similar gestures from the prime minister?
* “Isn’t there something supremely ironic about being lectured about food waste by a prime minister who is passed his own sell-by date?” quipped William Hague.
So many lost opportunities. Perhaps if we had followed up on Carter’s ideas on alternative energy and energy conservation for the last 30 years we would not be dealing with oil at $135/bbl, or at least not worrying about it so much. Perhaps we wouldn’t also be subject to the instability and whims of energy producing nations and dependent on a fragile just-in-time energy delivery system vulnerable to anyone who can get their hands on some explosives.
Jimmy Carter put solar panels on top of the white house which Ronald Reagan promptly tore down when he came to office. He couldn’t even just leave them sitting there, already paid for and generating (small amounts of) electricity, he actually tore them down. That says it all about American energy policy since Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: Richard | July 10th, 2008 at 9:49 am | Report this commentLet’s face it. GB is not a leader. He may have good ideas. He may be intelligent. But he can’t get people to follow him or to do his bidding. A successful politician will be a good leader. A successful politician will also be capable of generating sound bytes which keep people happy. A smart politician will only try to implement ideas and plans which can be implemented. Jimmy Carter and Gordon Brown may be better human beings than Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, but nations need leaders and smart politicians at the helm.
Posted by: Vinod Joseph (www.winnowed.blogspot.com) | July 10th, 2008 at 10:38 am | Report this commentI think the waste conversation is a good one - the problem is that Gordon Brown, and Jimmy Carter at the time, are not in a good position to speak on it as everything he says at the moment looks like rather desperate politicking.
Good point, Richard, tearing down solar panels is lunacy, and it is indicative of the blinkered views of the US administration then and now
Posted by: Peter Dunkley | July 10th, 2008 at 11:35 am | Report this comment[…] at the FT’s Westminster Blog they are rather worried that Gordon Brown may be turning into Jimmy Carter. One more thing for […]
Posted by: Brown transforming into Carter | transshipment | July 12th, 2008 at 1:44 pm | Report this comment