US Presidents, Day 39: Carter

[Joe Republic]

Jimmy Carter
Democratic
1977-1981


Discuss his presidency.

[??????????]

Should have stuck with growing peanuts instead of giving away the Panama canal.

[bbt]

Easily the weakest of Presidents in the 20th century

[Kevin]

Easily one of the worst Presidents in this Nation's history.

[YRABNNRM]

A good man who didn't have the political skill (which resulted in a lack of competency) to maintain the office of president.

[PBrunsel]

#
Jimmy Carter was a nice, decent, and honest man, who was in over his head. Elected to the Presidency at a time when the American voter was looking for an honest leader, Carter promised, “A Presidency as good, honest, and efficient as the American people.” Perhaps we should take offense to the idea that we as Americans are as effective as Carter’s Administration.

The son of an influential peanut farmer in the small town on Plains, Georgia, Carter was the only boy in his school who claimed Abraham Lincoln was his favorite president (thus another reason for StatesRights to like him). Carter was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1962, defeating machine politician Homer Moore and ushering in an era of reform in Georgia. In 1966 Jimmy Carter ran as a liberal for Governor, and lost to Conservative Lester Maddox, who never chased blacks away from his chicken restaurant with an axe handle, the liberal media made that up. In 1970, Carter ran as a segregationist Conservative, invited George Wallace to campaign fro him, and, like Wallace, won the Governorship as a Conservative-Populist Democrat. As Governor of Georgia Carter trimmed pork from the budget, cut taxes, and never approved of an unbalanced budget. Carter was known, to the chagrin of New Deal Democrats, as a fiscal conservative, and also as an honest man. These two qualities would help Jimmy Carter, the one term Governor of Georgia, clench the 1976 Democratic Nomination for President of the United States.

In 1976 the people were sick of liars, thus they turned to Jimmy Carter. Johnson had lied about Vietnam, Nixon had lied about Watergate, and Ford had “lied” about the behind the scene deals during the last days of Nixon’s Presidency, so the American voter wanted an honest man as President. Jimmy Carter, a Born Again Christian and Sunday school teacher, was seen by the voter as an honest man. “I will never tell a lie,” Carter said in New Hampshire in 1976, “I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray your trust.” In the 1976 Election, however, Carter played t everyone. He said he was a Liberal a moderate, and a Conservative. He supported and opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, school bussing, and recognizing the Communist nation of Vietnam. The Ford and Carter election will go down in history as an election with two nice and honest men, with really no firm beliefs that set them apart. Carter won in 1976 because Ford was inept and his campaign was poorly ran (one of many Bob Dole would be involved in), and thus the peanut farmer from Plains was to become the 39th President, and the first from the Deep South since Zachary Taylor.

After walking the inaugural parade for the first time since Jefferson in 1801, Carter sat down to take the government by the snout and tame it like a Georgia wild hog. This is not the way things are done in Washington, D.C., and it is a shame that is true. Carter was no fan of the national Democratic Party, and even though his own party controlled Congress, he would fight with it for four years. Carter wanted to end pork barrel spending, streamline government, and slash taxes and social spending. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil nearly exploded when he heard this; Carter was a Democrat, he had to tax and spend! Carter’s was, for most of his presidency, a fiscal conservative, and thus he and the liberal Congress fought it out worse than a Republican President would with a Democratic Congress. Though Carter is now practically a Socialist, in the 1970s he was fiscally conservative. This helped undue the long held New Deal coalition.

“Our dedication to human rights must be absolute,” Carter said in 1977, and he practically patented the term “human rights.” He did not want the United States to have “pet dictators”, but was forced to support such ones as the Shah of Iran and Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos to keep them safe from Marxism. In Latin America, however, Carter stopped supporting the pro-U.S. dictatorship, attacking Chile’s Pinochet for his own human rights violations, and refused to help El Salvador’s dictatorship fight off a leftist uprising. He did manage to also alienate the left by refusing to recognize Robert Mugabe (now a good friend of his) as the legitimate leader of Rhodesia Zimbabwe. Carter’s battle for human rights was not tied to China however, as he gave the Christian, Tibetan, and baby murdering Red State several trading rights with the United States. Neither Conservatives (who felt he was setting up Latin America for Marxist take over) or Liberals (who felt Carter had abandoned the love affair with Socialist States started by Comrade Nixon) were pleased with Carter’s foreign policy, but to quote Dave Barry, “A good foreign policy leaves everyone offended.”

