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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Birthday, President Carter

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Birthday, President Carter

by Anne Laurie|  October 1, 20145:19 am| 75 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Rare Sincerity

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jimmy carter happy 90th via siubhanduinne

From commentor SiubhanDuinne:

The hardhat in the photo tells you everything you need to know about this good man. Best wishes to President Jimmy Carter on his 90th birthday, October 1, 2014. I have had the immense pleasure and privilege of meeting him on several occasions over the past 25+ years. When I was recovering from open heart surgery (quadruple bypass) in 2001, he sent me a personally inscribed copy of his memoir An Hour Before Daylight, accompanied by a personal letter wishing me a quick recovery. I have never been adequately able to state what that meant to me, so I’m going public with it now. Quite simply, I love this man and what he has done with his life and what he inspires in others. The happiest of birthdays to you, Mr. President, and all best wishes for many more.

Confession time: I wasted my very first presidential vote on John Anderson, in protest of President Carter’s refusal to support pro-choice legislation. Best I can say in my defense is that it cured me of Purity Protest Syndrome in an election where my principled stand could not possibly have made a difference.

I truly believe that future historians (assuming there are any) will regard James Earl Carter as a man perpetually, tragically, just a few years in advance of his time, on subjects from civil rights and nuclear disarmament to environmental justice and human rights. On the other hand, he’s had the good fortune to live long enough to be vindicated in all those areas, too (for all the good it does us!). Happy birthday, and many happy returns, sir!
***********
Apart from what-might-have-beens, what’s on the agenda for the start of another month / the last few hours of China’s National Day?

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Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    Ben Cisco

    October 1, 2014 at 5:36 am

    Server upgrades, office moves, hardware inventory, scanner gun programming, system build testing, software deployments, “bash/shellshock” bug research.

    Other than that, not much…

  2. 2.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    October 1, 2014 at 5:46 am

    I’m scanning a bunch of prints my mom had saved, mostly people I have no idea who they are. Also happy B-day to “History’s Greatest Monster”. Unlike AL, my first vote for President was the Carter/Mondale ticket, I still have the campaign button.

    ETA: “History’s Greatest Monster” is a Registered Trademark of the Republican National Committee.

  3. 3.

    Schlemazel

    October 1, 2014 at 5:56 am

    @Ben Cisco:
    Sounds like we both have been having a fun time with this. Worked quite a bit over the weekend & then had to redo it all because they discovered a new angle that first fix didn’t fix.

    My first vote was for McGovern though I worked my butt off on the campaign for Humphrey in ’68. There was the tragedy, how much better the world would be had he won. But I made the same mistake as AL. Caulk it up to young and stupid.

  4. 4.

    tybee

    October 1, 2014 at 6:03 am

    november 2, 1976. his election. my first date with mrs. tybee (the incumbent)

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    October 1, 2014 at 6:06 am

    Jimmy Carter is the only U.S. president I’ve met in person. When I was in radio in 1979, I was invited to an out-of-town news directors day at the White House. We spent most of the day in the OEOB getting briefings on the administration’s policies on energy and such, but the highlight of the day was when we were escorted across the street to the cabinet room and had about thirty minutes asking the president questions. I asked about ethanol and got my picture taken with him.

    Happy birthday, Mr. President.

    By the way, according to the New York Times, the election of Jimmy Carter put the kibosh on plans by Henry Kissinger to invade Cuba. Seriously.

  6. 6.

    Mustang Bobby

    October 1, 2014 at 6:08 am

    @Schlemazel:

    My first vote was for McGovern though I worked my butt off on the campaign for Humphrey in ’68.

    Same here.

  7. 7.

    Tommy

    October 1, 2014 at 6:12 am

    There are a few times in my life, as a kid, I recall things. Election night. Carter. The guy has done so much good. Hard to wrap your mind around it all.

  8. 8.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    October 1, 2014 at 6:14 am

    @Mustang Bobby: I’ve never met a President or ex-President, I did see Nixon a few months before the crook died. I was about 10 feet from him.

