If not the best post-Presidency, then awfully damned close:
There is a Breaking News thread in MPSIMS:
If anyone needs to delve into politics at this point, this thread will serve well for it.
I don’t think he was a very good President, possibly as he was too good of a man? He was a great Ex-President. I agree, maybe the best.
Kudos to him for putting quality of life foremost.
His time in office was marked by difficulty getting along with Congress, which is odd since he was a Democrat and his party held both chambers. In particular he had frequent conflicts with Ted Kennedy and to a lesser extent Speaker Tip O’Neill. Kennedy ran against him for the nomination in 1980 so Teddy’s ambition could have been part of it. And once the Iran hostage crisis happened his administration went into a death spiral and paved the way for Reagan winning. OPEC didn’t do any favors for him either with the gas crisis/shortage being a huge hit to his popularity.
Achievements would be the Camp David Accords and Salt II among a few other things. Probably the longest lasting thing he did was legislation removing restrictions on home-brewing of beer which led directly to the micro- and craft brewery explosion we have seen over the last few decades. Pretty ironic for someone who is a life long Baptist and I assume is a non-drinker.
He was fine as a president; he just (as mentioned) got sideswiped by events and the Republicans successfully pinned the blame on him. His Habitat for Humanity program has provided homes for thousands. He’s a person who has lived his faith without asking for reward. I have immense respect for the guy and his wife. I hope his end is as peaceful as he always was. He’s left one hell of a legacy.
Agree with all that @Chefguy said.
I think now and then of the solar panels he erected on the White House roof and wonder where we might be with respect to ameliorating our oil dependence on the Middle East, together with the favorable results that would have lessened our impact on the climate. How many wars might we not have fought?
What a different, better path we could have taken, had we listened to this great man. It leaves me bereft.
Not a believer myself, but Godspeed, President Carter. Your lessons to us all as you led by example will be sorely missed. May your approaching end be smooth and filled with love.
It makes you wonder if a person of strong moral character can even BE a successful President, if by “successful” you mean getting things done.
As I remember, he was considered an outsider who did too little to learn the ways that Congress operates behind the scenes; I think one or two of his cabinet or staff may have been too prickly and uncompromising (I am obviously fuzzy on the details after more than 40 years).
The gas crisis started in '74 under Ford (and may be part of what torpedoed his re-election), but prices were still high in Carter’s time. His winter broadcast, while wearing a cardigan, telling people they needed to lower their thermostats, didn’t really make him any friends.
But what I remember most about that time was an endemic spirit of hopelessness, for which I think he was partly responsible. And that spirit is also what opened the door to Reagan’s oratory about the shining city on the hill and the other BS that he was full of. Carter was too honest to lift the country out of its depression.
I wish we had been able to follow through on our plans to work for Habitat. They have an organization called “Care-A-Vanners”, which are RV owners (especially those with construction skills) who sign up to help build houses. We were all set to head to Taos for a project when Covid shut everything down. Then we decided to sell our house and move out to the Midwest, and now my knees just won’t handle the hours on my feet.
My impression at the time was that in general, Americans did not want to be asked to make sacrifices. Even small ones. They wanted someone to say “Hell no, we’re going to kick some ass and take what we want. It’s our God-given destiny to do whatever we want.”
HfH has many non-construction jobs available, if you can’t stand for long periods of time, or do heavy lifting.
I for one look forward to meeting him when I go to Heaven myself.
Yeah, anyone in office 77-80 would have been easy to make look bad by those who prefer a Cheerleader In Chief, but Carter was especially targeted for derision for being seen as someone who insisted in Telling Us The Bad News.
We could not handle the truth.
Maybe the voters did him a favor, enabling him to give so many more years to just causes. And now as the end comes he has decided to face it however it may please Him on who he places his faith.
“You may now, Lord, dismiss this Your servant, according to Your promises…”
Exactly. The conventional wisdom is that Carter was too good of a person to be president, but the truth is that America is too irredeemably corrupt to deserve a man like Carter. We want and deserve half-demented has-been actors and fascist game show hosts.
In other words, “Idiocracy”.
I share the ex-president’s last name. Whenever I traveled abroad and showed my credit card or ID, people always asked “Are you related to President Jimmy Carter?” After telling them I wasn’t, they would invariably offer a positive comment about him being a good man.
Agreed.
I know people disagree on his Presidency, but a man who spends the post-Presidency years up to age 98 physically building homes for people in need is someone who deserves respect as a person. Anyone with money can throw money at things, but I greatly respect someone who is hands-on in helping people.
The Carter Center has also been instrumental in the near-eradication of guinea worm, a nasty tropical parasite that is spread through contaminated water.
I have long said that he is the best human being who has been President during my lifetime. May not have been a good President (certainly, that’s up for debate), but was by far the best person who has held the position.