Who is your favorite Democratic living ex-president

[WI_DEM]

Poll question: Who is your favorite Democratic living ex-president

Not too many to chose from.

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. Carter, he seems like such a nice guy

More genuine than Clinton. Clinton seems like he's perfected the art of being sincere.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. Gore.

[Ruby Romaine]

4. Yeah, Gore should be on the poll since he was never allowed to take his

rightful place!

[spooky3]

3. He seems like a good human being, but he was not very competent at

the job of President. So I guess maybe we need a poll to separate our feelings for them as people vs. presidents.

[mandyky]

5. I like both but

Jimmy Carter has done far more worldwide, but then he's been a former president longer. Time and history will tell.

[flaminbats]

6. Carter was our most unappreciated President...

I love it when he brings up issues other leaders are never willing to address. I wish we had more candidates like him today, ones running on what's best for the future..not just what voters find to be quick and easy! The big question history will leave unanswered..what would America be like today if he had been re-elected?

[jsw_81]

7. Carter

He's just a terrific guy with an outstanding record on human rights issues etc. He's clearly the greatest ex-president in American history.

[AntiCoup2K4]

8. James Earl Carter

The last true Democrat in the White House :(

[DaveSZ]

9. .

Carter easily.

Kucinich reminds me of Carter, as they both have pure hearts.

Clinton is an amazing speaker, but I don't think he's as sincere.

Still, I'd trade Clinton any day for Shrub.

[RummyTheDummy]

10. Bill Clinton

Carter was before my time. I was 5 when he was elected. I like him a lot though. Clinton is the only prez in my life that I felt like really gave a shit about me as a citizen. I don't expect him to do well in this poll. He committed the unforgiveable crime of being successful.

[Bombtrack]

11. Jimmy Carter and Human Rights: Behind the Media Myth

http://www.fair.org/media-beat/940921.html

Jimmy Carter and Human Rights: Behind the Media Myth
By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon
Media Beat, September 21, 1994

Jimmy Carter's reputation has soared lately. Typical of the media spin was a Sept. 20 report on CBS Evening News, lauding Carter's "remarkable resurgence" as a freelance diplomat. The network reported that "nobody doubts his credibility, or his contacts." For Jimmy Carter, the pact he negotiated in Haiti is the latest achievement of his long career on the global stage.

<snip>

Elsewhere, despotic allies -- from Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines to the Shah of Iran -- received support from President Carter. In El Salvador, the Carter administration provided key military aid to a brutal regime. In Nicaragua, contrary to myth, Carter backed dictator Anastasio Somoza almost until the end of his reign. In Guatemala -- again contrary to enduring myth -- major U.S. military shipments to bloody tyrants never ended.

<snip>

But a decade after Carter left the Oval Office, scholar James Petras assessed the ex-president's actions overseas -- and found that Carter's image as "a peace mediator, impartial electoral observer and promoter of democratic values...clashes with the experiences of several democratic Third World leaders struggling against dictatorships and pro-U.S. clients." From Latin America to East Africa, Petras wrote, Carter functioned as "a hard-nosed defender of repressive state apparatuses, a willing consort to electoral frauds, an accomplice to U.S. Embassy efforts to abort popular democratic outcomes and a one-sided mediator."

<snip>

[jsw_81]

12. How dare you post that crap here

Carter isn't perfect, but it's absolutely insane to suggest that he is supporting repressive dictators.

[AgadorSparticus]

13. JSW, I agree. I find it offensive to post that kind of stuff here.

Carter was a recipient of the nobel peace award and he deserves more respect than that.

[Bombtrack]

14. Yasser Arafat and Henry Kissenger got the same award

I don't think Carter is evil, or anywhere near Arafat, but he isn't a good president for a democrat and the reality is that his ex-presidency isn't what it's cracked up to be either.

Can you dispute anything in the article? Or can you just deflect. Sometimes the truth hurts

[Bombtrack]

15. How is it crap. It is the lowest form of discourse to just attack an

argument at face value because you don't like it, rather than disproving anything about it. I didn't suggest he "supports oppressive dictators" but he does seem to support the status quo.

At least Clinton accomplished alot. but people are voting for Carter because they've bought into alot of lovey dovey BS. You should just read about the Kennedy/Carter primary battle and see what Kennedy thought of Carter back then.

[corporatewhore]

16. thats pretty much how i feel bad president but better ex pres

[revcarol]

18. Carter wants honest elections.

Post 2000, that's worth A LOT.

[Piperay]

17. Both...

to hard to pick one or the other, I like them both equally for different reasons.

[Zynx]

19. Jimmy Carter. He was a good man who was in there at the wrong time.

[dogman]

20. Carter as a person.

Not as a President. It's a toss up as to which one did more damage to the Democratic Party. They both failed as leaders.

[CalebHayes]

21. I was not a live for his presidency but I would say, Jimmy Carter.

It just seems like Clinton did some bad things. NAFTA and all... theres more but mostly just letting this country get so freaken "corporate."

I really like what I have seen and heard of Jimmy Carter. Maybe he should be running for president. Jimmy04

[R3dD0g]

22. I was alive during Carter's term.

It wasn't as bad as the pukes talk about, but it wasn't wine & roses either. Lots of people lost their jobs, because of foreign competition and oil prices. And NAFTA wasn't even a gleam in the eyes of any corporatist.

And as far as NAFTA goes, it wasn't the source of the job losses we're seeing now. Remember that it was passed early in Clinton's term and we saw the most prosperous time in the nation's history. It wasn't until the Repukes took over and there was no one in the bully pulpit to bash the corporatists for sending jobs overseas that we started losing out.

[Faygo Kid]

24. I voted for Carter. Oh, to have a choice again between Carter-Ford.

I could sleep at night, knowing that we might make mistakes, but that either wasn't going to plunge us into the Heart of Darkness that Bush has planned for us ("The Horror! The Horror!")

[DFLforever]

23. Jimmy Carter, by far

I was stunned listening to their speeches last night at the Unity Dinner. In comparison to Carter, Clinton sounds like a party hack. Carter seems a man of conviction, much more in touch with the world and our times.

[dae]

25. Carter, didn't care for him while he was President; but, he's been

nothing short of inspirational with his humanitarian works since leaving office.

[NewJerseyDem]

26. Carter seems nice

But, he probably wasn't a very good president. Clinton did a pretty good job, not a great one, but it was good.

[yardwork]

27. Carter got blamed for a lot of things beyond his control.

The Republican slime-machine was working well during those days, too. And guess who was behind a lot of it? George Herbert Walker Bush! Surprise.

Carter was not good at getting his ideas through Congress, even though it was a Democratic Congress. That was probably his worst failing.

By the end, he came across as beaten down, tired, worn out, indecisive.

I still admire him very much. He might be the most ethical president the U.S. has ever had. In the top five, anyway.

I think this talk about Carter supporting terrorist regimes is nit-picking. The world is full of terrorist regimes. What can we do? Carter did a lot, for which he paid dearly politically. Some academics are never satisfied. That's their prerogative.

[cryofan]

28. Clinton & Carter were neoliberals. LBJ was the last true democrat we had

Fuck Carter and especially Clinton. THey were neoliberal Republicrats. What we need is another LBJ!

[wyldwolf]

29. I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic about LBJ...

Explain why you feel that LBJ was the "last true democrat" (whatever the hell that means.)

LBJ was a southern moderate and Kennedy's liberal supporters were quite dismayed at Kennedy for choosing LBJ.

So I'm naturally curious about whay would qualify him as the "last true democrat."