Rapaire, here's something interesting... You said:

"When the attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran failed (because of wide-spread f**ckups) Carter went to television and said, in effect, "I'm the Commander-In-Chief and as such it's my responsibility."

When 283 marines died a few years later in Lebanon, Reagan went on television and said in effect, "Heads will roll!"


Yeah. Okay, so here's what happened in those two cases.

1. Carter was honest. He took responsibility. Result? He was seen as a weak sister by the majority of the American public!

2. Reagan made exactly the right political move. He blamed someone farther down the chain of command, blamed the enemy, and talked tough! Result? He was seen as a strong, decisive commander by the majority of the American public!

You see, being honest and taking responsibility will not necessarily get you anywhere good in politics. Nor will humility. ;-) Not if you have an ill-informed public with the attention span of a fruit fly and the emotional maturity of a 16-year-old. Uh-uh. What will get you somewhere in politics is creating a superficial impression of strong and decisive command and repeating bellicose patriotic cliches. Reagan did that.

An intellectual will approve Carter's approach and recognize it for what it is. Most Americans are not intellectuals, in fact they are anti-intellectual. Reagan played it in exactly the way that would make him look strong and it worked for him.

The fact that the Republicans have a good understanding of that is one of the things that has helped them hold an advantage over the Democrats in the last few decades. The Republicans deal in simplistic emotional BS...and it works, politically. That's because most people are not all that rational, and they don't pay much attention to logic, evidence, or detail...they pay attention to overall outward emotional impressions which are partly subliminal and not very rational...but extremely powerful.

Reagan was a master when it came to dealing with that.

And so was Clinton, actually. ;-) That's why he won 2 elections.