  9. 9.

    raven

    October 1, 2014 at 6:16 am

    Just so we don’t canonize him too much:

    When Lieutenant William Calley was convicted in a military trial and sentenced to life for his role in the My Lai Massacre in South Vietnam, a politically polarizing issue, Carter avoided paying direct tribute to Calley. He instead instituted “American Fighting Man’s Day” and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on in support of the military.[39]

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 1, 2014 at 6:18 am

    There is no better illustration for the delusion that infects the right wing mind than the demonization of Carter’s Presidency juxtaposed against the worship for St Ronnie’s. Sometimes I wonder if anyone else remembers how Reagan railed against Carter’s deficits?

    “$60 billion? What a piker! Let me show you how it’s done!” is what he should have said.

  11. 11.

    Tommy

    October 1, 2014 at 6:24 am

    @raven: But he did this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tPePpMxJaA

    Obama couldn’t do this today. He spoke to the American public decades ago.

  12. 12.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    October 1, 2014 at 6:25 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Deficits only count when a Democrat is in the White House.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 1, 2014 at 6:28 am

    Now the comedy becomes farce:

    Later on Tuesday, the Post disclosed details of the Atlanta security breach, which had not previously been revealed. The Post reported that the contractor failed to obey an order from secret service agents to stop filming the president on his camera phone, and a background check revealed he had three convictions for assault.

    The agents only realised he was carrying a gun when a supervisor from the private security company, on being told of agents’ concerns, fired him on the spot. The man agreed to turn over his weapon.

    Well, at least he was agreeable.

  14. 14.

    raven

    October 1, 2014 at 6:30 am

    @Tommy: He was the governor of backward-ass Georgia. He grew. I like him I just remember shit.

  15. 15.

    Fred

    October 1, 2014 at 6:36 am

    Letting GOPers trash Carter, unchallenged is one of the Dems great failings. The guy was stuck with Nixon’s war debt and that was why the economy sucked.
    And then Saint Ronny made his deal with the Iranians (just like Nixon’s treasonous deal with the Vietnamese) and that was what cost Carter the election.
    I will say the cardigans were a bad fashion statement. The man should have gotten a style consultant fer sure. Maybe lumberjack shirt would have been more macho.
    I voted for him twice and I would vote for him today.

  16. 16.

    Keith G

    October 1, 2014 at 6:36 am

    My first, and best, presidential vote was for Jimmy Carter. As an 18 yr old at OSU, I helped organize the campus. What I miss about those times is how easy it was to meet the candidates – to shake a hand and have a word. Jimmy Carter was/is so gracious. And so was Walter Mondale, whose appearance and speech at a Black church in Columbus I did advance work for.

    For me, Carter was the light ending the darkness of the era that included the last years of LBJ and all of Nixon/Ford. My little golden peanut campaign pin is still a very treasured item.

    A.L., I went to an Anderson speech on campus. It was part of a series that year that brought influential voices to the students . He said all the right things, but he never sparked any fire in me. That maybe in part because who he was up against.

    There were two speakers who addressed the students gathered at Mershon Auditorium that night. Anderson made his case quite well, but the case for the Carter administration was made by a member of the House from Texas:

    Barbara Jordan

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 1, 2014 at 6:37 am

    @Tommy: @raven:

    By the way, going to Baton Rouge in November. Any suggestions?

  18. 18.

    Tommy

    October 1, 2014 at 6:47 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Chimes outside the gates of LSU. I know the city well, and you can’t go wrong. Next to it is the Varisty where I might have seen five of my top ten concerts of all time. It is a good block of stuff.

  19. 19.

    Keith G

    October 1, 2014 at 6:47 am

    @raven: (Maybe unsurprisingly) I see nothing wrong with such a useful “dodge” constructed out of such a bit of political theater. Cater had conservatives whom he needed to placate. An “American Fighting Man’s Day” sounds like a reasonable defensive tactic.

    At least (to my knowledge) Carter was able to resist the political pander embodied in a civilian returning a salute.

    That said, one of the things that Jimmy Carter did not do with enough effect was to use the inherent theatrics of the presidencial office to his advantage.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 1, 2014 at 6:51 am

    @Tommy: My son lives 2 blocks from LSU.

