President Jimmy Carter was swept into Washington in 1977, in the aftermath of Nixon, Watergate, Ford and The Pardon, with a sweeping mandate to change. The nation hated itself for Nixon. Carter was the bitter pill we decided to swallow, for punishment.

So when he arrived, he brought with him a staff of outsiders from Georgia, smart people who knew nothing about Washington and they crashed into the legislature and lobbyists. No honeymoon. He got nothing done, and we switched when Sunny Mr Reagan promised us something on a hill that had sunlight on it. Carter was gloom. A guy who wore sweaters and told us we'd have to do without. A national malaise. Okay we suffered enough. 

Trump is using up goodwill on stupid mistakes and scaring the bejesus out of not just you and me, but also the 1%. At some point the stock market is going to reflect the fear. 

He's staffing up with people who could be characters on The Simpsons. Can anything coherent come out of this group? I try to keep an open (and worried) mind, but you have to wonder. 

Where will the scale come from? Trump is criticizing Boeing today for a $4 billion project spread over eight years. Has he looked at the budget yet? Does he understand how big the US economy is? 

The Carrier thing may impress voters, but he doesn't need the voters right now. They have voted. Now the establishment in DC has to bet on whether his charm will last. I don't know how they think. But in 1977 they took a look at who Jimmy Carter brought with him and decided not to work with him. And that was that.

BTW, not to dis Carter as a person. He is a good man who was not an effective president. And Trump and his family will do very well if he goes down the path Carter did. But he may not be the demagogue we fear he will be. He still has to get the government to work for him.