Way back in the day, I wrote a paper in college about the Carter-Torrijos Treaty which handed the Panama Canal over to Panama. Unfortunately for me, I had to read Jimmy Carter’s memoir “Keeping Faith”. One particular phrase from that absolutely useless book has stuck with me for the last 22 years. <\/p>\n
In discussing the popularity of his decision to hand over the industrial age marvel, Carter admitted that it was wildly unpopular among the masses of Americans – some polls were running at 72% opposed. But in his book, Carter said, with absolutely nothing to support the claim, that 75% of the people who understood the issue supported Carter.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind that the year before the treaty, Carter had won the election, in part, because he’d promised a New York Times reporter that he’d never turn over the Canal to Panama during his presidency and here was doing it the first year of his presidency.<\/p>\n
So, why do i mention it today? Twenty-two years after I wrote the paper and 33 years after the treaty? Well, I was reading Michelle Malkin<\/a> (like every day) who reported on the President’s press conference about the oil spill in the Gulf. Michelle quoted Obama;<\/p>\n Obama: \u201cThose who think we were slow in our response or lacked urgency don\u2019t know the facts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To me, it sounded like Carter’s line in “Keeping Faith” – “most of you people are too stupid to realize how smart iI am.” <\/p>\n I hope he keeps that prickish attitude through the next election cycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"