This great president has never been recognized at its fair value

[syringis]

[csziggy]

1. He also gave up his career as engineer on a nuclear submarine to run that peanut farm

In 1952, Carter began an association with the US Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program, then-led by Captain Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover's demands on his men and machines were legendary, and Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover was the greatest influence on his life.[10] He was sent to the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C. for three month temporary duty, while Rosalynn moved with their children to Schenectady, New York. On December 12, 1952, an accident with the experimental NRX reactor at Atomic Energy of Canada's Chalk River Laboratories caused a partial meltdown resulting in millions of liters of radioactive water flooding the reactor building's basement and leaving the reactor's core ruined.[11] Carter was ordered to Chalk River to lead a U.S. maintenance crew that joined other American and Canadian service personnel to assist in the shutdown of the reactor.[12] The painstaking process required each team member to don protective gear and be lowered individually into the reactor for a few minutes at a time, limiting their exposure to radioactivity while they disassembled the crippled reactor. During and after his presidency, Carter said that his experience at Chalk River had shaped his views on atomic energy and led him to cease development of a neutron bomb.[13]

In March 1953 he began nuclear power school, a six-month non-credit course covering nuclear power plant operation at Union College in Schenectady,[8] with the intent to eventually work aboard USS Seawolf, which was planned to be one of the first two U.S. nuclear submarines. However, Carter's father died two months before construction of Seawolf began, and Carter sought and obtained a release from active duty to enable him to take over the family peanut business. Deciding to leave Schenectady proved difficult. Settling after moving so much Rosalynn had grown comfortable with their life. Returning to small-town life in Plains seemed "a monumental step backward," she said later. On the other hand, Carter felt restricted by the rigidity of the military and yearned to assume a path more like his father's. Carter left active duty on October 9, 1953.[14][15] He served in the inactive Navy Reserve until 1961, and left the service with the rank of lieutenant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter#Naval_career

Farming

Earl Carter died a relatively wealthy man, having also recently been elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. However, between his forgiveness of debts and the division of his wealth among heirs, his son Jimmy inherited comparatively little. For a year, Jimmy, Rosalynn, and their three sons lived in public housing in Plains; Carter is the only U.S. president to have lived in subsidized housing before he took office. Carter was knowledgeable in scientific and technological subjects, and he set out to expand the family's peanut-growing business. The transition from Navy to agribusinessman was difficult because his first-year harvest failed due to drought; Carter was compelled to open several bank lines of credit to keep the farm afloat. Meanwhile, he also took classes and read up on agriculture while Rosalynn learned accounting to manage the business's books. Though they barely broke even the first year, the Carters grew the business and became quite successful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter#Farming

[Blue_true]

7. Awesome post. Thanks. nt

[erronis]

17. Agree - great post about a great president. The lesser people try to besmirch anyone

not at their lower level.

That's why the repuglicons are always shoveling dirt since they are the bottom of the pool.

[GeorgeGist]

14. +1

[Auggie]

2. K&R

[Mr.Bill]

3. Terrible president.

Couldn't even start a pointless war or even get any uniformed soldiers killed by any enemy fire for his entire term.

[BobTheSubgenius]

4. Even the estimable BHO is in JEC's shadow, as a human being.

As good as Mr. Obama was an is, I still say that Mr. Carter is the best "person" to ever hold the office. His humility and boundless desire to do good puts him in a class by himself.

BHO may overtake him one day, as he has a long time left in his life to do good, and I have no doubt he will. But, overtaking JEC's just plain GOODNESS is a 'fur piece,' as they say.

[Blue_true]

8. President Obama will have very large post-presidency shoes to fill.

IMO, Jimmy Carter has had by far the best post-presidency in USA history. I just can't think of anyone that comes remotely close.

[erronis]

18. This sounds like a "horse race" for goodness. The repuglicans are working on the other end. nt

[Blue_true]

22. You clearly missed the point.

It is possible for two people to do monumental good, but one does a little bit more than the other. It is like running a mile in 2:59:58 versus 2:59:59, both broke an impossible standard, but one was a tad faster.

[Journeyman]

23. John Quincy Adams . . .

After leaving the Presidency, he was elected U.S. Representative from Massachusetts and served the last 17 years of his life with greater acclaim than he had achieved as president.

Animated by his growing revulsion against slavery, Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power. He predicted the Union's dissolution over slavery, and in such a case, felt the president could abolish slavery by using his war powers.

Adams was also a critic of the annexation of Texas and of the Mexican–American War, which he saw as an aggressive war for territory.Both these events, he believed, contributed to the inevitability of civil war.

He argued, successfully, before the US Supreme Court in 1841 on behalf of African slaves who had revolted and seized the Spanish ship Amistad. They were declared free and returned to their homes in Africa.