  21. 21.

    TheMightyTrowel

    October 1, 2014 at 6:51 am

    My first pres vote – scant days after my 18th birthday – was for Gore. What a shit-sandwich of a birthday gift I got, eh?

  22. 22.

    Tommy

    October 1, 2014 at 6:52 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Oh you got to go to the Capital. I think 40 stores up. Just a thing, oh and Huey Long was shot there, or the story goes.

  23. 23.

    Tommy

    October 1, 2014 at 6:57 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t think you ever said that to me. LSU is in my blood. I was born in Baton Rouge. Dad went there. I went to school there. It was just a thing. Baton Rouge.

  24. 24.

    Joey Maloney

    October 1, 2014 at 7:00 am

    Confession time: I wasted my very first presidential vote on John Anderson, in protest of President Carter’s refusal to support pro-choice legislation.

    You, too?

    Well, I got better.

  25. 25.

    danielx

    October 1, 2014 at 7:05 am

    The last reasonably honest man to occupy the Oval Office, in my not very humble opinion. No wonder he only got one term.

  26. 26.

    skerry

    October 1, 2014 at 7:21 am

    My first presidential vote was to re-elect President Carter. I have always admired the man. But my vote was cast in Indiana, so it had no real effect.

    I still don’t understand the Reagan worship. Didn’t like him then, hasn’t improved with time.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    October 1, 2014 at 7:21 am

    in an election where my principled stand could not possibly have made a difference.

    I think I would despise Senator Kennedy if I thought his primary challenge affected the outcome of the general election.

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    October 1, 2014 at 7:31 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    From Carol Leoning’s WaPost article on the armed security contractor in elevator:

    Under a security measure called the Arm’s Reach Program, Secret Service advance staffers run potential event staff members, contractors, hotel employees, invited guests and volunteers through several databases, including a national criminal information registry, and records kept by the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Defense Department, among others. Anyone who is found to have a criminal history, mental illness or other indications of risk is barred from entry.

    Local police and federal officers are not checked in the same way under the Arm’s Reach Program, with the Secret Service presuming that they meet the safety standards because of their employment in law enforcement. But private security contractors would typically be checked, said two former agents who worked on advance planning for presidential trips.

    I would stop presuming anything about local and federal law enforcement officers, too. We saw the police response in Ferguson. Presume nothing.

    You have a lot of rightwing whack jobs in law enforcement. Some in the military too. You have a lot of people who watch Fox News and think they’re smart enough to escape its virulence. Or don’t see the virulence in the first place.

    Screen everybody.

  29. 29.

    mai naem

    October 1, 2014 at 7:39 am

    When you compare post presidencies of Dems and Repubs, you get a better feel of who gives a crap about people, and it ain’t the GOP. I’ve always like Carter and as already has been mentioned, he’s just ahead of his time. Carter came to a local bookstore during one of his book tours. The parking lot was packed. The store happens to be in the same plaza was a Trader Joes. Only other times I’ve seen it this full was when one of the Clintons was there(pretty sure Hillary on the first book.)

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 1, 2014 at 7:46 am

    @Tommy: Well, I didn’t know it till just a few days ago. I am hoping to spend a few days on the bayous. Any suggestions as to state parks?

  31. 31.

    raven

    October 1, 2014 at 8:04 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Go down to down to the Tobasco factory in New Iberia, great gardens there.

  32. 32.

    WereBear

    October 1, 2014 at 8:06 am

    He WOULD rather be right than President.

    Happy Birthday!

  33. 33.

    Percysowner

    October 1, 2014 at 8:09 am

    My first vote was for McGovern. I had a bumper sticker saying “Nixon’s through in 72” on my car for years. I always told people the sentiment was right, just 2 years too early. I too voted for John Anderson and like you, it cured me on ever again voting solely on narrow principles. I know I didn’t put Saint Ronnie in the White House, but I still feel bad about my vote.

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    October 1, 2014 at 8:16 am

    Fessing up to a vote for John Anderson in 1980 too.

    I was young, and the media was full of stories of Jimmy Carter being such an incompetent president.

    I regret the vote, since it was a backdoor vote for Ronald Reagan.

