Contrary to what his detractors say, Jimmy Carter was one of the most successful

[Kellyiswise]

Presidents in history.

Camp David Accords: a so-far lasting peace between Israel and Egypt, successful ME initiative

Energy: Plagued by the gas guzzling habits of the American people and a harsh OPEC policy, under the Carter administration, the government got serious about alternative fuels for the first time. The discussion and movement was quickly curtailed by the corporate-loving Reagan administration that brings us to the place we are in now with energy. But much of the foundation for the science and initiative for alternative fuels and clean fuels was established under Jimmy Carter. Had we had the sense to listen to him, we might be in a much better energy and foreign policy place right now.

Panama Canal: Vilified by the RW for doing the right thing, it is notable that none of the dastardly outcomes predicted by his detractors have even remotely appeared all these years AND Panama is beginning a venture to widen the canal, bringing investment, jobs, and additional benefits to the US and the rest of the world.

Hostage situation: Although Carter embarked on a secret but failed attempt to rescue US hostages, his coolness under this pressure from US military to do more kept the US out of a major conflict with Iran and quite probably a major mess and loss of lives like that now occurring in Iraq.

Taxes: The reform so touted by the RW Reagan lovers, actually was started under the Carter administration.

Human and civil rights: Also vilified for linking human rights issues to our foreign policy initiatives and trade policies, Carter led the way in the arena of human rights across the world. He was criticized by candidate Reagan for "meddling" in the affairs of other nations but when in office Reagan used the human rights issue against the USSR and China as though it were his own initiative. Carter's efforts in this area laid the foundation for the very human rights platforms and international laws that are so important to our foreign policy today.

Integrity: Carter actually brought to the office of the Presidency that which his successors only gave lip service to. He is a true Christian in every sense of the word. He did not use his office for personal gain or acclaim or political advantage. He has set the standard for what public servants can and ought to do in and out of office.

I, for one, am grateful for his presence. And to those (like Pat Buchanan) who would label Carter as a "failed President" think again. Better yet, define "failed."

[Selatius]

1. Carter was delt with a weaker hand than Bush ever was.

He was running neck to neck with Reagan before he lost despite double digit inflation, gas instability, a slumping economy, and a nation still recovering from Vietnam.

If Bush were given the same hand Carter was, Reagan would've steamrolled him.

[sam sarrha]

3. we are still recovering from Viet Nam.. the NeoCons created Iraq as the Death Knell of civilization,

they believe that they have to destroy the world as we know it for the 'Utopia' to raise from the ashes.. they are a death cult.

[LiberalEsto]

13. I agree with you

they ARE a death cult.

They yammer on and on about being pro-life, but the only life they care about is the fertilized egg, the embryo and the fetus.

Once out of the womb,(unless the baby is born to one of the elite) they want to give a child:

- inadequate or non-existent medical care
- a terrible, useless education
- no decent job opportunities
- no living wage
- no money for higher education
- no access to family planning
- no affordable housing
- no health or other benefits at work
- no clean water or air

What they want is for the kids of the less-privileged who survive all this to join the military and go off to kill others and get killed themselves. Getting killed eliminates potential Social Security recipients.

They're poisoning the planet with the waste products of their manufacturing corporate farming and wars and extraction of fuels and minerals from the ground.

It seems to me as though they are trying kill off everyone but their elite, but what will they do for air, water, food and servants once the rest of us aren't around? Oh, I forgot, they can have robots for servants. But who will be around to maintain the robots?

[zreosumgame]

26. don't forget it was treason who defeated him

After all AFAIK it is considered treason for a candidate to make deals with other countries to continue to hold hostages (in other words commit terror) before being elected to office.

[Morgana LaFey]

40. And that treasonous bastard was none other than GHW Bush

This is a must-read article that explains it ALL.

http://old.valleyadvocate.com/25th/archives/bushs_watergate.html

[waiting for hope]

2. I personally think

he was more than just successful - he is leaving a legacy for all to admire. People are still stuck on the Iran Hostage debacle, which, BTW, was orchestrated to make Carter look bad anyway.