He was also a leading voice throughout his life for the advancement of science. It was through his intercession, and dogged determination, that the bequest from British scientist James Smithson be accepted and used to build a national institution of science and learning. The Smithsonian Institution graces our lives to this day.

[calimary]

27. Kicking for this post, too.

Wonderful details to learn, Journeyman. Thanks for posting it!

[Blue_true]

30. Wow. nt.

[FakeNoose]

39. He was a terrible President, based on the records of the day

... but as a former President, John Quincy Adams absolutely ROCKED.

I recently re-watched the movie "Amistad" (directed by Steven Spielberg) that illustrates the time when Quincy Adams argued before the Supreme Court to free the Amistad prisoners. The case was considered the cornerstone of the Abolitionist movement that ultimately led to the Civil War and Emancipation. It's a great movie and uplifting for liberals/progressives to see the right thing being done in the name of the law.

[gopiscrap]

5. Totally agree

[Blue_true]

6. Very likely the most undervalued President in history.

Not even President Obama suffered his situation. But Jimmy Carter is a tall, large mountain of a human being, and in my opinion a great President. If we had listened to him, we would have saved trillions on energy costs and avoided around five damaging wars.

[PatrickforO]

11. He had great policies, didn't he? Unfortunately he suffered from what I call

'engineer-itis,' which is an inability to present his case in the most compelling terms. A lot of engineer types have this problem. They KNOW, and the people around them SHOULD, because by golly, they stated the facts, but...

As examples of this point, I offer his, "America is in a malaise" comment, and of course, "the Moral Equivalent of War (MEW)."

A great man, but that may have indeed been why we did not listen to him.

[Blue_true]

12. True courage and conviction is hard to recognize.

Most people would rather hear the happy horse-crap talk of a Ronald Reagan or a Trump.

[erronis]

19. Yeah. Never tell the people the actual truth with facts.

Coat them with jelly-beans or fear to make them palatable to ram down the proles throats.

Adlai Stevenson, Jimmy Carter, perhaps BHO were too cerebral for the 90% troglodytes that would rather watch paid boob-tube blonds with no real intellect.

Unfortunately, these 90% are still with us and ultimately manipulateable. You have to get to their eyeballs (fux-bux) and their viscerals (sports/beer/guns) before you can have a conversation.

Personally, I don't like to wallow in their mire.

[Dave Starsky]

43. Ain't that the truth?

[Boomerproud]

28. Jimmy Carter made the same mistake Clinton and Obama made.

He treated Americans as grown-ups, and thought we had common sense. The meme that Democrats love and create the "nanny state" is wrong, wrong, wrong.

[Timer]

36. I agree with PatrickforO's comment but...

I think it's worth noting that President Carter never used the word "malaise" in the famous "malaise" speech. He did use the phrase "crisis of confidence."

[PatrickforO]

9. There is no doubt about it; Jimmy Carter is a great man.

Not just faint praise, either. I mean, Jimmy Carter is a REALLY great man. Maybe even a great soul - a Mahatma.

He's amazing.

[Scarsdale]

42. Jimmy Carter had, and still has

family values. something the supposedly "family values" party sorely lacks. He was too decent for the gop to accept, they prefer dumb and unqualified for their candidates. tRump is their prize candidate, with lots of Russian money thrown into the mix. Perfect!!!

[dameatball]

10. This is a case of a man being ahead of his time. The country was not willing to make sacrifices.

[llmart]

21. Some of us were.

I took has commitment to environmentalism very seriously back when I was a very young woman. I loved the messages he gave us about noncommercialism and giving back and reducing our fossil fuel use. I remember taking out a loan to install more insulation in the first house we bought because it was built before anyone realized that without it the heat went out the roof. We could ill afford the cost of the insulation, but felt it was important to do everything we could to follow his lead.

Then Reagan happened and the era of greed and materialism took off and a lot of people jumped on that bandwagon.

[dameatball]

25. You are correct. I meant the % of the country who went via Reagan and bought the lies.

[llmart]

34. A very large percentage, too...

including some Democrats. I could not believe the groundswell of people who fell for his schtick, but then again he was an actor. I still maintain that this was when the US took a wrong turn with regards to how we were supposed to view life. It was supposed to be all about wearing name brand clothing, buying bigger houses, the stock market, blah, blah, all at the expense of community and the environment.

[Boomerproud]

29. All Reagan had to do was tell the privileged how great they were and their lives could be perfect

it wasn't for "them". He never asked for any sacrifice for anything, especially from the young.

