Jimmy Carter was not the worst president we ever had.

[Jets]

There are worse Presidents than Carter. James Buchanan comes to mind.

 

[depotoo]

Carter was a shitty president, but fdr was by far the worst.

FDR is among the worst, too. The more you learn, the worse he gets.

 

[toobfreak]

Jimmy Carter was not the worst president we ever had

Obama definitely easily knocked old Jimmy off the thrown.

 

[AzogtheDefiler]

It's my opinion that this rhetoric has been repeated so often that Americans generally believe it to be true, that Carter was the worst president, even though it's obviously not true to anyone with an honest perspective of history.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/opinion/jimmy-carters-unheralded-legacy.html

Call it historical perspective, call it acquired wisdom, call it simple nostalgia, but most things tend to look better in the rear view mirror. Take the hapless Jimmy Carter administration for example. Arguably, among the (many) negative things Carter will be remembered for are runaway inflation, the Iran hostage debacle, and questionable deregulation of the transportation, communication, and financial industries.

Vilified by the Republicans and mocked by the Democrats, Carter reached the point where he was regarded by his own party as such a political liability that they (in the person of Ted Kennedy) tried to torpedo him in the 1980 primary. Not something you do to a successful incumbent.

But despite the bad memories, Carter accomplished some fairly important things during his single term in office — things that, given the near-paralytic gridlock that defines today’s politics, seem all the more impressive in hindsight. Here are ten of them.

1. Created the Department of Energy. The DOE provided the administration with the bureaucratic chops to formulate and implement what could have been a comprehensive, long-term national energy strategy. Had Carter’s aggressive gas mileage standards continued to be pursued by subsequent administrations, we would today — 30-odd years later — be dramatically less dependent on Saudi oil.

2. Created the Department of Education. Despite howls from anti-government groups who opposed yet another federal agency, the decision to carve out Education from the already over-burdened Department. of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services) was a bold and necessary one.

3. Supported SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitations Talks). It sounds trivial today, but in the 1970s a nuclear non-proliferation pact, even a flawed one, was seen as an important step in forging a lasting peace with the USSR. A generation ago, people were genuinely frightened of a nuclear holocaust. Although Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the agreement, the U.S. Congress, in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, refused to ratify it.

4. Brokered the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. By initiating the Camp David Accords between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (which led directly to the landmark treaty), Carter laid the groundwork for improved Israeli-Arab relations. That good relations in the region never materialized wasn’t Carter’s fault.

5. Installed solar panels in the White House. This was not only a practical gesture, but a symbolic one as well, demonstrating to the world that America was serious about conserving energy, and that conservation does, indeed, begin at home. Alas, Ronald Reagan believed solar panels made the United States look pathetic and needy, and had them removed.


6. Boycotted the 1980 Olympics. In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Carter boycotted the Moscow games, a decision that earned him ridicule and scorn, even though Japan, West Germany, China, Canada, et al, supported his decision. Boycotts are unpredictable. Some work, most don’t. Still, who knows what would have happened if the world had boycotted the 2004 Olympics to protest of the U.S. invasion of Iraq? It might have made a difference.

7. Granted amnesty to Vietnam draft-dodgers. Even though Carter issued these unconditional pardons on January 21, 1977 (his first day in office), the political fallout was severe enough to cost him votes in the 1980 election. Controversial as it was, this gutsy call helped move the country forward, providing closure to one of the most divisive issues in American history.

8. Established diplomatic relations with China. Officially transferring U.S. diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to mainland China seems like a no-brainer today, but in the year 1979 it was a singularly progressive move.

9. Pushed for comprehensive health care reform. Carter’s plan was bigger, better, cheaper and — right out of the blocks — had a greater chance of passing in its original form than either Clinton’s or Obama’s plan, but inertia, timidity, and old-fashioned politics (both Democratic and Republican) ultimately killed it.

10. Returned the Panama Canal to Panama. Another gutsy move that surely cost him votes. By ceding the canal to tiny Panama, the mighty U.S. looked confident and magnanimous.... instead of paranoid and petty. Although Carter was able to secure bipartisan support, of the 20 senators who voted in favor of the treaty, and were up for re-election, only 7 were re-elected.

10 Good Things President Carter Did | HuffPost

Good/Bad = subjective. Huffington Post = biased leftist rag.

 

[alang1216]

He was the worst.

Reagan, both Bush's, Obama, Jackson, Hoover were all far worse.