    So, a fable on youthful lack of critical thinking, and on the poisonous possibilities of following mainstream media.

    (Recall their contempt for Al Gore too, although I think his decision to distance himself from the Clintons — and anyone who would not vote for Bill Clinton was not going to vote for Al Gore in the first place … But Al Gore won the 2000 popular vote, and Florida could have gone differently if handled fairly. To this day, I have not forgiven Sandra Day O’Connor for her complicity in the coup.)

  35. 35.

    raven

    October 1, 2014 at 8:23 am

    @Percysowner: That too was my first presidential. I was in Vietnam in 68 but only 18 so I was not eligible. When I came home in 69 it was still 14 months till I could vote.

  36. 36.

    Belafon

    October 1, 2014 at 8:26 am

    My first political memory is Carter flying into my hometown airport on a greenish Braniff airplane during the 1980 reelection. I was 10.

  37. 37.

    FlipYrWhig

    October 1, 2014 at 8:27 am

    I was too young to vote in 1980 but I remember that my post-hippie and militantly secular parents voted for Anderson because they were repulsed by Carter’s evangelicalism.

  38. 38.

    Emily68

    October 1, 2014 at 8:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I went to Baton Rouge on a field trip in the 4th grade–probably 1958. The only thing I remember is the spot where Huey Long got shot at the state capitol.

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    October 1, 2014 at 8:28 am

    Leakers go public with Secret Service chaos

    Carol Leonnig, national reporter for the Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about the growing list of Secret Service embarrassments coming to public light as inside sources leak details to journalists and legislators.

    http://on.msnbc.com/1uA2YMP

  40. 40.

    raven

    October 1, 2014 at 8:32 am

    @Emily68: Who built the highway to Baton Rouge?

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    October 1, 2014 at 8:33 am

    THESE MOFOS HERE!!

    …………………..

    Really Politico?

    ByJosh MarshallPublishedSeptember 30, 2014, 11:47 PM EDT 4692 views

    I’m wondering what the editors at Politico were thinking when they let through this bizarre line about Obama being such an abysmal manager that only his death by assassination is likely to bring about needed reform of the Secret Service.

    The piece in question is a quickly published piece in Politico Magazine by Ronald Kessler.

    Kessler is a legitimate expert on national law enforcement and intelligence agencies. He’s written many books on these topics. I actually interviewed him a couple times for pieces I wrote just after 9/11 on post-attack preparedness, intelligence sharing and related topics. But over the last decade he’s made a hard veer to the right, with a heavy dose of Obama-hating conspiracy mongering.

    All of which is to say that on this topic Kessler is simultaneously a genuine expert and a bit of a kook.

    So here’s the kicker at the end of the piece.

    Agents tell me it’s a miracle an assassination has not already occurred. Sadly, given Obama’s colossal lack of management judgment, that calamity may be the only catalyst that will reform the Secret Service.

    Read that a few times.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/really-politico?utm_content=buffer026d4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    October 1, 2014 at 8:55 am

    @rikyrah:

    I think you have a lot of rightwing nutbags burrowed away in the Secret Service, and they need to come to light.

    Do you think some of this streams from rolling too many agencies into Homeland Security, and the “all war all the time” stuff desensitizing people and rewarding them for keeping their head’s down?

    It looks like bureaucratic rot. Which gets magnified by the rightwing screaming about Obama and/or the government cannot do anything right EVER.

  43. 43.

    Paul in KY

    October 1, 2014 at 8:56 am

    I wasted my vote on Anderson, due to Olympic boycott. Still pissed a bit about that (we only had 3 channels back then & Summer Olympics was big TV fare back then). Anyhoo, should have been more intelligent about that & pulled lever for Pres. Carter.

    Happy Birthday, Mr. President!!!

  44. 44.

    Paul in KY

    October 1, 2014 at 8:59 am

    @Tommy: I will be in NOLA for Voodoo Fest at end of October. Foo Fighters to close!

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    October 1, 2014 at 9:03 am

    This is up on the Washington Post website, in its “Everything” online clickbait section. This very minute.