He is a national treasure.:thumbsup:

[sam sarrha]

5. he is second only to the Dalai Lama in compassion and the ability to effect the world in a positive

manner

[Felinity]

4. K&R

Thanks for this post. It's about time we stop letting "??" write history. Reagan was probably one of the 5 worst presidents in history, and the myth goes on.

I like Carter, and remember he finally came clean on the message he sent the Iranians over the hostages (that he would bomb the crap out of them if any of them were harmed, or something to that effect). But he did not disclose it, even though it probably would have kept him in office, because he was more concerned about the Country, and the hostages.

He is a great man, still great, still adding value to the world.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. GDP Growth: Far Higher Under CARTER Than Under Bush

Democratic vs. Republican Presidents: Economic Prosperity (my blog)

Avg. Yearly GDP Growth:
Carter - 3.3%
G.W. Bush - 2.3%
G.H.W. Bush - 2.1%

Contrary to the BS pounded into us, the economy does better under DEMOCRATS than under Rethugs.

[progressoid]

10. I would like to see a similar chart showing..

GDP during Dem vs Rep run congresses.

Nice blog btw.

[sendero]

7. Carter's big mistake?

Telling the American people what they needed to hear instead of what they wanted to hear.

[Greyhound]

17. Bingo! We have a winner!

:kick: & R

[melm00se]

8. i may get flamed

but....

carter as chief executive? iffy at best...not a really good match of skills to job.

carter as statesman? a far better fit of skills to job and a correspondingly better performance

[Greyhound]

18. Anything to back any of that up? Or is your unsupported estimation some kind of

standard that we don't know about?

[melm00se]

22. it is strictly my opinion

no more no less.

Carter's downhome country charm was lost on many northeasterners and actively worked against him while he was trying to make serious and significant points (the stereotype of the slow dumb southerner raised its ugly head) as that was not the way a president should be. Like it or not there is a lot of "image" that comes with being president - one has to look, walk, talk and act presidential and if you don't, it will weigh against that president.

Conversely, this same level of charm comes across as hugely compassionate and that compassion is backed up (and expanded upon) by many of Carter's good and charitable works.

that is my opinion...take it or leave it, your choice

[TahitiNut]

20. Georgia 'coasted' for many years on the improvements brought under Carter.

Carter, imho, brought Georgia into the 20th century. Inheriting the catastrophe of a Maddox regime, he completely reorganized state government, appointed record numbers of women and minorities, established "zero-based budgeting," and all but eliminated thousands upon thousands of crony hog troughs. Just the educational reforms eventually lifted Georgia from the septic tanks of the southern state institutionalized ignorance.

So, he was an EXCELLENT "chief executive" ... at the state level.

[cali]

9. No he wasn't.

He was certainly much better than the conventional wisdom credits him as being, but his inability to work effectively with Congress, his Afghanistan policy, the energy crisis and his handling of it, are some of the reasons historians do not place him in the top tier. Most surveys of historians place him somewhere in the lower middle. Carter had some notable achievements and was, in many ways a visionary. As someone else noted, he was dealt a poor hand, but then so was FDR, who is often counted in the top ten.

[Kellyiswise]

48. His Afghanistan policy is what ultimately beat the Soviets in Afghanistan.

And it was accomplished without losing numbers of American lives. Afghanistan turned into a harbor for OBL and al-qaeda largely because of subsequent US foreign policy by Reagan and Bush senior which placed US troops on the holy lands of Islam. OBL told the world that this was the main reason for 9/11 and the building of a network for training future terrorists. And we still haven't heeded the message but would rather ascribe motives to Al-qaeda and others that they do not ascribe to themselves. Our heads are up our own asses and we will be paying for a long time in lives and treasure. At least until we become a second-rate nation that can not govern or support its own unwealthy people.

