Cut from the same cloth: Jimmy Carter in the '76 campaign, Barack Obama in this one

National Review, Dec 3, 2007 by Richard Lowry

MR. SMOOTH

Personal charm is the very basis of Obama's candidacy; without it--given his lack of accomplishments, experience, and defining issues--he wouldn't be running. He's undeniably a winsome guy, smart and smooth: the coolest major politician in recent memory. His candidacy is given a special frisson of excitement because he's the first-ever black candidate who has a real chance of winning the White House. If the size of his events precludes him from having a Carter-like laying of hands on children, the press corps has swooned into his arms like those kids into Carter's. One of the strongest arguments he makes in behalf of his candidacy is essentially that he's more likable than Hillary and therefore won't engender the fierce opposition of the other side.

Carter didn't get by on charm alone. His theme of hope and change hit exactly the right notes in a post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America yearning for a fresh start. His mantra, repeated over and over again, was, "I want a government that is as good, and honest, and decent, and truthful, and fair, and competent, and idealistic, and compassionate, and as filled with love as are the American people." He would achieve it partly through his own qualities as a person and a candidate. He said in one of his commercials, "There are lots of things I would not do to be elected. Listen to me: I'll never tell a lie. I'll never make a misleading statement. I'll never betray the confidence any of you has in me."

Of course, Obama talks about hope so often he could almost trademark the word. And he speaks of change just as much, trying to tap into a public feeling of discontent running nearly as deep as when Carter ran. In his Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner speech in Iowa, Obama advocated "a party that doesn't just offer change as a slogan, but real, meaningful change--change that America can believe in," adding--in case someone didn't get the point--"that's why I am running for the Presidency of the United States of America: to offer change that we can believe in." Like Carter, Obama offers himself as the embodiment of this kind of change, the new bottle into which to pour a new politics beyond the tired baby-boomer conflicts and the acrimony of the Bush-Clinton-Bush years.

Carter in 1976 and Obama today present themselves as non-politician politicians willing to trample on political conventions. Carter aide Hamilton Jordan told Witcover the idea was "for somebody to stand up and tell the American people to do the things that were unpopular, a feeling that if politicians dealt more openly with the electorate that they would respond well." In his Jefferson-Jackson Day speech, Obama said almost exactly the same thing. There is an opportunity to bring the country together, according to Obama, "and that is why the same old Washington textbook campaign just won't do in this election. That's why not answering questions 'cause we are afraid our answers won't be popular just won't do. That's why telling the American people what we think they want to hear instead of telling the American people what they need to hear just won't do."