The only bright spot of Carter’s Presidency was the amp David Accords. These 1978 talks between Israeli Prime Minister Begin and Egyptian President Sadat were somewhat of a lasting success, since Israel has agreed to keep of the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt hasn’t tried to invade Israel (but after it got its behind kicked in the Yom Kippur War, Egypt probably doesn’t want to fight Israel again). These talks also left many unanswered question, all which have effected Middle Eastern policy today. The Palestinian problem was never answered, and though land was promised in the Gaza Strip, PLO chose never to accept the land since they claimed that  “infidels” had made the agreement so they would never accept it. The “surrender” of Israeli land only infuriated Zionists, and thus a power vacuum would occur in Israel leading to the lection of Nationalist General Ariel Sharon in 2001. The Camp David Accords were, at best, a temporary solution to a problem that can never be fixed. There will always be war in the Middle East as long as men are men.

The economy from 1977-1981 was a mess, and Carter had no idea how to combat it. Gas was extremely expensive and in short supply, unemployment and inflation was so high that “stagflation” was now a problem, price freezes only hurt the economy, and Carter’s good old fashioned “let’s save energy” fireside chats only made people laugh at him (“Jimmy Cardigan Sweater“). In 1979 Jimmy Carter told America that we were suffering from a “malaise”. His “Malaise Speech” said America was to blame for its own problems, and thus he shouldn’t be blamed. Americans don’t want to be told that they are doing something wrong and that they need to change. “The people said to carter after his Malaise Speech,” former Senator Ed Muskie said in 1981, “’We are a great people, maybe its the fault of our leaders that we are in so much trouble.’” The magical oratory of Ronald Reagan told Americans that they could achieve anything, whereas Carter would go on a fact finding mission to see how much a gallon of milk actually cost, so then he could tell Americans that they needed to work to afford that milk. Reagan appealed to people with his heart, and Carter scared them off with his mind.

Carter had said in 1978 that America was, “free of that inert fear of Communism.” He saw the Russians as allies, whereas Reagan saw them as an Evil Empire. The old CFA was now trying to get Carter to sell out America’s nuclear arsenal, and SALT II was going to banish “all nuclear weapons from the Earth.” The Soviets, however peace loving they may have seemed, decided in December 1979 to abandon “peace” and invade Afghanistan since they could. Carter Okayed a plan to send weapons to the Afghan Freedom Fighters, and thus America’s intervention in that nation began. However, the Middle east exploded again once 53 American hostages were taken hostage by the new Islamic Republic of Iran. However, if Carter had listened to his own preaching of human rights, it never would have happened.

The Shan of Iran, known for his wealth and brutality, was overthrown in November 1978 by an Islamic coup lead by the Ayatollah Khomeni. The Shah, who was quite sick, wanted to be treated for a sickness in the United States in 1979. Carter could have declared that since the Shah violated human rights, he could not have asylum in the United States. Carter, however, decided to let his old friend enter the country, and thus 53 Americans were taken hostage by angry students in Tehran, claiming that the U.S. was plotting to reinstall the Shah. Carter’s defense budget cuts (in line with those of Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford) left the U.S. Army powerless to help. The disaster of Operation Eagle Claw ”not only proved that out of date helicopters can’t stand against sandstorms, but also killed several marines and rescues zero hostages. Carter’s weakness during the Iran Hostage Crisis was just one of the many factors (economy, malaise, and people having just lost his faith in him) which lead to his landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Carter was a good, decent, and kind Christian man, but not a god president by any means. His bickering with Congress and weakness during the Cold War will land him a terrible spot amongst the Presidents. He would be the last president who played softball with the Communists, and this would insure that America would win the Cold War.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

A good man who didn't have the political skill (which resulted in a lack of competency) to maintain the office of president.