[madrchsod]

11. did the carter doctrine pave the way for neo con middle east policy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Doctrine
Carter Doctrine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://faithfuldemocrats.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=131&Itemid=108
Faithful Democrats - Democrats: Hawks or Doves?

http://militarynewswatch.blogspot.com/2004/06/jimmy-carters-military-buildup.html
Military News Watch: Jimmy Carter's Military Buildup.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7429691&dopt=Abstract
Entrez PubMed


the best of these links is the "faithful democrats"

[mod mom]

12. I was really po-ed watching Scarborough (I know but it was on after KO)

when he was saying that Jimmy Carter NOT George Bush was the worst president ever-I couldn't even believe they would consider them together!

[zbdent]

14. One of the best pieces of evidence is when David Stockman ran

the numbers through his analysis to prove that Jimmy Carter would have caused horrendous damage to the economy, as justification for Reagan's policies ... and ended up proving that Carter's plan was far better at reducing the deficit than Reagan's at it's rosiest scenario ...

"The Triumph of Politics" - interesting read to convince someone of the "Reagan is God" crowd ...

[Bigmack]

15. IF....

The rescue mission to retrieve the hostages in Iran had succeeded, Carter would have been re-elected handily. He would have been hailed as a hero.

No "October Surprise"... no Iran-Contra.... perhaps even peace in the Middle East.

I read that sand screens weren't place over the air intakes of the rescue choppers, and that's why the chopper flew into the C130, scrubbing the mission.

Lack of sand screens changed the course of world history.... bigtime.

[Cosmocat]

19. Yep ...

If that had went off ...

One more thing people are not noting ... He worked out a deal between Israel and Egypt that has beens stable to this day ...

I just find it STUNNING that we are were we are at with energy today, and people are totally oblivious to the energy policy that he put into place, and which was the first thing Reagen tore down ... HAD this country stayed committed to his energy policy, we would be in a MUCH ... M U C H better place today ...

As noted, he told people what they didn't want to hear ...

[jarab]

16. Carter - a great man; a weak President.

I've long believed Carter brought too much baggage to Washington with him in the form of his aides. None of them knew the playing field well in Washington, and they failed in many areas because of that.
Some also might have forgotten the old Bank of Georgia exec who was up to his eyeballs in BCCI.
I admire Jimmy Carter as much as I do any living person, but I won't lie for him.
jmo
...O...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. He was so much of a Washington outsider that he didn't realize which

asses you had to kiss to get anything done. Because of his failure to suck up to the Congressional bigwigs, his own party began sabotaging him.

I heard him speak about 15 years ago, and a member of the audience asked him about the hostage crisis.

He said that after the failed rescue mission, he brought on advisors on Iranian culture, and they told him that the mullahs would feel compelled to respond to a direct, public challenge in order to save face. Therefore, when there were rumors that the captors were planning to start killing the hostages one by one, he sent word through the diplomatic back channels saying that if any of the hostages were harmed, he would order the bombing of Tehran.

Sure enough, two months later, the Iranians released Richard Queen, a hostage who had begun showing strange neurological symptoms. He was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but it was clear that the Iranians didn't want to risk having him die in their custody.

Anyway, Carter said that it was extremely frustrating for him to have critics carping about him "not doing anything" day in and day out, but he couldn't publicly reveal what was going on behind the scenes.

[flaminbats]

43. Carter..a great President; a weak politician

Why lie for any living person..whether you like him or not?

I still believe that if re-elected..Carter would have gotten the credit he deserved for bringing home the hostages alive from Iran, for making Israel more secure with the Camp David Accords, and for never allowing the national debt to exceed $1 trillion. If Carter had been re-elected I believe he would have received credit for standing up against the Soviets in 1980 with a grain embargo, he would have received credit for the rebounding economy of the early eighties, and for winning the Cold War without leaving our nation weakened under mountains debt.

