Breaking New Barriers: The First African-American Jimmy Carter?

Written by Paul Zannucci on 11:52 AM


A quick look at Barack Obama’s website demonstrates that John McCain was being chivalrous, and downright understating the case, when saying that Obama was running for Carter’s second term. It’s more like FDR’s fifth term or Stalin’s first term (someone will now pop onto the site to inform me that these two folks are dead and that maybe I shouldn’t talk about them). No one that I can recall has endorsed such a vast expansion of government as Barack Obama.

A quick look at each of the issues on Obama’s site brings up these items that would create an expansion of government (note, there are many, many, many more. I merely picked the ones that were most obvious when copied and pasted by title, and, frankly, I had to skip some of the larger sections for time reasons).

Civil Rights

Strengthen Civil Rights Enforcement
Combat Employment Discrimination
Expand Hate Crimes Statutes
Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support

Disabilities


(I had to skip this one. It was nine pages long.)

Economy

Improve Job Transition Assistance
Create New Job Training Programs for Clean Technologies
Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to Organize
Create a Universal Mortgage Credit
Create Fund to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosures
Create a Credit Card Rating System to Improve Disclosure
Establish a Credit Card Bill of Rights to Protect Consumers
Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act:
Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave
Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities

Education

Expand Early Head Start and Head Start
Affordable, High-Quality Child Care (my notes: government aided or provided)

Energy and Environment

Cap and Trade
Confront Deforestation and Promote Carbon Sequestration
Invest in a Skilled Clean Technologies Workforce
Convert our Manufacturing Centers into Clean Technology Leaders
Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund
Set National Building Efficiency Goals
Establish a Grant Program for Early Adopters

Family

Provide a Living Wage
Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit
Create Automatic Workplace Pensions

Healthcare

Quality, Affordable and Portable Coverage for All
Improve Mental Health Care Coverage
Protect Our Children from Lead Poisoning
Reduce Risks of Mercury Pollution

Poverty

Create a Green Jobs Corps
Improve Transportation Access to Jobs
Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant
Establish 20 Promise Neighborhoods
Ensure Community-Based Investment Resources in Every Urban Community

Service

Expand Corporation for National and Community Service
Engage Retiring Americans in Service on a Large Scale
Expand the Peace Corps
Expand Service-Learning in Our Nation's Schools
Expand YouthBuild Program
Require 100 Hours of Service in College
Social Investment Fund Network
Social Entrepreneurship Agency for Nonprofits


Technology

Encourage Diversity in Media Ownership

Urban Policy

Create a White House Office on Urban Policy
Increase Access to Capital for Underserved Businesses
Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators
Create a New FHA Housing Security Program
Create Fund to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosures



This, as I said earlier, is far from an exhaustive list, though it is quite exhausting. Frankly, it would take many more hours than I have to go through and pick out and explain all the new government included as campaign promises on his website. Actually, if I add the “explain” part it would take days. I skipped the section on “Arts” though I can assure you there is much he feels can be done there, and other sections I skipped included “Women”, “Immigration”, and “Transportation”. It’s enough to leave Jimmy Carter breathless.

(editor’s note: Despite my declaration below that the references to “a black Camelot” gave me the license to refer to Obama as “a black Carter”, I conferred by email with a “black” friend of mine who informed me that apparently I shouldn’t do that. It has something to do with, I think, the comparison you are making. For instance, I could call him a “black” friend, but would have to change to “African-American” if I were referring to him as my enemy. He would be happy to be the “black” Larry Bird, but would have to be called the “African-American” Tom Daschle. Ironically, this means I can’t refer to Obama as “black” at all. My conservative black friend suggested “Irish-American” since that would represent his mother’s side of the family, but that would be offensive to my wife, so I stuck with “African-American” as the least insensitive of the options. My friend also strongly hinted that I should not use Photoshop to adjust Jimmy Carter's complexion in the official White House photo above, nor should I modify his hairdo. This made me quite sad, but as anyone who’s read the site knows, I’m nothing if not sensitive to others’ feelings.)

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  1. 9 comments: Responses to “ Breaking New Barriers: The First African-American Jimmy Carter? ”

  2. By Anonymous on June 11, 2008 at 12:43 PM

    You're a typical conservative moron.

  3. By Paul Zannucci on June 11, 2008 at 1:06 PM

    Nice response. Well thought out.

  4. By Anonymous on June 11, 2008 at 1:11 PM

    How can you be against a living wage? How can you be against fighting hate crimes? How can you be against fighting deforestation? We need all these programs and more if we are going to fix the mess the current liar-in-cheat got us in.

  5. By Anonymous on June 11, 2008 at 1:19 PM

    that last para shwd yur tru colors. yur racist.

  6. By D. Pitney on June 11, 2008 at 1:37 PM

    100% tax rate here we come. Canada and Mexico can expect a tax hike as well to pay for all those feel good, good intention programs. Folks wake up and smell the pay check! The line that Obama is trying to sell is pure and simple Socialism. Big Government is still Big Government no matter how it’s packaged. I personally want the government out of my life and especially out of my wallet. We can not afford to elect Obama. If he along with his liberal buddies were to even get a fraction of those leftist policies passed we would be taxed out of existence. When will you realize government is not there to take care of you and your problems? You live in the land of freedom and opportunity. Why do you want to willingly give that away? You dare to call Paul moronic yet you will bend over backwards to elect a man who by the facts on his own web site wants to run all aspects of your life. I would be real careful about name calling before I took a long look in the mirror. God Bless America and May He Grant You Wisdom While There is Yet Time.

  7. By Anonymous on June 11, 2008 at 2:32 PM

    You wake up! It would be far better to have 100% taxes than to have a sick earth, all this killing for oil and these big oil CEO's living these lavish lifestyles while people starve in the inner cities. This election will be for justice.

  8. By D. Pitney on June 11, 2008 at 2:56 PM

    Wow the founding fathers that died to give us these freedoms are rolling over in their graves. I am truly speechless when someone is willing to give up their entire income for perceived justice. This countries economy is based on free market dynamics and when we over tax those who are most in a position to create wealth we risk everything. Perhaps we need everyone to re take basic economics. I for one will continue to fight to keep my hard earned income in my wallet to take care of those that I feel deserve it. God Bless America

  9. By Anonymous on June 11, 2008 at 3:09 PM

    You know, it would have been better if they hadn't died for this country, which rapes the planet and wages war on the poor.

  10. By Paul Zannucci on June 11, 2008 at 3:29 PM

    joanne, I believe I can even speak for killnmice when I say, "huh?"

    killnmice, I am not racist, but I doubt there's any point to arguing that.

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