I know Bruce has something else planned on the worst president in U.S. history for the morrow, but as I was about to work out, something struck me. In my lifetime, three presidential incumbents have been defeated for reelection, Gerald R. Ford, Carter and George H.W. Bush.
Each of the defeated Republicans (Ford and Bush) showed such grace in exiting the political stage that he became friends in later life with the man who defeated him, Ford with Carter and H.W. with Bill Clinton. But, Carter did not learn from his classy predecessor and never became friendly with his successor, even though one of the Ronald Reagan’s first acts after replacing Carter in the White House was to designate the former president head his “special envoy” to greet the recently released U.S hostages in Germany.
For this classy gesture, Carter repaid the Gipper with bile and bitterness.
You would think that someone who held the highest office in the land would show a certain respect for the office in reaching out to his successors. But, with Jimmy, you would be wrong.
Let me repeat: Alone among the three presidents who lost reelections bids, Jimmy Carter failed to befriend the man who defeated him. He can’t reconcile himself with his domestic political adversaries, but goes out of his way to accommodate the foreign adversaries of the nation he once led.
Truly classless.
Hell, even bunny rabbits can’t stand Carter.
No amount of bad-mouthing Jimmy Carter will ever cover up, nor smokescreen, the fact that George W. Bush is the worst president in American history.
Carter has been given the benefit of the doubt for thirty years. Time historians train that laser beam they’ve been promising for Bush on his administration.
Jimmy Carter is a gentleman, and a scholar– something that cannot be said for his successor, and certainly not for the current occupant of the Oval Office– History will name George W. Bush in the same breath as mass-murderers Josef Stalin and Tojo, except they will state that he wasn’t as smart as they were….
U.S. News has breathlessly released an article informing us that historians have already written off the Bush Presidency. I imagine they’ll focus on Clinton once he figures out what his legacy actually was. Don’t know if they’ll touch Carter.
What is revolting about Mr. Carter is that he thinks that he deserves ANY respect from anyone. What he deserves is to be prosucuted under the Logan Act. How dare him free agent American foreign policy. And just as revolting is his embrace of one of the worst terrorists in the world. BTW, I think Mr. Carter is the precurssor to a potential Obama presidency. What a horrible thought!
If you’ve never read The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry I recommend it. Contrary to the image the media portrays of a kind, charitable peacemaker, Carter is an incredibly arrogant, very angry, mean and vindictive man.
Obama, by the by, has a whole slew of former Carter administration losers advising him. If only Americans knew the “change” Obama is promising is a return to the glory days of the Carter malaise.
In the book Power Faith and Fantasy, Michael Oren says that Israel and Egypt were well on their way to making a peace settlement when the US found out about and Jimmy Carter insisted they go to Camp David. This made many peolpe think that Carter had some role to play when in actuality, he had very little to do with it.
Dana, you’re over the top. Get a grip.
Dana… I only have one question for you….
Are you high on something?
I voted for my very first time and it was for Jimmy Carter….that was the last time I voted for a DEM!
AND never again.
jeb
I was but a lad in ’76, but the day Carter won election, I said he’d go down as the worst president in US history.
I was born in 74. I remember the election of Reagan being a significant thing but I didnt know why
“…even though one of the Ronald Reagan’s first acts after replacing Carter in the White House was to designate the former president head his “special envoy†to greet the recently released U.S hostages in Germany.”
As far as I can tell, that’s more of an “FU” gesture.
It goes without saying that Jimmy Carter was and is the worst that could possibly be in the White House. That pleasant, southern gentlemen image is a facade for a mean spirited, angry man. He did such a “good job” getting our captives out of Iran that not only did we lose billions of helicopters in the process, but it took much longer for the release.
I won’t waste time pig-wrasslin’ but it is well documented that Bush, in addition to his grad degree from Yale (an enterprise he completed with better grades than Kerry and Gore, never completed at all), is a voracious reader of tomes recent and hoary. You will find his interviews especially on the war and GWOT contain off the cuff allusions and quotations from same. He contrasts poorly with Lincoln, Jefferson, Wilson or the Adamses but is quite competitive in this realm with Kennedy, Truman or Reagan. Clinton has never demonstrated any scholarly interest of any sort. Hillary either. Carter’s claim to Worst President status is not even dented by the worst that Bush has done. To date.
In short, fuck off and die, Dana.
Dana, Carter paid his election favor-debt to the Texas oil magnates by deadlining the American civil nuclear power program. You have him to thank for our dependance on foreign oil.
And, if you are a real “Blood for Oil” type, you can thank him for that too.
15: The worst? You haven’t taken a look at what we’ve got in there right now.
[Oh, but I have. And when you compare the two side by side, Bush’s flaws, real though they are, just melt away. At least, we didn’t let two allies fall to ideologies hostile to the United States. Nor see inflation and interest rates skyrocket. –Dan]
#18
Obviously you haven’t taken a look beyond what your KOShole masters tell you.
Jimmy Carter, the Born-again Christian Sunday School Teacher, has never had class as not only did he not befriend Ronald Reagan, but displayed public spite for G.W, Bush when he refused to shake hands with The President at Mrs. King’s funeral service.
He failed at the Presidency, and he fails at displaying the love of Christ, who taught us to love all men.