By Michael Gerson, Washington Post

Obama and Carter both lacked credibility

President Jimmy Carter once sent a note to an adviser extolling the importance of crisis to leadership. "When a president has authority to act unilaterally (as in a crisis), his leadership can be exerted. Otherwise, compromise, delay and confusion are more likely. It’s our system. I like it."

Politicians, like the rest of us, are often victims of their wishes. Carter was eventually smacked by the waves of crisis he sought to ride.

But encouraging a sense of crisis is a traditional tool of executive leadership. And using a joint session of Congress to address a single domestic issue is the most dramatic expression of this approach.

Carter did it effectively in April 1977. He spoke of the energy crisis as "the moral equivalent of war." Energy resources were "simply running out." (Carter’s CIA predicted worldwide oil shortages by the mid-1980s.) America needed to "cope with a crisis that otherwise would overwhelm us."

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2. Crisis, Catastrophe: Are These Words of Hope?
3. Obama’s LBJ Syndrome
4. ‘Jimmy Carter’ tag has Obama wincing
5. Obama seen as Arrogant in First Crisis

Tags: Barack Obama, Credibility, Discredited, Jimmy Carter, Lacking

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