Saturday, January 13, 2007
Jimmy Carter did many a bad, bad thing
Gerald Ford's hometown newspaper, the Grand Rapids Press, has released 25 years worth of interviews featuring the former president. Some of the interviews indicate that President Ford had a profound - and misguided - change of heart about Jimmy Carter, who defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential contest.
When Jimmy Carter left office in 1981, Ford had this to say about his former adversary: "I feel very strongly that Jimmy Carter was a disaster, particularly domestically and economically. I have said more than once that he was certainly the poorest president of my lifetime." An interview conducted a few years later revealed that Ford had changed his tune: "[Carter] will be looked on as a better president than some comments we hear today."
Ford's later-in-life view of Jimmy Carter was no doubt influenced by Carter's post-presidential activities. Unfortunately, history's view of Carter is also being influenced not by his disastrous four-year stay in the White House, but by his well thought-out campaign to be seen as the world's foremost empathizer and peacemaker (second only, perhaps, to Saint Nelson Mandela).
If I'd been sitting in on the interview during which Ford suggested that Jimmy Carter would be fondly remembered, this is what I would have said:
Have you forgotten, sir, about double-digit inflation, gas lines, hostages in Tehran, charred helicopters in the Iranian desert, "malaise," the Olympic boycott, Soviet encroachment across the globe (Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, etc.), the energy crisis, scandals involving Bert Lance and Billy Carter, etc.?
Jimmy Carter's presidency can only be described as an abject failure. The only "achievement" to which Jimmy Carter can lay claim, i.e., the Camp David Accords, was eventually exposed as a hollow accomplishment when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was murdered by a gang of Islamist thugs. Indeed, Islamic fascism might never have become a global threat if Jimmy Carter had authorized a fear-of-God military assault on the then-weak mullahs of Tehran.
From the day he left office, Carter has cagily endeavored to make us all forget what a crappy president he was. He's built houses; he's supervised elections across the globe; he's written soupy poetry and prose; and he shamelessly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize until he won the freakin' thing. None of these do-good measures, however, can make up for his four-year presidential effort, during which he knocked America's **** soundly into the dirt.
I apologize for being so blunt, but I speak the truth.
When Jimmy Carter left office in 1981, Ford had this to say about his former adversary: "I feel very strongly that Jimmy Carter was a disaster, particularly domestically and economically. I have said more than once that he was certainly the poorest president of my lifetime." An interview conducted a few years later revealed that Ford had changed his tune: "[Carter] will be looked on as a better president than some comments we hear today."
Ford's later-in-life view of Jimmy Carter was no doubt influenced by Carter's post-presidential activities. Unfortunately, history's view of Carter is also being influenced not by his disastrous four-year stay in the White House, but by his well thought-out campaign to be seen as the world's foremost empathizer and peacemaker (second only, perhaps, to Saint Nelson Mandela).
If I'd been sitting in on the interview during which Ford suggested that Jimmy Carter would be fondly remembered, this is what I would have said:
Have you forgotten, sir, about double-digit inflation, gas lines, hostages in Tehran, charred helicopters in the Iranian desert, "malaise," the Olympic boycott, Soviet encroachment across the globe (Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, etc.), the energy crisis, scandals involving Bert Lance and Billy Carter, etc.?
Jimmy Carter's presidency can only be described as an abject failure. The only "achievement" to which Jimmy Carter can lay claim, i.e., the Camp David Accords, was eventually exposed as a hollow accomplishment when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was murdered by a gang of Islamist thugs. Indeed, Islamic fascism might never have become a global threat if Jimmy Carter had authorized a fear-of-God military assault on the then-weak mullahs of Tehran.
From the day he left office, Carter has cagily endeavored to make us all forget what a crappy president he was. He's built houses; he's supervised elections across the globe; he's written soupy poetry and prose; and he shamelessly campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize until he won the freakin' thing. None of these do-good measures, however, can make up for his four-year presidential effort, during which he knocked America's **** soundly into the dirt.
I apologize for being so blunt, but I speak the truth.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Saturday, January 13, 2007 
