I want an OBJECTIVE assesment of Jimmy Carter's presidency

[Colobo]

I wasn't alive yet when Jimmy Carter was president, but it seems like there is a general consensus of him being a weak/bad president. It seems like he was in office during difficult times, and that even though he honestly did as well as he could, he wasn't really succesful.

The "Malaise Speech" is particularly interesting to me because even though he was honest enough to tell the American people some truths about our character and our place in the world as a nation (sadly, things have not changed in that sense), the speech seemed to reflect the frustration and, yes, desperation of a man who was trying his best to help the nation move forward but wasn't being succesful at it.

So, I'm aware Jimmy probably has a lot of fans over here and many will be ready to call him "one of the greatest presidents ever" and what not. Well, that's not what I'm asking for. I want those of you who lived through that era to evaluate Carter's presidency; to share with me what you guys think his successes and failures were, and why.

Don't get me wrong: I like Jimmy Carter as a person based on what I have seen of him and read about him, but I get the impression he was too "good" (understand "naive") for such a tough job as the presidency. I sense there needs to be a certain grade of malice in order to be a succesful president, something Jimmy didn't seem to have.

Thanks beforehand for your input.

[Demeter]

1. Jimmy Carter Had Some Very Inept Friends on His Staff

and he kept them on, in spite of their proven ineptitude. Then he had the Bush/Reagan tag team pounding him unmercifully with lies, innuendo and real criminal dirty tricks. Carter did a lot of good things especially in the science/environmental areas, which Reagan promptly undid when he assumed office.

And the prima donnas in the Democratic Party were unsupportive of Carter, just as they were of Clinton, though not as badly.

[William769]

2. The right man at the wrong time.

With what was left over to clean up after Nixon and Ford, I don't believe any man at that time could have done a better than Jimmy Carter did. Yes I like Jimmy Carter, could he have done better? Given the circumstances I doubt it.

[AliceWonderland]

3. This is purely anecdotal, from memory

But Jimmy Carter was president when I was growing up in Canada. I was too young to really be aware of politics, but I remember always hearing about him in reasonably respectful terms -- the qualities that Canadians admire were stressed about him, such as peacemaking, diplomacy, and internationalism. From what little I remember, the hostage crisis was seen as a messy international problem -- as you say, in office during difficult times. It was not any personal moral sin of weakness, as seems to have been the case in the US.

Also recall a general appalled feeling in Canada at Reagan.

I'd be curious if anyone else from another country has different recollections of Carter, as well. It might be just me, but it would be interesting to hear any other international takes.

[Parche]

4. Jimmy Carter

He was a good President....He brought Egypt and Israel together, that was one of his better moments.
I would say he was an average President compared to the other ones, by far better then GW Bush,
of course Nixon was better then Bush.


Members of Congress thought he was a loof though, and would not support his policies.

[Hippo_Tron]

5. Carter was not good at kissing up to key members of Congress

Had he invited Tip O'Neil over to the White House for a drink, given him 30 tickets to the inauguration instead of 20, and been a bit more lenient on some of the pork projects the Congressional Democrats wanted (which were nothing compared to what the most recent GOP Congress passed) he would've had a much easier time getting his legislation passed.

Otherwise I think he did a pretty good job with most of the challenges he faced.

[MADem]

6. Objectively, I thought he brought standards, morals, and values to the office.

The real kind, not the GOP kind.

I thought he concerned himself with consensus a bit too much. He allowed his military to all take a piece of the pie on that rescue op, which should have been Navy carriers to the point of disembarkation, Army helos (with assistance from some of the old BELL hands who had been in country before the fall and who knew the importance of both altitude adjustments and screening against desert sands) to do the insertion and get personnel and equipment to their stopoff point, special forces (pick one, any one) to do the dirty work, and USAF flying way, way overhead, just in case. None of that joint shit, with everyone taking a piece of the pie like power rangers--we weren't ready for it at the time. Here's your "leg" of the job, and you have it, soup to nuts. None of this interoperability shit when you don't have the capability and certainly not the training or equipment.

Overall, I thought he was a decent man. He wasn't helped by a shitty economy, though. He came in during RAGING inflation and rising energy prices and scarcity. It was a dreadful time. We were cold in the winter--there was lousy insulation in lots of homes, people were not used to wearing sweaters in the house, either. And he had an idiot for a brother who would not shut up.

Some of his staff had a bit of hubris, too and didn't help him as much as they could have.

I don't know what more anyone could have done, though, save prosecute that rescue. Had he rescued the hostages, he would have had four more years, and he might have derailed Reagan, who would have been viewed as too old four years later, and not being the incumbent. It might have been a different world.

Shame.

[Bitwit1234]

7. One thing I do know is Reagan blindsided him.

Wanting to win the election, he sent representatives to Iran and got them to hold off releasing the hostages during Carters term. Carter promised the American people he would get them released. Since he couldn't the public turned against him. After the fact it leaked out that Reagans people negotiated they hold them til after Reagan took office and he got the credit. I think he promised them money and remember eventually he gave them weapons. But here again we have a fall guy, who took the rap for the prez. Ollie North. And North said he was carrying out the operation in the basement of the white house. Now how's that for covert. The darn president didn't even know what was going on in his own house.

[Colobo]

8. Interesting

So we can say Carter also had to face oppossition from Congress? Was it a Democratic congress?

[Bobbieo]

9. My late husband, a lifelong Democrat and honorable civil servant

suffered very badly under the Carter administration. He, unfortunately, made the mistake of disagreeing with the Carter political apointee. He was treated very shabbily even though he was a terminal cancer case. Left a bad taste in my mouth re: the federal gov't.

