With With all this talk from the right of Barack Obama resurrecting the supposedly pacifist legacy of Jimmy Carter, it's worth asking exactly what portion of the electorate actually remembers Carter's term. I know I don't!
But seriously. Let's say your serious political consciousness kicks in around age 15. Just a rough estimate, I know. Jimmy Carter took office in 1977, so if you turned 15 during the Carter presidency, you were born between 1962 and 1966. Today you're 42 to 46 years old.
In 2004, 40 percent of the electorate was under 40 years of age; that's a number that Obama is hoping to increase significantly this year. That means that when John McCain argues Obama is the second coming of Carter, he's appealing to about half of the electorate or less -- just in terms of whether they're likely to have strong associations with the Carter presidency. Of all voters over 40, though, a large proportion are either strong Democrats or voters who lean toward Obama in any case, so this is really an argument with a very limited appeal. Unless, of course, you think a great mass of Americans are walking around feeling real lingering anger toward Carter for negotiating peace between Israel and Egypt, removing nuclear arms from South Korea, and working with the USSR to decrease the world's stockpile of weapons.
Free silver, on the other hand, is still the third rail of American politics. That must be why McCain compared Obama to William Jennings Bryan.
--Dana Goldstein
Note: The math has been corrected on your age today if you turned 15 during the Carter administration! I've always sucked at math, apologies.
