Word: problem
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Almost everybody seems to have a story about the energy problem. Secretary of the Treasury Michael Blumenthal phoned his 90-year-old father in California on a Sunday night. "Can't you do something about gas?" the old gentleman asked. The secretary's sister, also living in California, had always made a weekly drive to see their father. That Sunday she had called to say she did not have gas enough for the trip. "Well, Dad," answered Mike, a little extra feeling in his voice, "it's a big problem...
...congressional leaders and had them help prepare an emergency rationing program. Meantime he would have assembled the Governors and filling-station operators and demanded a voluntary plan of restraint and allocation. Johnson might have overdone it, mused this fellow, but he would have been out ahead of the problem, leading the way. Such action in matters with a high psychological ingredient often staves off further complications. But it is an alien style for Carter, who still tries to lead by following...
There are many in and out of Washington who believe it is now impossible to overdramatize the energy shortage. Energy should be the top national priority. No other problem can devastate our society so thoroughly, so swiftly...
...fairness, Jimmy Carter has had an intellectual grasp of the energy problem since the day he walked into the Oval Office. He rightly declared the moral equivalent of war early in his term to cope with the impending crisis. He got little help from any other segment of American society. And transferring his statistical conclusions into leadership in such a hostile environment has been and remains an immense problem. Having formulated the energy plan and declared it publicly, he turned to other things. Energy slipped down his list...
...Without that kind of discussion, you just can't make the progress you want. You have to be able to sit down and talk very directly, essentially with nobody else around. That way the other side will open up and tell you, "Well now, this is what our problem is." It allows you to understand their problems and to see if there might be ways to take account of those considerations and still achieve your own objective. That's why it's of critical importance that you have this kind of channel. We found we just couldn...