Making A Case For Jimmy Carter

[Zoroastor]

In addition to all the work he has done since he left office, this article makes a good case for him as a great President too.

http://cons-lie.com/2010/08/27/a-case-for-carter/

[jeremyfive]

1. Carter was a great President. . .

. . . it's just the the American people lack patience. They actually preferred a Republican president who sold arms directly to our enemies in a hostage crisis, rather than refusing to negotiate with terrorists as Carter did.

The problem is not with Carter. . . it is with the gullability of the American people.

[tortoise1956]

2. Before you put Mr. Peanut up for sainthood...

Consider these points:

1. He actively worked to deregulate trucking, finance and the airlines.
2 He canceled militery pay raises in 1977, further crippling an already demoralized force.
3. His pick for the Fed, Paul Volcker, took actions that drove the interest rates so high (21.5% in 1980) that it was almost impossible for average folks to afford to take out a mortgage.
4. He gave the Panama Canal to Panama, thus settign the groundwork for Noriega to try to hold it hostage.
5. He refused to let the Plympic team go to Moscow in 1980, which didn't hurt anyone other than the athletes themselves.
6. His handling of the Iran hostage situation was moronic.
7. He tried to pull out all combat troops from South Korea but was stopped by Congress. Given what has happened in the years since, does anybody doubt that North Korea would have moved militarily against the South?

Not to mention his idiot of a brother, Billy. Oh, and don't forget that his aides were druggies who were photographed partying at nightspots like Studio 54. While I wish that most drugs were legalized, I would rather the country was not run by a bunch of people jamming coke up their noses as fast as they can...

[demigoddess]

3. i lived through his presidency and he was ok but not great

one thing i had a problem with is that when some dictator type came to visit the white house, the news would report that Carter was going to give him a good talking to. but at the welcoming ceremonies, televised of course, carter would be all smiles and praise the guy all over the place. You cannot praise a dictator and then go in and give him a good talking to. There should have been polite but not glorifying language used. have you noticed that not many foreign leaders come to visit the white house anymore. I cannot remember anybody much over the last ten years.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Had we followed the energy road that Carter started us on, before it was obliterated by Bush/Reagan

we'd be more secure, more productive and, when the costs of war and military muscle / gas subsidies / tax policy serving Big Oil's interests over the past 30+ years are considered...we'd be, financially, a hellava lot better off. I'd say, collectively speaking, at least $10 Trillion dollars poorer.

That's been the true costs of Republican politics in our lifetime - going long on Big Oil, short on America.

[Pterodactyl]

5. Hmmm. Should the case be glass or plastic?

We'd leave air holes, of course! Bwa ha! Just kidding! I couldn't resist!

[57_TomCat]

6. Having read the article posted...

and being a past GA resident from a line of GA peanut farmers myself, Carter sucked as a president. I voted for him the first time but did not the second time. I was living and working in GA at the time. Even in GA his reputation is sullied. 30 years of reflection can shine a golden light on the past but living through Watergate and then the Carter presidency was not fun. I would prefer not to hear anymore about him myself.

[BlueDog22]

7. Carter as President

Carter was a lot better president looking back. The Fed started regulating the interest rate under Carter, but Regan used it to stop the inflation of the 1970s, but also his treaty between Isreal and Egypt still stands, and hopefully it will for a much longer time.