I remember when Jimmy Carter was considered...

[mitchum]

"the healer of the nation" in the mid 70s
Ford's pardon of Nixon was met with widespread scorn and disgust and rightly considered a cover up.
It's amazing how effectively propaganda and historical revisionism can be passed off as elegy.

[onehandle]

1. "Jimmy Carter!? He's history's greatest monster!" nt

[illinoisprogressive]

2. It's called time and retrospective.

Time and eras color the present thinking. People could say the same about Truman. he was reviled in the 50s. Thought a failure and was not looked upon as a good president.
Would you call that revisionism or propaganda.
Jimmy Carter was a laughing stock. Now look. Nobel Peace Prize. Is that propaganda.
I am trying to say, look at things from an objective view.

[mitchum]

7. In regards to Truman...

I never understood just exactly what was his progressive legacy. Making it possible for black men and white men to die in the same platoon while fighting imperialist wars?

My point was that while "healer of the nation" may be little more than a platitude, THAT platitude was applied to Carter, not Ford. It was one of the reasons that an obscure governor from GA defeated Ford. Very few people saw Ford's pardon of Nixon as "healing", rather most saw it as a cynical gesture from a gop functionary. And it was. And despite the tears and propaganda of today, that is exactly what it remains.

[EST]

3. I remember that narrow minded republiclowns, a lot of them the

same society destroyers as today and the fathers and mothers of the rest, made his tenure an absolute hell.
The constant belittling in the press, the obstructionism of the idiots who wanted a return to the 1880s and who were still smarting at having to share the world with people whose skins were more colorful than theirs were an everyday diet.

Carter was intelligent and well informed and the more "challenged" treated him to the same garbage they later used on Clinton.
He was blamed for everything that was negative and credited for very little that was positive.

[MichiganVote]

4. When it comes to Ford or Carter I think its best to drop the Dem or Repub distinctions

they were/are men, good men. They succeeded at some thing, botched others and the rest is left to public opinion. There is an 8 hour wait in GR tonight to view just the coffin of GRFord. I fully expect the same will happen with Carter.

[mitchum]

8. See the second paragraph of my post 7 for a clarification of the point...

I was trying to make.
I was around and aware at the time. I remember the mood and the zeitgeist of the time. It was NOTHING like the way the elegiac propagandists have been attempting to spin it for the past week.
Ford was seen as a lackey (because he was)

[silverojo]

9. I second that

People couldn't be-freakin'-LIEVE it when Ford pardoned Nixon. Everybody (except die-hard Repukes) wanted Nixon's head on a stick, and Ford basically said, "Screw you, America."

So America replied, "Screw you, Ford" two years later, when Jimmy Carter led him in the polls by about 30 points.

[mitchum]

10. Thank You

It was only 30 yearss ago, but people seem to think that it occured in the far dim mists of time, so we "must" rely on the "truth" as ladled out by the somber voiced propagandists of this week.

[LittleClarkie]

5. Death as a career move

It has always been thus.

[dave_p]

6. But

... W a few successors down the line tops even that.

Death a poor second. What a thought.

[beltanefauve]

11. I remember Jimmy Carter

looking squarely into the camera at the American People and saying, "I will never lie to you." And thus he was elected. I don't believe he ever did lie, either. THESE were the words of a healer. Gerald Ford, it was assumed, had an inside deal going with Nixon. Funny, the ones singing Gerald Ford's praises the loudest seem to be * and Cheney.

[Murdock]

12. I am just...

So so thankful that we've had President Carter throughout these dark years of Bush's rule.

President Carter will be remembered as the greatest Post-Presidency in American history. We as a nation need his guidance and wisdom now more than ever.

[Rosemary2205]

13. I remember when

Carter left office and even many democrats thought he was nuclear waste. Funny what a difference a few decades makes.

[Raine]

14. The prospective from the passage

of time changes the immediate judgement for both men. That's the way it should be things appear different from a further place as more things come to light.

[malaise]

15. Eulogies are not delivered under oath.

Ignore the revision of history