Wasn't Jimmy Carter hated by the left at one point too?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

62. I was sometimes dismayed by Carter, but I never hated him

I thought he was too willing to listen to the Cold Warriors with his sending "advisers" into El Salvador, initiating the 1980 Olympic boycott, and proposing the MX missile program, but as I remember it (and a PBS American Experience documentary confirmed), Carter was the new kid in town, with no federal experience, and since he didn't kiss the right Congressional butts (Tip O'Neill and Ted Kennedy, in particular), the Congressional and Senatorial old guard had it in for him.

Carter was blamed for high inflation rates (the result of the Arab Oil Embargo) and high interest rates (the result of Federal Reserve policies that he had no control over). Also, I am convinced that the October surprise played a huge role. It can't be coincidental that the hostages in Iran were released on the day of Reagan's inauguration.

I was in grad school at the time of the 1980 election, and I recall sitting on the living room floor of a third floor living space with three housemates and a visiting friend and watching the election returns.

When the networks called it for Reagan, we all wailed. "President Ronald Reagan," my friend said. "That's so wrong."

We said at the time that the country had gone crazy. If, during the 1980s, I had known what I know now, I would have taken the job offers I had in Norway and Japan or followed my Australian gentleman friend to his home country.

It was the beginning of the end of the America I grew up in.