"Jimmy Carter was not a very good president"

[MelissaB]

"Jimmy Carter was not a very good president" is a thing that was just said without objection at the DNC Unity Commission meeting.

WTF is wrong with these people. I don't care who said it... I'm pissed.

Link to tweet

[okieinpain]

1. people hate when someone speaks truth. love jcarter. n/t.

[bettyellen]

2. Vague statements like that don't help anyone. He was not incredibly effective but....

The GOP had just coalesced into the partisan obstructionists. And w The GOP colluding with foreign powers to keep the hostages, well... that's the context.

[tblue37]

17. House & Senate Dems did not work with him because they saw him as an

outsider, and he didn't really know how to handle them the way someone like LBJ could.

[Jno_Gilmor_]

28. I tend to agree with all of you.

Carter was not a very EFFECTIVE president. I think good is more a value or policy judgement. He was a newbie which didn't help, but the reexaminations by historians of the Carter presidency I have read tend to agree even a master stateman would have found it all but impossible to pass meaningful legislation in that time in history and in that political climate.

I do think, however, that Carter's views on energy and moral diplomacy and foreign policy were way ahead of there time.

[bettyellen]

32. Was just going to say- being "ahead of your time" is great only in theory ...

And yeah there is an "art" to politics- relationships and wheeling and dealing are part of it all, and I think he tried to be above all that, which is an impossible task. Everybody has local interests that need attending to - good or bad it's part of the whole thing. I don't know if we'll ever go back to a time where someone like LBJ could be effective because of the obstruction is just habitual at this point.

[bettyellen]

36. True- I just chuckled at the idea of him acting like LBJ. HA

[MichMan]

31. Both houses of congress were in Democratic control

Tip O'Neil was House speaker and the Dems held 60 seats in the Senate. He did not have favorable relationships with either

What did Carter in was high energy prices and high inflation.

[NWCorona]

3. I want to know who said that. I love me some Carter.

[sarisataka]

4. I agree he was not a good President

He was an Outstanding President.

Calling him "good" is a disservice.

[lunatica]

5. He was way too progressive. Way ahead of his time

Deplorables are way back in the stone age and don't have a clue.

[NewJeffCT]

27. Yet, in 1980

he was primaried from the left by Ted Kennedy because people that he was too moderate. I was too young to vote at the time, but I remember a lot of people in New England didn't like Carter because he was too religious.

[StevieM]

41. Carter was regarded as a relatively conservative southern Democrat.

Ted Kennedy challenged him in the primaries because Carter did not seek to return to the days of the Great Society.

[TheDebbieDee]

6. For the last 30 years, conservatives and republicans

Have been painting Pres Carter's presidency with the "weak" brush and now this meme has stuck in even some progressive minds...

They've smearing Sec Clinton with the "criminal" brand because of all the investigations since the late 90s and you see how this battered her image in last year's Presidential Campaign...

[malaise]

7. Really?

Had they listened to him energy would have been sorted out.


Let them hug up the bluedogs. It sure got them far.

[MicaelS]

8. "Carter is a weak President, because ....

He would not use direct military action to free the hostages, and punish the Iranians."

I still hear that today, from people on the Right and the Left. I am willing to bet that was at the core of this statement.

[WinkyDink]

23. I guess they conveniently forget two things: ALL the hostages came home alive; and the Reagan Team

were in contact with the rebel Iranians such that the hostages were released post-Reagan Inaugural Address.

[unblock]

26. in fact, he did authorize direct military action to free the hostages:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw


oh, and reagan was a "strong" president because, what, he *rewarded* iran for holding us hostage for 444 days?

[delisen]

33. Reagan sold arms to Iran Ayatollah and diverted the money to

to right wing rebels Nicaragua.

George Herbert Walker Bush succeeded Reagan and shut down the investigation by pardoning the bad actors at the highest level of the Reagan administration-special prosecutor lost all leverage and investigation was effectively over.

Some say Bush was actually indirectly pardoning himself.

Reagan himself stayed untarnished by playing dumb about the scheme (gee I didn't know they were doing that!)

Oliver North participated in the scheme and coverup but his felony convictions were overturned.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/06/opinion/oliver-north-fortunate-felon.html

North was pronounced a hero by the right wing and was a staple on the Sean Hannity show.

Ronald Reagan,tough guy president, stationed Marines in Beirut. On October 23, 1983 - 241 US service personnel -- including 220 Marines and 21 other service personnel -were killed by a truck bomb at a Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon. (from CNN report)
Regan talked tough but he then retreated after the disaster.

May be some lessons here for today.

[Initech]

9. Their goal is just to piss us off.

[MelissaB]

10. And it happened at a DNC Unity Commission meeting....

[hunter]

11. That's bullshit.

Carter's the first president I campaigned for, and the first I voted for.

Ronald Reagan was a fucking horrible President.

It's possible Carter expected a certain amount of honor and integrity from his opponents that they did not possess.

Obama, one of the truly great Presidents in U.S. History, knew as a graduate of Chicago politics how the game was played.