Republicans and too many Democrats still blame Carter for the high inflation of the 70's, for the oil embargo organized by OPEC, and for not allowing the United States to participate in the Moscow Olympics in 1980. If Carter should be blamed for anything..it is for deregulating corporate America, not working closely enough with Democrats like Ted Kennedy to make universal healthcare a reality, and being far too nice to the same Republicans who ruthlessly defeated him by promising to give voters a flawless government for free.

[riderinthestorm]

23. Another Presidential daughter comparison - what was Amy Carter doing in her 20s?

Protesting US actions in Central America and Nicaragua. I believe she was even arrested at one point for her political activism.

Sorry for the off-topic tangent but the Bu$h twins cavorting in So. America just chaps my ass....

[jaysunb]

37. she was a pre teen...

cute & nice kid.
The boys were...well, boys. :rofl:

[greenman3610]

24. most underrated in my memory

but so was Truman.
History will be kinder to Carter, as it was
to HT.

[applegrove]

25. Those were tough economic times caused by the oil crisis and spending

on the Vietnam war. None of it Carter's doing.

[pacalo]

27. He was the victim of the Rethugs' big-money character assassination machine.

JFK was the epitome of what the public likes in a president & I have no doubt in my mind that the Rethugs were quite envious & jealous of his stature with the American people & with the world as well. Since his assassination, every Democratic president has been the victim of the Rethugs' big-money character assassination machine.

Come to think of it, they didn't play that game with LBJ. Why? Because LBJ let them have their corporate money-making war in Vietnam. And, in addition, his former long-time mistress has said in a video-taped interview that LBJ was in with the cabal who assassinated JFK.

The lesson here is that those Democrats who get raked through the coals in an orchestrated fashion by the media are the ones who aren't bought by the Rethugs' corporate buddies; those Democrats are the ones who can do most good for the people.

[cali]

28. Sorry, that's just ridiculous.

We're not talking about the media. We're talking about the historical perspective, and believe me the majority of the historian who engage in scrutinizing presidential success/failure, are not conservatives. Carter's ratings which, by the way, are not awful, are based on criteria that have nothing to do with his being slimed by the rethugs.

[pacalo]

29. Excuse me, dear, but I'M talking about the media & I'M talking about sliming

by the Rethugs because it has everything to do with the unfair perception in this country about Carter. Have you not seen these catty questions on website polls that have the intent of spinning negative perceptions toward Carter?

If my being off topic annoyed you, too bad, so sad.

[cali]

30. Doesn't bother me in the least. What does bother me

is your addressing me as "dear". Kindly refrain from doing so should you have occasion to address me in the future.

Thank you.

[pacalo]

31. It was a kinder expression that what I was actually thinking.

I just don't care to be tombstoned.

[cali]

33. Congratulations!

Good to see you have a minimum amount of impulse control.

[pacalo]

34. Backatcha -- for taking 6 minutes to come back with a lame reply.

[LSK]

36. GD would be much nicer if people stopped baiting each other

and also refused to take the bait.

Walk away.

[pacalo]

38. You're right & I apologize.

I have a special place in my heart for Carter & this thread belongs to him.

I'll always remember how Carter & Rosalyn walked down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day. It symbolized his attitude toward the presidency -- he worked for us & he was embracing the people.

[cali]

39. I apologize as well.

I could have found a nicer way to say I disagreed with you. And I also have a special place in my heart for Carter. My parents were early and generous supporters of President Carter. He came to our home in CT for a reception, and I attended the inauguation. (I still have a vivid memory of tripping over George Wallace's wheel chair at the Inaugural Ball).

[pacalo]

44. Thanks, Cali.

Just want you to know that I wasn't online when you replied or I would have answered right away. I apologize to you, as well. :)

[some guy]

46. sweet!

:applause:

That's one of the best posts I've ever seen here. :)

I'm sure many of us weary of flame wars, yet we also get caught up in defending the points we are/were trying to make, when sometimes we really need to just step back and let something go.