Carter certainly wasn't the worst, at least not in my lifetime. That honor goes to Dubya for doing more harm to this country than any other president. By far. My great grandchildren will be paying for his invasion of Iraq.

 

[Third Party]

Our worst president is currently in office.


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Couldn't resist, could you? These are ALL just opinions=yours especially.

 

[Third Party]

Carter was needed after Nixon and Ford to bring a sense of morality, which he did. He also helped get Ronald Reagan elected which was another good thing.

 

[xyz]

People dislike Carter for the Iran hostage situation, and I think there was also a fuel crisis which might have been related.

I wouldn't attack Reagan's foreign policy as a whole, but it was a dirty trick to convince the Iranians not to release the hostages before the election.

Tricky Dick also made an election deal with the North Vietnamese. And I also think Nixon did some good things as well, for example he founded the EPA.

 

[eagle1462010]

People dislike Carter for the Iran hostage situation, and I think there was also a fuel crisis which might have been related.

I wouldn't attack Reagan's foreign policy as a whole, but it was a dirty trick to convince the Iranians not to release the hostages before the election.

Tricky Dick also made an election deal with the North Vietnamese. And I also think Nixon did some good things as well, for example he founded the EPA.

Carter was famous for STAGFLATION. And I was in the Fuel lines during that time. Waited for hours for rationed fuel. Which ended up in the United States adopting a Oil reserve should it happen again.

Iran hung us over a barrel. And held our people for over a year. An ACT OF WAR. That was the mood back then. The people in this country were ready to declare War if the hostages were not released, and were pissed at Peanut Head for not dealing with it.

His major accomplishment was the Camp David Accords. Israel and Egypt declared a peace which has lasted.

He's not the worst in my view. But wasn't liked much then or now.

 

[the other mike]

There are worse Presidents than Carter. James Buchanan comes to mind.

Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act is hard to top.
But his mug's still on our $20 isn't it ?

 

[xyz]

There are worse Presidents than Carter. James Buchanan comes to mind.

Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act is hard to top.
But his mug's still on our $20 isn't it ?

 

[Jets]

There are worse Presidents than Carter. James Buchanan comes to mind.

Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act is hard to top.
But his mug's still on our $20 isn't it ?

Well, he did pay off the national debt, so there is that.

 

[the other mike]

There are worse Presidents than Carter. James Buchanan comes to mind.

Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act is hard to top.
But his mug's still on our $20 isn't it ?

I don't do Ana and Cenk much anymore.
They drank the Russian koolaid just like the rest of the mass zombie-media.

 

[xyz]

There are worse Presidents than Carter. James Buchanan comes to mind.

Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act is hard to top.
But his mug's still on our $20 isn't it ?

I don't do Ana and Cenk much anymore.
They drank the Russian koolaid just like the rest of the mass zombie-media.

I know your point of view. But that's pretty interesting, about the $20 bill.

 

[Hellbilly]

Our worst president is currently in office.


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Couldn't resist, could you? These are ALL just opinions=yours especially.

Why does it bother you that I don’t like our current president?
If it makes you feel better, I didn’t like him before he was president.
I thought he was an asshole and a narcissist.


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[Hellbilly]

He was the worst.

Obama eclipsed him by a mile.

Liar.


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[Third Party]

Our worst president is currently in office.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Couldn't resist, could you? These are ALL just opinions=yours especially.

Why does it bother you that I don’t like our current president?
If it makes you feel better, I didn’t like him before he was president.
I thought he was an asshole and a narcissist.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I thought the same thing until he became president.
It does not bother me that you don't like him-calling him the worst requires some explanation-personality, lack of compassion, whatever.

 

[Truth1253]

Can’t tell you who’s the worst, but I can easily tell you who’s the best.

 

[Pogo]

Jimmy Carter was a bad president because he was useless. He didn't know what he was doing. I remember the Carter years as the most depressing in my lifetime.

Are you a war profiteer ?
They hate peace.

War wankers got nothing to wank with in the Carter years. For the rest of us any head of state who "fails" to take us into yet another war gets an automatic 50 bonus points on that alone. They shouldn't, but since we've made war the norm rather than the exception, everybody kind of starts 50 points in the hole until they shake it off.

That's what's behind this propaganda. They need to instill the value that war is somehow a "good thing". Carter didn't do it, therefore "not good". Sometimes propaganda is really sick when you look under the hood.

 

[Pogo]

Carter was a shitty president, but fdr was by far the worst.

FDR is among the worst, too. The more you learn, the worse he gets.

And apparently the less you articulate.

Do you ever actually make a case at all?