Deja Vu: It's 1980 Again For Democrats

As the general election approaches, President Obama and Democrats must have a sense that they have seen this political movie once before.  The plot and characters have changed, but the ending may again spell disaster for the party whose emblem is a domestic ass.

The reason for the deja vu is that today's political landscape resembles 1980. President Jimmy Carter was grappling with the fallout from the prolonged Iranian hostage crisis and skyrocketing gasoline prices. Inflation was stuck in double-digits. His poll numbers were eroding faster than the value of the dollar.

Against this backdrop, Republican challenger Ronald Reagan beat the odds by unseating an incumbent president. It was a historic victory as Reagan won in a landslide that buried Democrats.  Riding Reagan's coattails the Republicans gained control of the Senate for the first time in 28 years.

Today's political scene eerily brings to mind 1980.  Incumbent Barrack Obama has watched gasoline prices double under his watch.  Iran's nuclear ambitions represent a challenge that has exposed Obama's weak foreign policy credentials.  After years of dormancy, inflation inched up in last month's government report.

When Obama was inaugurated, the average price of gasoline was $1.84 a gallon.  Today that same gallon costs about $3.65. Despite spineless economic sanctions favored by the president, a defiant Iran has ramped up its nuclear program.  In February, the Consumer Price Index rose an unexpected 0.4 percent, the largest increase in 10 months.

Unfortunately for Obama, worse days may lie ahead.  Gasoline prices usually spike during the summer vacation season and may surpass $5 a gallon.  Fuel increases will fatten inflation.  Gas prices could reach the stratosphere if Israel attacks Iran, whose leaders are already threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for Mideast crude.

President Obama has made it abundantly clear these issues will take a backseat to his reelection. Therefore, expect more posturing rather than substance as Obama tries to sway public opinion in his favor on gas prices and Iran.

Obama has tipped his hand on how he will deal with the oil problem. The president believes the solution to rising prices is not more oil, but less.  He has dumped billions of taxpayer dollars into alternative fuel programs that have done nothing to ease the pain at the pump. Instead, taxpayer funds often have gone to political cronies and failed enterprises.

A duplicitous Obama parachuted into Cushing, Oklahoma, recently to take credit for a pipeline project he has twice rejected.  The pipeline spanning parts of Oklahoma to the Texas coast is the southernmost leg of the ill-fated Keystone Pipeline project.  In his photo-op, the president bragged that he helped cut red tape to authorize the pipeline.

The only problem is the president's boast is fraudulent.  This leg of the pipeline did not require presidential approval since it did not transverse international boundaries.  The Cushing project was green lighted through the normal regulatory process.  Obama denied a permit for the one part he controlled.

The Cushing charade came only 48 hours after a defensive Obama claimed no president can impact the cost of a gallon of gas. After polls showed Americans blamed the president for the pump shock, Obama reversed course to highlight how a president can boost oil supply.

Likely, his next move will be to drag greedy oil company executives to the White House to publicly berate them.  He has already attacked the oil industry for its profits.  In recent remarks, the president called on Congress to scrap tax incentives for oil firms. He didn't explain how this will help lower prices.

This is a page out of the Carter playbook.  The ex-president slapped a Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax on the industry as his response to rising oil prices.  Enacted in 1980, the tax failed to arrest prices and was lifted eight years later by Reagan.  Expect Obama to resurrect the tax soon after oil companies release first quarter profits.

There are also similarities between the approaches of both Carter and Obama on Iran.  During the Iranian hostage affair, Carter vacillated between diplomacy and a military rescue operation.  When the crisis dragged on 444 days without a resolution, Americans became impatient with the president, who appeared weak and indecisive.

Obama didn't learn from Carter's bungling.  After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory in 2009, protests erupted in the streets of the Iranian capital.  As the demonstrations spread, Iranian opposition leaders begged President Obama to lend his support.  He demurred, letting the air out of the nascent movement and emboldening Iranian leadership to continue to pursue their nuclear program.

Although Obama has started sounding tough on Iran's nuclear policy, he cannot afford to order military operations without incurring the wrath of his liberal base.  As a matter of fact, the British Sunday Times reported that Obama pleaded with Israel to delay bombing Iran's nuclear facilities under after the election.

Sensing America's weakened resolve, some U.S. allies are bailing out of the Obama-led effort for more sanctions.  The U.S. State Department has exempted eleven nations from implementing tougher sanctions planned by the president.  The action was a face-saving maneuver to spare the president from embarrassment after Japan and ten European nations signaled they could not support the new sanctions.

While the economy remains uppermost in voters' minds, oil prices and Iran are gaining traction among the electorate.  If both issues continue to fester, they could expose Obama's Achilles heel on domestic oil and foreign policy.

It may not be 1980, but the Democrat Party might get its domestic ass kicked once again.