    By a former Secret Service agent/Marine, Dan Emmett:

    The Uniformed Division, which was not designed to repel a military-type attack, needs to be beefed up with well-armed, well-trained military personnel. In addition, the Secret Service needs leadership that fully understands how to balance law enforcement with military force and use them together in harmony. This type of leadership is currently lacking at the Secret Service’s upper level. The current director, Julia Pierson, is a former police officer and has served in the Secret Service for 30 years. Pierson, while a highly competent and capable agent with an exemplary record, has no military background and, therefore, doesn’t have the needed perspective to lead the organization in wartime. During periods of extreme danger, as we now find ourselves in [he means from ISIS terrorists, although we’re actually having trouble with those who accept the Fox News stereotype of Obama and Democrats destroying the country from within; people are not taking actual shots at Republicans], we must be willing to admit that otherwise capable and dedicated agents are not right for the job of director.

    Pierson should be replaced and the next director should come from outside the Secret Service, with the deputy director remaining an agent. In this role, a true leader, not a bureaucrat, is needed. Someone like Florida congressman and retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Allen West would be perfect for the role. West has successfully demonstrated that he possesses the leadership skills of a combat officer as well as managerial and diplomatic skills of a congressman, exactly the traits needed in the next director. Highly competent and beholden to no one in the Secret Service, he would be a superb director.

    That was published by The Washington Post.

    We are safer with Mr. Emmett and Mr. West outside government service at present.

  46. 46.

    Marc

    October 1, 2014 at 9:08 am

    I truly believe that future historians (assuming there are any) will regard James Earl Carter as a man perpetually, tragically, just a few years in advance of his time, on subjects from civil rights and nuclear disarmament to environmental justice and human rights.

    And Israel.

  47. 47.

    lamh36

    October 1, 2014 at 9:14 am

    Special Report: Brown Family And Prosecutor Bitterly Divided Over Grand Jury Probe In Ferguson

    <blockquote
    Earlier this month, Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson testified for nearly four hours to the St. Louis County grand jury that will decide whether he will be indicted for the Aug. 9 shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

    It was a striking moment. The subject of a grand jury investigation rarely risks the legal consequences of testifying before they have even been charged. But it was, at least in theory, in keeping with the prosecutor's pledge to put every piece of evidence before the jurors. Anthony Gray, one of the attorneys for the Brown family, had a visceral reaction to the news of Wilson's testimony, though: "The only thing that happened for over four hours was Mike Brown's body laying on concrete."

    The grand jury began hearing evidence on Aug. 20. In most cases, the prosecutor directs the investigation with specific charges in mind, which then dictates what evidence is presented to the jurors. But not this time. Prosecutor Bob McCulloch, whose office is overseeing the case and who has come under scrutiny in the Ferguson community for his ties to law enforcement, has said that the jury will see everything.

    “We will be presenting absolutely everything to this grand jury — every statement that any witness made, every witness, every photograph, every piece of physical evidence,” McCulloch said last month “Absolutely nothing will be left out.”

    McCulloch has been a controversial figure. Protesters have pointed to his past, which includes the 1964 shooting of his father, a police officer, in the line of duty. He has tried to counter that through pledges of transparency and assigning day-to-day oversight of the grand jury to two deputies, one whom is black.

    Still, the unusual nature of the grand jury proceedings has raised eyebrows, and former prosecutors have told TPM that the approach would undoubtedly give McCulloch some public-relations cover if the jury decides not to indict Wilson. In fact, one suggested that there was a easy way to help one understand how truly transparent this grand jury would be.

    "If they're doing this wide open grand jury investigation, is it simply the district attorney's office who's deciding what witnesses are going in there?" Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is now a law professor at Loyola University in Los Angeles, told TPM. "Or have they reached out to the lawyers of the family or other people? Are they actually soliciting input from other parties?"

    "That can give you an idea of whether this is just cover," she said, "or this is really a community investigation."

  48. 48.

    FlipYrWhig

    October 1, 2014 at 9:15 am

    @Elizabelle:

    West has successfully demonstrated that he possesses the leadership skills of a combat officer as well as managerial and diplomatic skills of a congressman

    Also I hear he has the incorruptibility of a Supreme Court judge and the abstemiousness of a Catholic priest. #backhandcompliments

  49. 49.