:yourock: - totally

[LSK]

32. Carter is always blamed for the Hostage situation that was undermined

By Bush and Reagan and exploited by them to help them win the Presidency.

Is it a coincidence that they were released on the same day that Reagan was inaugurated? I think not.

[AngryAmish]

35. Deregulated trucking, airlines

He appointed Paul Volker to head the Federal reserve that started the pre-eminence of the Chicago school of monetarists in the Fed.

[eridani]

45. Let Zbig Brzezinsky start supporting fundies in Afghanistan

--with the results we are still living with. Covertly supported Somoza, even while talking a much better game publicly. Rubberstamped the East Timor genocide, begun under Ford's administration.

http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Timor/etretrospective.htm

The guiding principles were well understood by those responsible for Indonesia's 1975 invasion. They were articulated by UN Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in words that should be committed to memory by anyone with a serious interest in international affairs, human rights, and the rule of law. The Security Council condemned the invasion and ordered Indonesia to withdraw, but to no avail. In his 1978 memoirs, Moynihan explains why:

The United States wished things to turn out as they did, and worked to bring this about. The Department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. This task was given to me, and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success.

I'll agree he did quite a bit of good in his post-presidential life. The sad fact is that 20th Century Dem presidents have been every bit the imperial cheerleaders that Repubs have been, even as they often attempted to ameliorate some of its worst aspects. 21st century Dems have to look back to the very beginning of the 20th century for our way forward.

http://janda.org/politxts/PartyPlatforms/Democratic/dem.900.html

We declare again that all governments instituted among men derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that any government not based upon the consent of the governed is a tyranny, and that to impose upon any people a government of force is to substitute the methods of imperialism for those of a republic. We hold that the Constitution follows the flag, and denounce the doctrine that an Executive or Congress deriving their existence and their powers from the Constitution can exercise lawful authority beyond it or in violation of it. We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home.

<snip>

We are in favor of extending the Republic's influence among the nations, but we believe that that influence should be extended not by force and violence, but through the persuasive power of a high and honorable example.

<snip>

We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. It means the strong arm which has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is what millions of our citizens have fled from in Europe. It will impose upon our peace loving people a large standing army and unnecessary burden of taxation, and will be a constant menace to their liberties.

The approval of the Chinese Exclusion Act strikes a sour note, but otherwise our great-great grandparents seem to have known a thing or three that we of the 21st century have forgotten. Lose the xenophobia and the details specific to the era, and it would serve very well in 2006.

[Canuckistanian]

41. I wondered why it was "common knowledge" that Carter was a bad president

It seems like some Democrats as well had that opinion. But, looking back, I can remember no real downsides to his presidency at all.

In fact, I can remember people being relieved that Nixon-style politics and dirty tricks campaigns had ended.

[Diane R]

42. Honored to recommend. Thank you, President Carter.

[procopia]

47. He's a genuinely honest and good man,

the first and most important quality for the presidency. I recently came across this great article about President Carter by Mike Hersh:

Happy Birthday, Jimmy Carter
By Mike Hersh, Oct 1, 2002

"Considered the finest ex-president by many, Jimmy Carter is perhaps the most underrated president as well.

"He brokered peace in the Middle East, as most people know. But many don't realize he also increased defense spending every year. As a former naval officer, he reformed and revamped the military. The new dollars added to our security, not just the deficit, as Carter continued the tried and true containment policies which won the Cold War.

"Facing economic woes when he took office in 1981, he took the painful steps needed to halt inflation without stopping job growth. Carter's policies helped create nearly two million new jobs per year."

(more)
http://www.mikehersh.com/printer_117.shtml

[Kellyiswise]

49. I wish some posters would not make this a flame bait post just to get it locked.

This seems to happen a lot lately. A few posters who disagree with a post will turn in into flaming discussion because they know this will get the thread locked and deleted. OR some posters will push the "Alert" button to feign offense and get the mods to warn or ban someone who plucks their nerve.
Can't we all be adults here?