[lunatica]

33. This country had a choice with Carter

Grow up and join the world and the planet with Carter or refuse to face the consequences of our adolescent hubris with Reagan. Forty years later and we’ve regresses badly.

There was a real glimmer of hope with Obama, but
Americans just don’t want to become adults. Now the country is being trashed by the Infant Baby Huey President having a chronic tantrum.

[Angry Dragon]

13. KICK

[pecosbob]

15. He is the best of us

Would that I had the compassion contained in his little finger...

[ailsagirl]

16. You and me both

[First Speaker]

20. He was and is a great man...but he was not a great President.

His political instincts were askew, and he simply couldn't swim thru the cesspool in Washington very well. The best example is the so-called "malaise" speech. This word never appeared in it, the term was invented by the media and eagerly embraced by the GOP. But he and his team simply weren't able to cope with all crap thrown against the speech, and the term stuck--another example of the "Liberal Media" at work. And of course, he had damnably bad luck--maybe the worst of any President, except possibly Hoover. The best analogy to him would probably be John Quincy Adams--if asked to name the two best human beings who have ever been President, I'd choose them. But neither of them would rank high on my lists of Presidents...

[Algernon Moncrieff]

31. In an alternate universe, he might have been an incredible SecState

People forget the bad aspects of the Carter presidency: the Bert Lance scandal; the constant rumors circling around Ham Jordan; Billy Carter. The Iran hostage crisis seemed like an endless hand wringing fest. Pulling out of the 1980 Olympics was, IMO, a bad call. I was a kid. My dad was a big fan of Carter; my mom hoped he'd get primaried by Kennedy and ultimately voted for Anderson.

He brokered peace between Israel and Egypt.

He (not Reagan) began support for the Afghan rebels.

Conservatives decry his pardon of the draft dodgers, but Ford had laid that groundwork already with conditional amnesty.

Habitat for Humanity is an incredible organization that does great good.

My take: great man; below-average President.

[nolabels]

41. I think we place too many credits and expectations on all the US presidents

Then often times they don't lead us but try to get out in front of something so their part of the government can control it. In a simplistic view, we are all indoctrinated into a world where we are told a single person and or doctrine must show us the way. The people that know that is not how it works often get in the way of the movement and those who believe just gum things up further with nostalgic thinking and ritual. I think many visionaries like President Carter sometimes get stuck in places years ahead of their time (and sometimes even centuries). We elected the correct president but it was just the wrong decade

The idea of a figurehead is also honed into us because it must be kept a secret because in all actuality, the people as a whole, control their own destiny.

[Ellen Forradalom]

48. Peace between Israel and Egypt is HUGE.

Who has been truly successful in the Middle East since?

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

44. I tend to think of a bit from the movie

The Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy unmasks the Wizard, she says to him, "You must be a very bad man." He replies, "Oh, no, my dear. I'm a very good man. I'm just a very bad wizard."

One thing that no one seems to have mentioned in this thread is that Carter is a Christian who really takes it seriously. Would that the so-called Christians who support Trump would do the same.

[JI7]

24. Total opposite of trump

[colorado_ufo]

26. I hope someday that

like Albert Schweitzer, will be recognized as a saint.

[oasis]

32. One of America's finest persons, period. nt

[lark]

35. I love and greatly admire President Jimmy Carter.

He's the best man to be president in my lifetime, maybe in the history of our country, but can't vouch for that.

[Raine]

37. A good decent man ... under rated President

it's a shame he didn't get a second term.

[jg10003]

38. Actually, he's 93 and a true force of nature

[Rhiannon12866]

40. And he almost lost that farm after his four years as president

Because running a family business was a violation of the emoluments clause, he received no notifications about the status of the Carter farm during his years in Washington. When he returned to Georgia in 1980, he learned that because of mismanagement and three years of drought that the farm was deeply in debt. He nearly lost both the farm and his home - which he had helped to build himself. He sold the Carter Warehouse to pay off most of the debt and that's the only reason it was able to remain in the family...

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

45. How unlike the kleptocrat-in-chief n/t

[disillusioned73]

46. K&R..

what a great man.. a true patriot

[Ellen Forradalom]

47. History is going to be much kinder to Carter than his contemporaries.

I believe.

[LisaM]

49. I was very politically active in the late 1970s and early 1980s...

I did work on Jimmy Carter's re-election campaign (IIRC, probably just stuffing mailers and knocking on doors). Years ago, a friend of mine (who's a bit older than I) told me how fervently she liked Jimmy Carter, her "favorite President".

"Did you work on his campaign in 1980?" Response below.

[lucca18]

50. A truly great and wonderful person.

I respect and admire Jimmy Carter so much.

[democratisphere]

51. Not such a great president, but one of the very best of all human beings!