    Hal

    October 1, 2014 at 9:16 am

    @Elizabelle: yes. What the secret service needs is a leader who hates the man they are supposed to protect.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 1, 2014 at 9:22 am

    @Elizabelle: Haysoos Crisco….

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    October 1, 2014 at 9:25 am

    I know. The Emmett piece is amazing. That it passed muster with the Post is astonishing.

    WaPost reader comments are pitch perfect. Suggesting David Duke for DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Charles Manson for Secret Service (hey, he can motivate people and accomplish a lot on a shoestring).

    Several wondered if they’re reading The Onion.

    ETA: hat tip to Talking Points Memo for spotlighting the Emmett praises Allen West op ed. Did not find it on my own, and it’s not highlighted on Post website. (Gee.)

  52. 52.

    Elmo

    October 1, 2014 at 9:40 am

    @FlipYrWhig:
    Washington DC, famously a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.

  53. 53.

    Rand Careaga

    October 1, 2014 at 10:06 am

    One more McGovern/72, Carter/76, Anderson/80 voter here. That third one taught me that to spurn the lesser of two evils (as I then naively perceived it) served only to engorge the greater. At least unlike, say, your Naderite dead-enders, I was not denying this obvious truth a dozen years later.

  54. 54.

    NobodySpecial

    October 1, 2014 at 10:27 am

    My father worked for John B. when I was a teeny tiny kid, before he ran for President. I’ve had the good fortune to meet him a couple of times after that. I call him the last real Midwestern Republican. Anyone who conflates him with that ego bag Nader is a fucking tool. The only sad part about that saga is how, looking back on his debate performance and campaign, he checks in to the left of Hillary in so many ways.

  55. 55.

    Linnaeus

    October 1, 2014 at 10:31 am

    I truly believe that future historians (assuming there are any) will regard James Earl Carter as a man perpetually, tragically, just a few years in advance of his time, on subjects from civil rights and nuclear disarmament to environmental justice and human rights.

    I will disagree with this somewhat. I think future historians – just like current ones are already starting to do – will show how Carter is more complex than that, as a candidate and as a president.

  56. 56.

    Bobby Thomson

    October 1, 2014 at 10:53 am

    Carter Op-ed: I Got What America Needs Right Here

    A little blue for Jimmy, but he’s entitled.

  57. 57.

    Violet

    October 1, 2014 at 10:55 am

    Happy Birthday, Jimmy Carter! He’s the best. Lives by example. Love him.

  58. 58.

    Bobby Thomson

    October 1, 2014 at 10:56 am

    @Baud: I did, and I did for several years.

  59. 59.

    Kathleen

    October 1, 2014 at 11:00 am

    @rikyrah: That Politico article was outrageous (Mike Allen’s dad was a bigwig in the John Birch Society but he likes to keep that a secret, per the book “This Town”, and though he didn’t write that article I think Politico is a shill for the Fascististas), so that could explain a lot. The Secret Service’s incompetence is appalling. But I’m suspicous as to why all of this information is being leaked now.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    October 1, 2014 at 11:07 am

    @Elizabelle:

    This was my favorite comment:

    When Allen West is the answer, I don’t want to know the question.

  61. 61.

    schrodinger's cat

    October 1, 2014 at 11:13 am

    How could people have chosen the empty suit over Carter is something I have never understood.

  62. 62.

    schrodinger's cat

    October 1, 2014 at 11:13 am

    @Kathleen: The same Mike Allen who is/was a Cheney toady?

  63. 63.

    Linnaeus

    October 1, 2014 at 11:20 am

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    How could people have chosen the empty suit over Carter is something I have never understood.

    Perlstein’s latest book does a pretty good job of explaining it, although he hasn’t gotten to the election of 1980 yet.

  64. 64.

    gene108

    October 1, 2014 at 11:28 am

    @skerry:

    I still don’t understand the Reagan worship

    Reagan opened the door to the fundies becoming real political players, along with other various grifters on the Right.

    They rode his coattails to power.

