Jimmy Carter.

You're funny. I see no integrity in the man. I'll give you sincerity. Most bigots are quite sincere.

 

Well, Jimmy's hindsight/insight now is much better than his performance when he had the job.

 

Sorry for the large edit - but nail on head here, well said.

 

I've always had some sympathy for Jimmy Carter. I was a young adult when he was elected and view his presidency as not so much failed as a victim of circumstance. I've never really researched it, but feel some of the economic problems were due to the ending of the Bretton Woods system, which happened under Nixon's watch. That took us to fiat currency and away from the gold system.

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"The Bretton Woods system ended on August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon ended trading of gold at the fixed price of $35/ounce. At that point for the first time in history, formal links between the major world currencies and real commodities were severed".

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As for the Iranian hostages, for some reason, the Iranians just wanted to rub Carter's face in it. Note that they were released as Reagan was being sworn in on Inauguration Day. It's always been suspicious to me, though i don't know the 'why' of it.

 

Who do you feel he was bigoted toward?

That is quite an allegation, and, know what, I have no bias, I call as I hear and find, and in comparison to the like of Bush or Dubya, he sounds like a much nicer and better man.

 

Actually the hostages were freed by Carter.

And the gas lines were caused by those same Iranian militants. To claim Carter caused them is a bizarre conspiracy theory.

It's more likely you blame him for things that happened while he was president. Correlation is not causation.

 

Nice and better are extremely subjective concepts, policy and results are far more indicative of one's effectiveness.

 

Reagan was about as honest as they come. And that's part of what made him a great president.

But if you truly desire honesty so much in your leaders, then is it safe to say that you would rather see someone like Herman Cain or Chris Christie in the white house today than Obama? Because policy aside, you can't really argue that both of those men don't trump him considerably in frankness. In fact, I really can't think of any current Democrats at the moment who can match either of them in blunt candor.

 

I am going to be honest - he always struck me as a comical figure who was accident prone in his delivery, and who was out of his depth, in terms of intellect.

Jmho.

 

I do like Cain's approach to public speaking. I think he has some awful ideas, but yes, he's honest.

Chris Christie is more palatable in his stances, and I like his frankness. He would be one of the better choices for the GOP.

 

Carter was a good president and a good man who dealt with America's problems in an intelligent and compassionate way.
Had Reagan not come in and sold us down the river by reversing Carter's initiatives in energy self-sufficiency, we would not still be sucking at the oil teat of countries and cartels that want to screw us into the ground.
I'm not surprised that it went right over your head, since you obviously prefer to spend your time guttersniping and talking (*)(*)(*)(*) about things that you don't understand, either morally or intellectually.

 

I bought my first house in 1980 at 8.5% interest and was happy to have locked in that deal. Under Reagan, home interest rates went up to 16%.

Jimmy Carter's 'failure' was, IMO, more a matter of perception than one one of reality.

 

Did he have more balls to speak out about Israel and Zionism, than Dubya or Obama?

Did he have a more rational outlook on relations with Muslim nations, than Dubya or Obama?

Is US society somewhat better, educationally, under either Obama or Bush, than it was under Carter?

Was Carter more inclined toward a peaceful resolution to matters, during his time, were the US in less conflicts, than under Obama or Dubya?

Was there more unemployment under Carter, than Obama and Dubya?

 

In some ways you have a point. His time is office was doomed to having a weak executive branch, more of a backlash of the Nixon years, but Carter's weakness as a leader only exaggerated the problem. In the case of Obama, the executive was likely to be weakened as a result of Bush and the perceived power grab of the executive, but Obama won big and brought a boat load of political capital with him, he squandered it all with his partisanship and lack of leadership. The failures of Obama and Carter are quite real, just for reasons that haven't been discussed yet.

 

No offence here, none at all, but I want to chime in with a theory that I have, and perhaps one which explains why, esp in the US, men with intelligence and compassion are not appreciated as they should be.

Think of countries like people.

In that context, the US would be a v young nation, akin to someone in their teens - we shall say 14.

Counties must mature. This can only happen over a very long time. As with the teenager analogy, we know that they think they are the centre of the universe, that they know all their is to know, they are emotionally highly strung, and tend to have a sometimes violent tantrum, lest they do not get their own way.

Anyone that has teenage kids may relate to that!

If the US is that 'teen', then this would explain why, as a nation, you still have much growing up to do.

Like I said, I mean that more as an observation on society developement, than a criticism.

 

In such things, words are wind, results matter, and Carter gained nothing with his words because he was a weak leader that didn't translate his words to a policy that could have given them some sting, or at least credibility. He was as empty as Obama in that regard.

Carter was in office in the Cold War, conflicts were based upon different metrics. Hard to compare that to a Post Cold War world.

 

Glenn Beck fan, I see.
I understand why people think Carter sucked (though, as with Obama, it involves unrealistic expectations of the power of the presidency)... but Wilson?
Wilson had a lot of flaws, being a hardcore racist and all. But he also pretty much updated the US civil service system in such a way that the country could actually function in a modern world with urbanization and a high population!
I wish we had more academics in politics.
He and Hamilton are both treated like villains by the fringe-right these days, when both men actually SAVED THE (*)(*)(*)(*) COUNTRY!

 

Coming from the left here, and Alexander Hamilton was a (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*).

 

Hear Hear!

 

Yes, he was.
But Jefferson was on the wrong side when it came to starting up the country's economy.

As much of a dick as he was, Hamilton's ideas were the ones that allowed us to prosper as a nation. Central banking and industrialization were a lot better for us than agrarian utopianism.

 

More or less...

But then it kind of makes you hope the whole thing gets disassembled just to watch them scramble without it.

With the direction this country is headed for, people might be begging for "socialism" in about 20 years. We'll probably be down to Brazil's current standard of living by then.

 

Actually I can't stand Glen Beck, way too over the top for my tastes. My hatred of Wilson was learned by my study of history. Wilson was an utter fool, his personal involvement in Versailles set up the whole scenario for WWII. It was his insistence on placing total and absolute blame upon the Central Powers, it was his stupidity that created the vastly stupid reparations situation in Germany that allowed an animal like Hitler to arise. He was the moron that demanded self-determination of nations that couldn't support or defend themselves, the vast majority of which were later conquered by Germany and therefore tossed to the Soviets afterwards. All of it falls directly upon his feet, his arrogance, and his stupidity.

He did not save the country, he doomed the world.

 

I know Jimmy Carter had a tremendous impact on Canadians.

Just prior to his election Canadians were pretty much like Americans, same type of culture, religion sports and so on. And, we used to pretty much talk the same as well.

Back then, in '77 on the very night he was elected President, Canadians started saying "Ech" everytime they finished a sentence, like trying to get a little piece of crud up from the back of their throat. "Ech, Ech" constantly all over country. Particulary long convulsive strings of them if the name Carter was mentioned.

Over the years, that sound has changed, and the c was dropped, so we all say "eh" now, but that is the true story of how it happened.

 

Figures leftist hippies like Jimmy Carter, he was the worst President in the history of the country....

Must be why they like Jimmy 2.0

 

Ya that 20% inflation was awesome bro!

Gee dont know why he got crushed in the election..haha

Best thing Jimmy can do is die already so we dont have to hear his bull(*)(*)(*)(*).