The Carter Presidency: Not So Peachy

This is an excerpt from the comments on a post at FOLO, "The Wit and Wisdom of Edwin Edwards," referring to Louisiana's former four-term governor. In an earlier comment, I noted that Edwards had seen through Jimmy Carter from the get-go and had even endorsed California governor Jerry Brown for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. This elicited a defense and praise for Carter from another commenter. Here is my response:

The commenter asks: “So just what did [Edwards] see in peering through Carter?”

He definitely did NOT see a backbone. Charles Evers, then a Democrat, called Jimmuh “weak as water,” and he was right.

The reason Edwards endorsed Jerry Brown was probably the same reason I voted for President Gerald Ford that November: he was NOT Jimmy Carter.

If Nixon hadn’t screwed up, Jimmuh never would have been president. Carter went around the country in ‘76 moralizing and talking about being a born-again Christian (a lot of people forget that Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson backed Jimmuh in ‘76). Of course, there wasn’t a peep from the mainstream media about “separation of church and state.”

How well I remember the gasoline lines of the Carter years– waiting in line for an hour and then being limited to buying 10 gallons.

Jimmuh invented the “misery index” to criticize Ford’s economic performance. Funny thing: the “misery index” was considerably worse during the Carter years. As I recall, inflation went to 14% and interest rates to 21%.

President Malaise wasn’t much of a delegator either. He personally scheduled the White House tennis courts. And he was petty: when he got mad at a member of Congress, he would bar that member’s constituents from White House tours.

Carter’s a good carpenter, and he’s been a pretty good ex-president– when he’s not supervising sham elections or brown-nosing terrorists.

When the Maximum Leader sought re-election in 1980, HE LOST 44 STATES. The only Southern state he carried was his native Georgia– and his opponent, to be sure, was a Californian.

You misread what I said about Edwin Edwards. He was a crook who should have gone to prison years earlier. And yet I found him interesting, funny, and flamboyant: he was a consummate politician who was elected governor four times.

The complete post is here.

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Thought for the day: "If only the people who worry about their liabilities would think about the riches they do possess, they would stop worrying. Would you sell both your eyes for a million dollars. or your legs. or your hands. or your hearing? Add up what you do have, and you'll find that you won't sell them for all the gold in the world. The best things in life are yours, if you can appreciate yourself."

~~ Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)