    If Reagan is objectively studied, their claim to power becomes less secure. Their claim to power has been built up over a myth and if the myth is exposed as not being purely correct, they get exposed.

    Reagan was not this worshipped in 1988 nor in 2000.

    His V.P. was considered a “wimp”. Until Lee Atwater worked his “magic”, the Democrat was solidly ahead.

    In 2000, Bush, Jr. ran as a “compassionate conservative” because people still had some New Deal-ish expectations of government beyond enabling IGMFY. Bush, Jr.’s major domestic achievements, excluding the reckless tax cuts, triangulated long-term Democratic goals: increasing Dept of Education funding and expanding Medicare.

    I think somewhere in the 1990’s, as Reagan suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, people starting crafting their own hagiography of Reagan to justify their hold on power. I think this got especially worse after the “Gingrich Revolution”, because those fuckers did not care a lick about governing and just wanted to fuck around with whatever power they grabbed.

  65. 65.

    FlipYrWhig

    October 1, 2014 at 11:31 am

    @gene108: Movement conservatives needed a 20th-century icon and hence built up Reagan as the counterpart and mirror image to Roosevelt.

  66. 66.

    gene108

    October 1, 2014 at 11:40 am

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Said much better and more succinctly. [Golf-clap]

  67. 67.

    karen marie

    October 1, 2014 at 11:40 am

    I voted for Carter twice and considered him a great president. Not perfect but great. Unfortunately, Americans love them some snake-oil salesmen. That hasn’t changed despite the many documented failures of Reagan and the two Shrubs.

  68. 68.

    Bitter Scribe

    October 1, 2014 at 1:00 pm

    It really annoys me when I see assholes like P.J O’Rourke sneering at Carter. Attention O’Rourke: Carter has done more for his country during any randomly selected 15 minutes of his life than you could accomplish in ten sober lifetimes.

  69. 69.

    JR in WV

    October 1, 2014 at 1:28 pm

    Obviously the journalistic integrity of Mr Bezos has already overtaken the staff of the Washington Post. Tragic.

    As a youth and for many years, former co-workers’ relatives who took employment at the Post were regarded as having arrived at the pinnacle of excellence in the news world. Lo, how the mighty are fallen!

    Now I only read trivial human interest stuff in the Post. Their “substantive” work is more trash than journalism. Calling them part of the left-wing media is a cruel joke. There is left-wing media today – this is it.

    Sad. Ultimately tragic for our poor nation, which needed that Fourth Estate to do well.

  70. 70.

    Jerry O'Brien

    October 1, 2014 at 3:21 pm

    @Joey Maloney: Anderson was my first presidential vote, also, but for me it was mostly because he was a fiscal conservative. I knew Reagan didn’t qualify as such. I regret not voting for Carter.

  71. 71.

    Kathleen

    October 1, 2014 at 3:37 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yup. The author found it interesting that Mike Allen was so secretive about it. This Town is a pretty interesting read.

  72. 72.

    LanceThruster

    October 1, 2014 at 5:00 pm

    That he was a only one-term president is a national shame and unbearable missed opportunity.

  73. 73.

    SWMBO

    October 1, 2014 at 5:24 pm

    Bill Maher has a jihadi fixation but on this one he nails it:

    http://rackjite.com/new-rules-bill-maher-democrats-man-march-28-2014/

  74. 74.

    jon

    October 1, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    What the Carter Foundation has done about the guinea worm could be the greatest American contribution to world health since the polio vaccine. Of course it mostly affected poor black people in Africa, so maybe it doesn’t count as an achievement.

    He was a curmudgeon with a smile, a nuclear submarine hero, advocate for democracy, a man who called Israel an apartheid state and still has a pulse, Mr. Malaise with cheerfulness, never bitter, a feminist, fended off killer rabbits without resorting to antiquities from Antioch, and his brother makes Roger Clinton look like Alfred Pennyworth. A great American.

  75. 75.

    Elie

    October 1, 2014 at 11:48 pm

    @jon:

    Well said…

    My own “Happy Birthday” to Mr Carter. We were lucky to have his service and his example of moral leadership…

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