I totally agree with AndrewBerger's comment. And who in their right mind would allow the Shah of Iran into the United States? Who cares that he was an enemy of the United States, he violated human rights. And the Shah was installed after Ike and Dulles (and don't forget the Brits) chose to overthtrow the Prime Minister of Iran.  James Earl Carter should have stayed in Plains growing peanuts.

[MaC]

Not a great guy to be President, but it could've been worse.

Those who say he was the worst-he really wasn't that bad...

[Dr. Cynic]

A good man who didn't have the political skill (which resulted in a lack of competency) to maintain the office of president.

I totally agree with that statement... Carter lacked political skill and it showed.

[Bacon King]

For the record, he didn't actually farm peanuts himself, he was a peanut wholesaler.

[Reaganfan]

A good, decent, nice man who I would love to go fishing with...but not that strong a President. I'm sure a number of foreign policy problems we have today can be traced back to failures from the Carter-Mondale administration.

[CPT MikeyMike]

Inept president - plain and simple.

What is worse was his ex-presidency. He should be charged with violating the Logan Act. I think Clinton was ready to push that though.

[opebo]

Excellent president - best since Johnson - though personally a repulsive individual.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This nuclear engineer was incredibly underrated.

[King]

Excellent president - best since Johnson - though personally a repulsive individual.

Way to go against the grain there opebo, as usual although "best since Johnson" isn't really an accomplishment as a dead dog could've been elected President, resigned three seconds after been sworn in and have been better than Nixon and his crazy face.


Seriously, Carter was terrible as a president, did nothing good for this country, and then spent the rest of his life after losing re-election criticizing all the other Presidents.  Regardless of what side of the political spectrum you hail from, you should consider this guy near the bottom of the totem pole.

We should, as good Americans, all agree that Reagan and Clinton were 16 years of relative success (people weren't as pissed off when they left office as they were when they entered) as the Bushes and Carter were 16 years of relative failure (their inability to capitalize and do good on those 90% approval ratings they all had at one point more than anything else).

[DownWithTheLeft]

Carter is easily one of the worst presidents beside the socialist, racist, genocidal warmonger of FDR.  He gave back the canal, saw gas prices skyrocket, and couldn't negotiate the hostage release.  No coincidence that the hostages were released the day Reagan took office, the Iranians knew that the US president was no longer retarded.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Way to go against the grain there opebo, as usual although "best since Johnson" isn't really an accomplishment as a dead dog could've been elected President, resigned three seconds after been sworn in and have been better than Nixon and his crazy face.

Well, Opebo is saying that he was also better than Reagan, Clinton, and the Bushes, which goes without saying.

[gorkay]

Jimmy Carter was and is an intelligent, capable, compassionate man who landed in the wrong job. His foreign-policy record was actually fairly good, but on domestic policy he was close to being a complete loss. Most of the domestic crises he faced weren't of his own making, and his responses to them were often good ones, but he lacked the political acumen and the personal magnetism to create a consensus on them. There was a preachy rigidity to his personality that seemed to come out at the worst moments (and that seems to have diminished since he left office). The Democratic party can be faulted for their failure to support him adequately, especially in Congress, when they had overwhelming control of both houses for all four years of his presidency; but he can also be faulted for not doing enough to reach out to them. He got nominated and elected largely without their help, so he seemed to feel that he didn't need it once he got into office, which was a big mistake. His fellow Democrats would have been doing not only him but themselves a big favor had they done more to support him, though, and this failure on both sides resulted in the Democratic debacle of 1980. I don't think the people he surrounded himself with were of the highest quality either: too many of his old Georgia buddies. A better inner circle would have helped. He tried to start constructing one in the last year or so of his presidency, but it was too late to do much good.

I think he deserves a lot of credit for all he has done since he left office. The day after the 1980 election, who would have predicted that he would have become such an important force in world politics and humanitarianism? But he felt that he still had much to offer, and he wouldn't allow anyone to dissuade him from offering it, even though it looked at first as if no one wanted it. Now he is known as the best ex-president in American history, and justifiably so.