Anyone remember the ‘Killer Rabbit’ incident? IIRC a large rabbit tried to climb aboard Jimmy Carter’s boat while he was fishing, and Carter fended it off with an oar. Why was so much made of this? Because Monty Python And The Holy Grail was still fresh in people’s minds? Because people thought that Carter was actually being attacked? (Was he? ISTR the rabbit was just trying to climb into the boat.) Slow news day?
I’d heard this story, and assumed he’d been attacked in a field or something. That it was in a boat by a* swimming rabbit* just makes it all the funnier.
Here’s a very large picture from the incident, released only in the past couple years of so:
http://www.narsil.org/politics/carter/large_rabbit_image.html
So much was made of it because Carter was viewed as a weak leader (true or not). The press has a tendency to show and report things that support a preconcieved notion. This incident was spun to show that our president was an impotent leader (“How can he defend our country against the Ruskies; when even bunnies can launch a successful attack.”)
I remember the event clearly, and the conotations it presented.
There isn’t much to add to Cecil’s article, except to note that the rabbit incident took place at a particularly low point in Carter’s presidency. A few weeks earlier, on July 15, 1979, he had delivered the so-called “malaise speech”, although malaise was one of the few negative words which it failed to contain. Among other things, he said:
These were odd statements coming from a third-year incumbent President. Incumbents are supposed to stress how the country has prospered under their leadership.
Two days later, Carter announced a Cabinet shake-up which was widely perceived as a “purge” of members who were insufficiently loyal. Both the speech and the shake-up were poorly received. The country was suffering weak economic growth and 13% inflation, and Democrats began looking to Ted Kennedy as their preferred alternative for 1980.
At this exact moment, the “rabbit fiasco” became public. It seemed a metaphor for a floundering administration under attack from all sides.
In re-reading the “malaise speech”, I’m struck that Carter was feeling our pain 15 years before Clinton, but the catch phrase never became associated with him.
What was your reaction to the report of Bush choking on a pretzel? Same thing.
My reaction at the time was amusement at the idea that President Carter, who was heralded everywhere as being a very peaceful man, smacking a rabbit with an oar. I realize, it beats having to have rabies shots, but still. Hee.
A Wrascially Wrabbit attacks Peanut Farmer Pres, what is not inherently funny about this? It would be a poor newsman that did not run with this story. Almost like if a newsman sat on the story of a republican VP accidentally shooting a fellow republican while hunting. Some jokes do write themselves.
Jim
What I remember most was the one-liner about it:
“Hit it with his paddle? I thought he was up that crick without one.”
I can’t even remember who said it, but I remember LMAO.
Wait, he clobbered it over the head with an oar while it was still in the water? How the heck did he think it was going to get at him? 
What if this rabbit was taught to use a gun and kick in doors? :eek:
I see a T.V. show with Charlton Heston in the offing!
Some rabbits are crazy. Link courtesy of Dave Barry’s Blog: Rabbit v. Snake. If that rabbit was coming at me, I’d hit him with an oar too.