Jimmy Carter former US president

[orangeman]

Jimmy Carter, former president of the USA, was on RTE radio recently. Apparently he has written over 20 books and his latest, "A call to Action" is all about women and how women have been abused all over the world.

He's 90 years of age next birthday and I was impressed by his interview but admit that I don't know an awful lot about the man.

Could any of our USA based posters or those at home fill us in on how he is viewed in USA and what his legacy might be ?

[whitey]

How he is viewed depends on who you ask?

The general view, at least among right wingers, is that hes the second worst president ever-Obama taking the top spot.  Some presidents get too much credit, while others take the blame for events that were seeded during their predecessors time in office. 

For example, Bill Clinton took over a relatively healthy economy, and had to compromise with the republicans in order to get a lot of his legislation through.  Newt Gingrich deserves as much credit as Clinton, as fiscally they dragged him kicking and screaming to the center.

Obama, who I do not support, inherited a cluster debacle of epic proportions.  Instead of focussing on solving the problems at hand, he has expended all of his political capital on trying to implement social change-you know all that hope and change stuff.

Thats just a little context to provide a prism through which to view Jimmy Catres accomplishments.  I think the following article sums up his presidency pretty well:

http://millercenter.org/president/carter/essays/biography/9

[seafoid]

Carter was the last US president to take the environment seriously.
He lost to Reagan in 1980 mainly because of the hostage crisis in Iran.

[Billys Boots]

He was probably far too decent a human being to be a politician, never mind a President. 

[orangeman]

He was probably far too decent a human being to be a politician, never mind a President.

He comes across that way alright but hard to know.

A bit like Bush and Clinton.

[whitey]

That's a good summary....

He was well intentioned, but naive on how Washington and the world works.

I think to be a good president you need to really embrace the art of compromise.

Ronald Regan did and Bill Clinton did and both had successful tenures

The president is essentially powerless without having congress and the Senate on his side.  (I threw essentially in there because he/she can issue executive orders, but if he/she does so on big issues, he/she is teeing their party up to get hammered at the next election)


The pendulum swings from left to right before it settles back in the middle.  The country went way too far right under George Bush, which resulted in an extreme left candidate (Obama) getting elected in 2008. Now that everyone has figured out what he's all about, the pendulum is rapidly going back to the right...if recent elections are anything to go by

[muppet]

That's a good summary....

He was well intentioned, but naive on how Washington and the world works.

I think to be a good president you need to really embrace the art of compromise.

Ronald Regan did and Bill Clinton did and both had successful tenures

The president is essentially powerless without having congress and the Senate on his side.  (I threw essentially in there because he/she can issue executive orders, but if he/she does so on big issues, he/she is teeing their party up to get hammered at the next election)


The pendulum swings from left to right before it settles back in the middle.  The country went way too far right under George Bush, which resulted in an extreme left candidate (Obama) getting elected in 2008. Now that everyone has figured out what he's all about, the pendulum is rapidly going back to the right...if recent elections are anything to go by

This simply proves that the electorate is a bunch of idiots (this applies here also - look at FF's recent polls)

[J70]

The only reason Obama might look like anything other than the centrist/centre-left politician he is is that the Republicans have lost their collective minds in the era of the tea party movement, trying to outdo each other in the race towards the far right. Perhaps you could make an argument that he was ill-advised to tackle healthcare reform when he did, but when was there going to be a better time? The Republicans certainly were never going to do anything about it, and when would a Democratic president be in place again with congressional majorities? Besides, he had campaigned heavily on the issue and hammered McCain in the polls, so its not like he didn't have a mandate to pursue it. Had he been a true leftist, he would have went with the single payer system instead of trying to reel in a few Republicans via Max Baucus' dealings which culminated in what we have now, which none of them voted for anyway despite it being based on ideas popular among Republicans in the recent past (Heritage Club, Romney in Mass.)!

Carter was too arrogant and idealist to be an effective president. As Whitey says, you have to be able to compromise and make deals, and Carter couldn't even work with his own congressional colleagues. Christ, what does it say about the man when a man as morally compromised as Ted Kennedy challenged him in the primaries!

I've read in more than one place that Carter is probably one of the greatest ex-presidents. I'm sure, as with everything political, your view on that depends on your leanings, but I can see some merit in that argument.

[Ball Hopper]

Read somewhere lately that Carter now hand writes all his correspondence due to his concerns that everything electronic is possibly viewed by US government.

[Hardy]

He said nearly that in the RTÉ interview - not that he hand writes his correspondence, but that he sends anything important through regular post.