[nolabear]

12. What he was not was a self-aggrandizing president.

Oh, he wasn't magnificent; he was good at some things and not so good at others, like most. But he wasn't bombastic about anything and Americans love a bombastic president. We like drama. Sureness. How many people are now searching desperately for a big personality to challenge the GOP in the next election?

That's the only thing the guy in office now has going for him. I hate it; it's over the top crazy but it IS what people who voted for him respond to. It's what Elizabeth Warren has a lot of and Bernie has in spades, the sometimes incomprehensible ability to fire up emotion (Bernie's a nerd; how he does it is beyond me but it's undeniable).

Jimmy was earnest and honest and good to the marrow of his bones. I adore him. But it's a weird, weird new day.

[cbreezen]

19. Totally agree.

I'd always felt like he was too honest to be President. Talk about a backhanded compliment.

He walks the walk. I'm an admirer.

[suffragette]

21. Spot on analysis.

+ 1,000.

[bettyellen]

34. That's an interesting point about the drama- I don't get how people believe it's more than an act

though. It's really weird to me that people think that people who "act" certain of stuff aren't acting. Of course they're all acting. Jeeze, I don't get this shit at all.

[delisen]

35. He also upgraded military discharges of Vietnam vets who had

been given less than honorable discharges -many unfairly. In those days it was almost impossible to get a decent job in civilian life with a less than honorable discharge.

[MelissaB]

13. I'd really like to know who said this

and where this meeting was. Does anybody have any idea?

[WellDarn]

14. That may be

the single most ignorant statement I have ever heard.

[WePurrsevere]

15. How is this constructive towards 'unity'? Jimmy Carter was a 'good' president...

although IMO his biggest legacy is that of a truly great human being. One that, IMO, more than a few politicians could do well to learn from.

More on his pretty darn 'good' presidential legacy...
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/opinion/jimmy-carters-unheralded-legacy.html?_r=0
http://www.whitehousediarybook.com/legacy-presidency.html

[bathroommonkey76]

16. A must watch: Hunter S. Thompson recalls a speech by Jimmy Carter on Bob Dylan and MLK

In 1974, the University of Georgia school of law hosted "Law Day." Distinguished journalist/writer Hunter S. Thompson shares his perspective of President Jimmy Carter. The speech that Carter gave not only defended MLK, but also reached a much deeper level of thought among the attendees, including Thompson.

[NightWatcher]

18. Thanks for that

Bookmarking to watch later.

[bathroommonkey76]

42. YW

The clip was taken from the Alex Gibney's Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.

[WinkyDink]

20. Yeah, what a loser! ONLY a Nobel Peace Prize! ONLY the Depts of Energy and of Education! ONLY the

Superfund Act!
ONLY SALT II!
ONLY the Panama Canal treaties!

And ONLY the greatest act of conservation in our, and perhaps the world's, history:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/25/us/alaska-changes-view-on-carter-after-20-years.html

http://us-presidents.insidegov.com/q/4/9699/What-were-President-Jimmy-Carter-s-accomplishments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Nobel_Peace_Prize

I GUARANTEE YOU that whoever uttered that denigration of Jimmy Carter and whoever heard it without protesting is under the age of fifty, maybe even forty.

[lunasun]

22. Compared to who ? Nixon? Bush ?Reagan ? Trump? Wonder who is at the meeting

[loyalsister]

24. he had so many forces working against him

His presidency may not be well remembered or highly regarded, but it should be a given in Democratic circles that he is probably one of the most humble and honorable men to have served as president. Maintaining that quality as president is, in and of itself, being a good president.

[WinkyDink]

25. It was said probably by one of these people:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dnc-unity-reform-commission_us_58f50d1fe4b0b9e9848d92eb

[mopinko]

29. i look back on his term as stymied by dirty tricks and manipulation.

the whole opec thing was a giant dirty trick. orchestrated behind the scenes. all to the good of the saudis.

[JDC]

30. Anybody know how many Soldiers were killed under Carter?

Last edited Fri May 5, 2017, 08:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Edit thanks to former9thward

8. And I think that happened because of the attempted hostage raid. Feel free to keep me honest, but he was a stellar president and is a better human being.

[former9thward]

39. There were eight killed at Desert One.

[JDC]

40. Thank you.

[mountain grammy]

37. Not helpful, and to be fair, not true.

[delisen]

38. Carter was a Human Rights, Equality,& Peace president

He pardoned all Vietnam era drafts evaders on his second day as president.

There was economic dissatisfaction due to energy crisis indued by OPEC,
and economic costs of Vietnam.

He was disliked by many academically-oriented Democrats of the day who thought of themselves as further left than Carter-but actually weren't.

Carter was not doctrinaire. He was egalitarian.

I think what we have been seeing now on the left (as well as on the right) is a demand for an individual hegemon, a strong leader, almost a post-democracy leader.

The DNC Unity Commission meeting, as reported on in Huffington Post, did not seem unified. it made me think that there will be an open split--a party divided between economic
determinists and Human Righters.