[Nikki Stone1]

17. Carter began the practice of putting political appointees at the head of government agencies

interfering with the consistency of the civil service.

[liberalpragmatist]

18. The Democratic Congress would NOT cooperate with Carter

It was a similar situation to Clinton from '93-'95. The current Dem majority is NOTHING like the old Dem majority, which was a fractious, unwieldy coalition that was dominated by Southern Conservatives that quarreled with whoever was president and didn't get along with the Northern and Midwestern liberals and populists. Carter didn't get along with either; the old Southern guard distrusted him as a "New South moderate" and the liberals viewed him as untrustworthy (Ted Kennedy despised him, for instance). Both factions viewed him as sort of a usurper.

Frankly, the only Democratic president since FDR's first time who didn't have serious problems with the Democratic Congress was LBJ and even his credibility was washed away by '68.

Carter, despite being a Southern moderate himself, didn't know how to deal with the Congress. His staff was inept and untrained in Washington (it was largely a Georgia cabal) and though Carter had extremely high approval ratings for his first year in office, they came down as his agenda was completely stalled. While the Dem congress had to take a lot of the blame, Carter wasn't blameless; a stronger personality might have done a better job.

But as others pointed out, he was in office in the midst of a truly terrible national climate. Terrible economy, horrible fiscal situation inherited from the mismanagement of the Nixon and Ford years, low American prestige due to the Vietnam War and a humane human rights policy that backfired when the Iranian Revolution broke out. Moreover, though Carter did an extraordinary thing at Camp David, the rest of his foreign policy, while enlightened in spirit, was poorly-run and relatively weak.

He wasn't a bad president; just a weak one. But he had some very enlightened policies and he looks better in hindsight. He appointed Paul Volcker to the Fed, who many economic historians credit as being the real person to have killed stagflation and revived the economy (not Reagan). Real inflation dropped under Carter and there was a net increase in jobs. Camp David was a triumph. And he had far-sighted energy policies, the value of which many are only seeing again now.

[Frustratedlady]

10. Jimmy brought calm to a disrupted country.

In looking back, the first thing that comes to mind is that he was treated like a country bumpkin. His brother didn't help matters with his drinking and good ol' boy conversations. (He probably got more publicity than Jimmy.) The Washington elite had a ball putting Jimmy and Rosalind down (sort of an early version of Swiftboating) and not a lot of laws he wanted enacted were passed. In fact, I don't think he had a whole lot of support from his own party.

Then, of course, came the hostage situation...the failed rescue attempt, horrible interest rates and what seemed to be interference by Reagan (my memory is probably wrong on that, but it popped into my mind).

My first recall on Jimmy was his fireside chats. In fact, it's the only time I ever sent a telegram, but I had to compliment him on his success with the first one. His soft-spoken ways were calming and endearing.

He has probably been one of the most successful "former presidents" in history. I think Clinton will run a close second. I admire them both for the time and energy they put into improving the lot of so many people in the world. Can you see George doing the same?

[ngant17]

11. Jimmy Carter has gotten a bum rap

from the press and many other 'political analysts and experts'.

I was in the Army when Pres. Carter was in office. No wars. About as peaceful time in America as I can recall. Don't remember any confrontations against Soviet Union, China, ect. He was beginning the process of normalization with Cuba. For a brief moment, I think it was actually legal for US citizens to travel to Cuba! Reagan screwed all that up.

I consider him one of the great US Presidents. A humble man with spiritual values and a high degree of ethics. A man of the South, someone who I could identify with. Not a Southern redneck, he had a nice Georgia accent. A man you could trust and believe in.

[ret5hd]

12. Closest we ever came to legalizing marijuana...

That oughta tell ya' somethin'.

[agincourt]

13. Good president, so so politician,

Barely beat Ford. Competent but got "defined" by the pro-republican-conservative media. Sound familiar eh? Didn't have much charisma, was a conservative democrat, but was probably the soundest decision maker we had in a long time. He just got stereotyped by the corporate media, he was a president during the start of the me, me generation when a good chunk of Americans lost critical thinking skills

[marlakay]

14. First president I voted for I was 18

At the time I didn't really understand politics and voted for him like many others did because of Watergate and Nixons group was evil. His family was so honest and sweet and it was first time in a long time we had young child in the White House. People used to send her gifts.

I liked him but thought he was too nice to be tough on certain people and the issues. At the time I was real religious and voted for Reagan like church said to next election. That was last time I voted Republican. No more will I be manipulated by religion or charmer men (both in private and voting life)

Yes I think most would agree he is one of those presidents that has done better afterwards.

I have a feeling Bush will crawl into a hole and never be seen again...at least I hope so!!

[dogman]

15. Much of the Congessional Leadership found more in common with his succesor.

Similar to the inclinations of a number of today's Democratic Congress.

[Colobo]

16. Great responses so far

So, my view of him is not unaccurate. Thanks again for responding.

[rman]

19. general consensus - among republicans. n/t

[Greyhound]

20. He was destroyed by his own party, plain and simple.

This was the congress he had to start with (dark blue=80%+ Democratic, light blue=60%+ Democratic)



Here's the second



He had the temerity to tell the Democratic elite that we would have to make a few unpopular changes to fix the mess left over from Nixon. He didn't sound right to them, he didn't pay them the deference they demanded, and they happily sunk the country to prove they were in charge.

Had he received even a modicum of cooperation from those assholes, he was well on his way to turning the country around, but like in '68 and '72 before, they showed they would rather see the country destroyed than surrender any power or allow any change to the corporate campaigning for dollars game. They, the Democratic Congress, gave us the next 27 years of Republik, and Repulik-lite rule that we suffer from today.