Winning on the popular television show "American Idol" takes talent, hard work, personality, and even then one is not guaranteed a successful musical career. The winner must continue improving on their craft, continue working hard, and develop their personal success.  Sadly, politics and diplomacy seem to reward failure rather than success. Jimmy Carter, a.k.a. American Diplomacy Idol is a shining example of a politican who failed miserably during his presidency and yet was rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize. Three decades later, a new contestant is exciting the crowds and judges in the ongoing competition. President-elect Barack Obama, a.k.a. Diplomacy Idol wannabe is crooning a lovely song for all to hear.

 

If Barack Obama can further destabilize the Middle East, give away areas of the world that are in our national interest, as Carter did with the Panama Canal, plead and beg with rogue nations to hold talks leading to peaceful solutions on subjects such as human rights, wimp out as commander-in-chief when American citizens are taken captive, suggest imposing import limits on foreign oil which will only worsen an energy crisis, go on television and proclaim how bad things are and will only get worse (hasn't Obama already been doing that?), cut defense spending and intelligence readiness in order to show our enemies we mean no harm, therefore they should do the same, then and only then does Barack Obama stand a chance at being the next American Diplomacy Idol.

 

In a Jerusalem Post article on June 20, 2007, Michael D. Evans writes: "The shah was terrified of Carter. He told his personal confidant, 'Who knows what sort of calamity he [Carter] may unleash on the world?'" Evans drives home the havoc left in the wake of Carter's actions during his presidency: "Carter believed then and still does now that evil does not exist; people are basically good; America should embrace the perpetrators and castigate the victims. ... Carter's belief that every crisis can be resolved with diplomacy-and only diplomacy-now permeates the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, Carter is wrong. There are times when evil must be openly confronted and defeated."

 

Now, almost 30 years later, president-elect Barack Obama appears poised and ready to make the same mistakes President Carter made during his administration. As Evans also states, current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is assuming the role of Ayatollah. Barack Obama is casting himself as Jimmy Carter. The stage is set for yet another president who thinks talking about things will solve problems, change behaviors, and simply by persuasion make friends of our enemies.

 

Unlike the music industry where failure, though painful for a former star, is not catastrophic for the nation or the world, President-elect Barack Obama shows strong tendencies of wanting to win the current version of American Diplomacy Idol even if the nation and the world suffer at his expense.  He, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid seem to delight in things getting worse, and in prolonging a crisis in order to implement more government programs which means more government control over everything, including We The People.

 

There was another contestant in the not too distant past, remember?  The man from Hope who spoke of his own version of hope and change. He and his co-president of a wife deregulated the mortgage industry and banks, strengthened laws to force lenders to make bad loans, endangered our national security, and of course, attempted the biggest power grab in recent times via the Hillary Healthcare debacle. Clinton's post-idol life, so far, has not been as dramatic a failure as Carter's, but can America afford to let Barack Obama try to win the title over these next four years? As citizens in this constiutional republic of ours, we-like viewers of American Idol-have a vote. Unlike viewers of American Idol, we the people must remember that we also are the competition judges. We are listening and we are watching, respectfully, Mr. President-elect, Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Reid and the 2010 judging of your entries will soon be decided.  

 

Okay, everyone join with me in a melodious course of "Let's party like it's 1994, and elect a conservative Republican House and Senate majority once more!"

 

Gasoline prices are out of control. The cost of groceries seems to increase every time you push a shopping cart down the aisles. Dire predictions spew from the talking heads on the evening news broadcasts. Elected officials wipe the sweat from their brows as they attempt to craft and approve legislation to help the average citizen. Our adversaries appear to be gaining in strength despite our nation's attempts to preserve freedom for ourselves and our allies. We cannot afford to wait. Government must take drastic measures and do so with haste.

 

If you think the above paragraph is a description of 2009 as President-elect Barack Obama is set to take office, think again.  Every sentence of the opening paragraph describes the nation and the world as we knew it during former President Jimmy Carter's administration. The comparisons between Obama-speak and Carter-speak are striking. However, the reality behind the speeches could not be much more different. For instance, socialism or communism was still a formidable threat in the 1970s. Today, there is no "superpower" communist nation to contend with at every turn. Also, the economy of 2009, while battered and bruised, is far more robust than the high-interest, high inflation doldrums of the 1970s. Furthermore, the 2009 version of OPEC is not your father's version that existed in the 1970s. Have those of us old enough to remember forgotten how bad those times were? Those who are too young to remember please join in this brief recounting of events:

 

** Lines of automobiles that sometimes stretched to several blocks long while waiting for a rationed number of gallons to put in your gas tank. Need a refill? If you waited in line again you could get another rationed amount, IF the supply at the station had not run dry.

 

**A stock market having diffculty recovering from a nearly fifty percent loss in 1973-74. Daily reports of dismal economic news only adding to the despair in financial markets.

 

**The stinging defeat of Vietnam still fresh in the nation's memory. Pacifist, idealistic world views of Carter and Cyrus Vance, the Secretary of State, further diminish military pride and patriotism. Add to that the bumbling efforts to resolve the Iran hostage crisis.

 

**Instead of a motivated, confident leader there is President Carter, begging and pleading for people to conserve energy, curb consumer spending, and apologizing for our nation's excesses. Taking to the airwaves to proclaim a crisis of confidence and offering solutions that would only make things worse if actually implemented.

 

**ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, local newspaper(s), local radio stations that squeezed in a newsbreak at the top of the hour. There was no alternative media, no talk radio, no cable television, no internet access, no personal/home computers.

 

**The results of the 1976 election were: A Democrat president, Senate with 61 Democrats-38 Republicans-1 Independent, House of Representatives with 292 Democrats-143 Republicans.

 

As you can see, in many ways things then were much worse than they are now. Let's move on now to an interesting comparision of campaign promises. Who claimed he was the anti-government candidate, the one who would bring hope and restore people's trust in American idealism? In 1976, Elizabeth Drew stated in American Journal that this strategy was responsible for Carter's election victory. (Source: The American Presidents. Copyright 2000, Salem Press, Inc.) Guessed Obama? You're also correct! Hope, change, transparency in governing, sound familiar?

 

In summary, our nation has been "here" before. Barack Obama's claims of utter and total collapse without immediate trillion dollar government spending is the same old grab for power that liberals have always favored. And, like during the Carter years, those same liberal politicians who were responsible for energy and economic woes proclaimed they had the solutions for fixing them.

 

Conservatives in the 21st century find themselves in a much better situation than our colleagues of the 1970s. Our mission now is to remember what Goldwater, Reagan and Gingrich taught us while developing methods for that message in the internet and multimedia world we now live in.