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Jimmy Carter

commandlinegamer

Philosopher
commandlinegamer
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I was too young to appreciate much of anything of the events of his presidency, but from what little I know of his life, he seems to be a person of humility, decency and integrity.
 
He was probably the president who was the most decent and kind human being in this century. Never a whiff of scandal and he and his wife, Rosalynn, seemed to be devoted to each other. His work for Habitat for Humanity was legendary.
 
Yep, sad news. In truth, history doesn't look very kindly on his presidency - but with hindsight he was, until Biden at least, the most recent president with genuine humility and a disregard for showmanship or force of personality.

I agree with you Stacy, and it's fairly clear that his towering achievements mostly came after he'd been president, though his presidential pardon of Vietnam War draft dodgers was notable for its courage and his capacity for healing. His tireless efforts in a variety of humanitarian and diplomatic causes (almost all of which was done with characteristically little fanfare or PR spin) will give him the richest and most well-deserved legacy of true greatness.

I met him once at a drinks party at the US Ambassador's residence in Israel (my father was a senior British diplomat in Israel at the time). He was on one of his many relatively-unheralded visits to that part of the world helping broker at least some detente between moderate Israelis and Palestinians. I said hello to him (I was a student at the time); he rather randomly said he bet he I was the same height as him and took me over to a door frame to check. He was right.

I hope his final days will be comfortable and peaceful.
 
Yes, Carter was often spoken of as if he was some kind of joke, a peanut farmer from Georgia. Of course, he was actually also a nuclear engineer and had a lot of important and useful things to say about the use of nuclear power. And of course, whereas most US presidents head off to the lucrative speech and consultancy circuit, he was building houses for the homeless.

He is in short, a genuinely practical, intelligent and compassionate man. and it is to the detriment of the world in general and the US specifically that those qualities are not better selected for in leadership.
 
I'm expecting from Trump either some stinking self-pitying pile cat's-poop, or a flunky-written piece of praise for Carter that he had nothing to do with, or silence. Certainly not expecting magnanimous praise or anything remotely presidential or statesman-like.

Meanwhile, my hat is off to Carter, especially his post-president phase.
 
Norman Alexander said:
I'm expecting from Trump either some stinking self-pitying pile cat's-poop, or a flunky-written piece of praise for Carter that he had nothing to do with, or silence. Certainly not expecting magnanimous praise or anything remotely presidential or statesman-like.
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You never know. He might do this, which was a weirdly appropriate way to respond to hearing about the death of RBG (weird because it was him), and will probably be used on some Trump hagiography of the future...

 
To think he was defeated by an ******* like Reagan, largely because the latter was the better showman. We need more Jimmy Carters in politics, and fewer circus entertainers with no empathy.
 
Ian Osborne said:
To think he was defeated by an ******* like Reagan, largely because the latter was the better showman. We need more Jimmy Carters in politics, and fewer circus entertainers with no empathy.
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Well to be honest I think Carter was probably harmed politically by the Iranian hostage situation. Seeing dozens of Americans held hostage and the president unable to do much would have made him seem weak.

(I don't necessarily think it was Carter's fault... It just happened when he was president.)

Sent from my moto e using Tapatalk
 
Segnosaur said:
Well to be honest I think Carter was probably harmed politically by the Iranian hostage situation.
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There's no doubt that Carter was hurt severely by the hostage situation, and there continue to be debates about what he might have done differently. But having an embassy full of diplomats held prisoner throughout his campaign was something he couldn't overcome.
 
Segnosaur said:
Well to be honest I think Carter was probably harmed politically by the Iranian hostage situation. Seeing dozens of Americans held hostage and the president unable to do much would have made him seem weak. (I don't necessarily think it was Carter's fault... It just happened when he was president.)...
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Yeah and Reagan trashed him over the hostage crisis, too. The same way as trump would do nowadays.

What I remember vividly is, briefly living in Rockland County and taking an early evening commuter train home from New York City. I used to sit in the bar car and it was filled with Wall Street traders. They were obviously unwinding and they held long, loud conversations with one another. It was like a pub atmosphere. And how they trashed Carter! I was astonished at first. They considered him a total joke, completely inept, complete with over-the-top imitations of him.

I voted for him twice and considered him to be a very good President.
 
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newyorkguy said:
Yeah and Reagan trashed him over the hostage crisis, too. The same way as trump would do nowadays.

What I remember vividly is, briefly living in Rockland County and taking an early evening commuter train home from New York City. I used to sit in the bar car and it was filled with Wall Street traders. They were obviously unwinding and they held long, loud conversations with one another. It was like a pub atmosphere. And how they trashed Carter! I was astonished at first. They considered him a total joke, completely inept, complete with over-the-top imitations of him.
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A lot of those guys probably voted for Trump, too. I don't recall any details offhand, but Carter generally supported responsible regulation, which obviously would have rubbed Wall Street the wrong way.
 
Definitely the man you want in the rowboat with you when a giant killer rabbit attacks.
 
Brainster said:
Definitely the man you want in the rowboat with you when a giant killer rabbit attacks.
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That's an example of how the press trashed Carter at every opportunity. If Reagan or Trump had told the same trivial story, they'd be acclaimed as heroic survivors of an assassination attempt.
President Jimmy Carter was fishing in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, on April 20, 1979, alone in a flat-bottomed boat while staff were on land nearby. Carter said a rabbit being chased by hounds "jumped in the water and swam toward my boat. When he got almost there, I splashed some water with a paddle."[1]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident
 
It's telling of human nature that, broadly speaking, a brash Neanderthal is viewed more positively than is a quiet Einstein. Or at least elicits more interest. Who's ever the more popular? The jock or the nerd?

It's astounding that we haven't made ourselves extinct yet.
 
I can't help feeling that if Carter had beat “trees cause more pollution than automobiles" Reagan, and Gore had beat bogus-climate-science Bush, we'd have decades more time to deal with the climate crisis.
 
I often wonder how his presidency would be viewed if the hostage rescue attempt had succeeded. Sure, there was still that cloud over the campaign, but he could beat his chest about it.

Especially given the accusations of being militarily weak, it would be a great accomplishment. It was a bold move, too bad it failed.
 
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