When Carter lost in 1980 he dragged down the rest of the Democrats so much that they lost control of the Senate, took a big hit in the House, and even enabled the Republicans to pick up a number of governorships in “safely” Democratic states. Democrats don’t like discussing Carter for the same reason sports teams don’t like talking about losing coaches or managers.
He wasn’t a great president (nor was he the worst), but he is a kind and intelligent man. That counts for something in my book.
3/10 seems fair.
His heart may have been in the right place most of the time but he accomplished very little. He may or may not have had a vision of where he felt this country should go but he did not have the personal skill to get that vision accomplished, the executive skill to hire those who shared his vision and who could make it happen, or the ability to articulate his vision in terms that convinced the public to follow.
I may feel that Reagan’s visions were wrongheaded but he did delegate to effective people who shared his worldview and could articulate it well also. Carter wasn’t the worst President we’ve ever had - he wasn’t malignant like some have been - but ineffective. And that I think is more of the compare contrast with Roosevelt. They represent the two poles of getting things done, whatever you thought of what they did. (Okay maybe William Henry Harrison accomplished less than Carter.)
I think a couple of points need to be made about Carter. The main reason he lost the election was the poor economy and this is probably the single biggest criticism of Carter. However the simple fact is that Presidents have only a limited amount of control over the economy. The main reason for the 1980 recession was the oil price shock of the previous year which wasn’t Carter’s fault. There is not just Carter could do about it. He does deserve credit for appointing Paul Volcker to the Fed who pursued the tough policies which brought inflation under control in the early 80’s though obviously this was too late for Carter.
Secondly Carter’s greatest achievement the Camp David agreements looks more and more impressive each passing decade. First of all the peace has stood the test of time and secondly we have learnt how extraordinarily difficult it is to make diplomatic progress in the Middle East. So certainly this was one of the most remarkably accomplishments of Presidential diplomacy in US history.
Carter gets unfairly blamed for the stagflation that had commenced long before he came to office. (Remember Gerald Ford’s Whip Inflation Now campaign?)
Carter should be credited with appointing Paul Volker as Fed Chairman. Volker is widely credited with bringing inflation under control (for which Reagan grabbed the credit becuase the effect of Volker’s actions became apparent after Reagan came to office).
Other milestones in his presidency that haven’t been brought up:
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cancelled the B1 bomber. That was a very visible cut of the military, and wasn’t really popular.
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pardoned the Vietnam draft dodgers. Again, not popular with a lot of the public.
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came in with the debt just under a trillion, left with the debt just over a trillion. That’s only a big deal in retrospect, as 3 of the 4 presidents since have let the debt increase massively, and the 5th, well, I *hope *he takes the debt seriously.
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boycotted the Moscow Olympics. Really dumb PR move.
He’s not my favorite president by any means-I’ll give him a 4- but a lot of what hurts him is what you might call ‘cheerleading’ failures. As someone upthread mentioned, an underrated but important job of the president is making the country feel good about itself.
The hell it is! I feel just fine, thanks, I want the truth, if that wouldn’t be too much to ask?
I think even with all that, undermining the Soviet Union (and thus eventually removing the ever-looming threat of World War III) was well worth it.
Heck, losing fifty towers would still be mild in comparison. Maybe it’s you who needs to expand his thought process.
???
Who and what are you responding to?
My contention that it’s part of the president’s job to make the country feel good about itself.
3/10 sounds right to me also. He was a good diplomat, but a terrible leader. Yes he was smart and nice, but when we were feeling pretty bad about the economy he just talked about malaise. He’s been a much better ex-President than president.
It is too bad that Carter’s term didn’t destroy the perceived benefit of being an outsider.
I look at Reagan and Carter, and I see the triumph of the Black Arts of PR. The meme of “Carter was a sucky Prez” is out there, and embedded so deep, nothing but nothing is going to dislodge it. Counterversely, the myth of St. Ronnie of Bakersfield, who brought down the Evil Empire, is untouched by facts and immune to history.
Until the Reagan Papers are released. And the, brothers and sisters, pals and gals, the proverbial cat will be set amongst the pigeons. Do you know why he invaded Grenada? Neither do I, but I’d like to.
A “crisis of confidence”, actually. He never used the word “malaise”; the chatterers used it later as shorthand.
Damn good speech too. Pity his policy proposals didn’t get any attention by the very people in whom he was expressing disappointment for their disinterest in them.
Sure you do. It was the ultimate dogwag.
Others have brought up Paul Volcker.
There’s also the deregulation of the air travel and trucking industries.
Plus He Kept Us Out of War, which is kind of grading on a curve, but given the rest of the presidents over the second half of the twentieth century, doesn’t look so bad.
Let me see if I get this correct:
You are asserting that the end of the Cold War was worth the loss of the lives of thousands of innocent American civillians in the destruction of the World Trade Center towers? You insist this to be true and you claim that anyone who thinks this is not true should be willing to “expand their thought processes??”
I’d love to see you pitch that to our society as a politician and survive. I’ll sell the tickets to the public lynching, and cut your heirs in on the concessions. :rolleyes:
Apart from which the actions in Afghanistan, while a part of the disintigration of the Soviet Union, were not the main reason at all. Had Carter remained in office, the failure to ratchet up the cost of the Cold War would have allowed the Soviets to repair any damage done. Indeed, the failure to spend the Soviets out of house and home might well have allowed them to invest enough resources in Afghanistan to keep a lid on the issue there, and, thus, not have to deal with the lengthy and unpopular war. :dubious:
But I really like your first assertion. Go out on the street with that one. “We should be thankful for our civillian deaths; they were a small price to pay for the end of the Cold War!”
I’d go with about a 5. - neutral.
Jimmy Carter was really kind of a place holder.
Watergate had left a really bad taste in everyone’s mouth, and the US seemed to be looking
for something that wasn’t the current establishment.
Good and bad, that’s what we got.
He strikes me as a bit like Mister Rogers. Nice guy. Would make a great neighbor. Would do well leading a boy scout troop, but as others mentioned, over his head when it came to being POTUS.
You didn’t, by a considerable margin.
Are you looking for a rational response or an emotional one?
Rationally, how do you compare those deaths with a certain possibility of mass destruction in a nuclear war - the thing I grew up with. I was in Berlin a few weeks ago, and stayed a few blocks from Checkpoint Charlie, and went to a little exhibit at Potsdamerplatz with photos of the city before and after the Wall came down.
I agree that Afghanistan was not a major cause of the fall of Communism, but our supporting the anti-Russian Afghans wasn’t a major cause of 9/11 either.
Not to mention that a lot more people died in the proxy wars that the Cold War spun off than did on 9/11.
I was in grad school at the time, and pretty much insulated from the economy, but the speech sure as hell didn’t cheer me up. I’m not knocking him for the policy proposals, but for the lack of leadership that ensured they weren’t going to get adopted. He didn’t increase anyone’s confidence, and that was indeed a lot of the problem.