Video: Jimmy Carter’s NSA actually uses the word “malaise” to describe national mood under Obama

This happened a little over a year ago:

It’s Zbigniew Brzezinski, a.k.a. Mika’s pop, making as tin-eared a gaffe as you’re ever likely to hear from an elder statesman. The very last president Democrats want Obama being compared to on morning television ahead of the midterms is Carter, and the very last word they want used to make that comparison is the one for which Jimmeh will forever be remembered (even though he never actually uttered it during the famous “malaise” speech). Is Brzezinski so clueless about his own boss’s legacy and liberals’ sensitivity to it as to stumble into this choice of phrase, or is he obliquely drawing the comparison deliberately for whatever insane reason? Lucky for him and his party that he’s as relatively obscure now as he is; had a more prominent Dem said this, the RNC’s soundbite machine would be in hog heaven.

As for the Great Organizing Idea that America is looking for, it should be “retrenchment.” The country’s tired of being overextended fiscally and in theaters of war, so cutting waaaaay back on both would probably be a winner. “We need to regroup” is clunky as far as political slogans go but I bet it’d touch a chord. The One can’t do that, though, or rather, he won’t do it; as he said last week of his last statist agenda, “I know it doesn’t poll well. But it’s the right thing to do for America.” Guess we’ll have to wait for Carter’s successor — er, I mean, Obama’s successor — for that. Click the image to watch.




Then, there's this:

ABC's The Note Asks: How Much Longer Can Obama's Approval Rating Defy Political Gravity?

Interesting piece, excerpted at Hot Air, hitting on the preference cascade effect I keep predicting. (And you know my stellar record on predictions.)

Psychologists talk about “cognitive dissonance,” the tension that people feel when their thoughts are inconsistent with one another. In this case, it’s feeling as if the president is doing a pretty lousy job on the economy, but still giving him decent (though not glowing) marks when it comes to his overall presidency. At some point, psychologists will tell you, relief from the tension comes only when you try to restore consistency.

Something has to give; one rating has to movie, eventually, to more closely match the other.
The writer looks for a precedent of a president with low economic approval ratings diverging from his own approval ratings, and finds one in George H.W. Bush; Bush's approval ratings were 70% or higher following the huge success of the Gulf War, but even then, only 36% approved of his handling of the economy.
Eventually his approval rating collapsed.
Go read the whole thing.