Appreciation thread for former President and First Lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

A good man and a great woman.

Sadly, though, a far better ex-President than President. Great to see how productively he's spent the years since leaving office in 1980.

Well, there was that time he saved Canada from nuclear devastation. He was twenty-eight at the time.

Decency, so rare now. Carter has given in the long run much more than any mere president.

He wasn't very popular with the staff because he was a micromanager who held everyone on a tight leash. He wasn't very nice about it, either. He was a protégé of Hyman Rickover, an admiral noted for having a big stick in his ass, so turned out to be just like him.

All that aside, he was a president who might of done better without the GOP target on his head.

A true American gentleman. He and Roslyn still live in the same house and walk home together from church. He is everything they tried to say Bush was but for real.

Broke the Congressional ladder/barrier to the Presidency. Was the victim of a GOP plot to hold the Iranian hostages through his re-election campaign. People, good people who cared about those hostages, were killed, and he lost to that traitorous cretin, Reagan.

I voted for him both times and cried when he left the WH. If we had listened to him during the oil embargo, we'd be energy independent now and leading the world in the manufacture of sustainable energy technology. He was a visionary who saw the future and I wonder what he thinks, now, of what might have been.

R7 I suspect that while he regrets the lack of action towards real energy independence, he forgives us for our short-sightedness because that's the kind of person he is.

He was a different kind of President, neither as venal as Nixon nor as stupid as Reagan.

While Reagan left office to give a speech for Pepsi in Japan for 2mil.

Somebody had to pay for Nancy's frocks.

Pres. Carter had a reputation as a man who didn't suffer fools lazy people easily. If you were on his staff in the White House you were expected to pull your weight, and work a full day for a full day's pay. He was known to confront Secret Service men who were just standing around doing nothing by asking them "don't you men have something to do?".

fools OR lazy people

[quote]Very little if any political scandal

Yes, but he DID secretly lust in his heart.

r6 Brit here -What is this GOP plot you speak of ?First I have heard of it.

R13, r6 is referring to the October Surprise. Wikipedia is okay as a starting point, I guess.

Probably the most descent couple to ever live in the White House...my God has this country fallen ,

Cheers r14

Gosh fancy a former US President receiving a grammy nomination never mind as many of them as Jimmy Carter has done including this month!

I cannot understand why he is disliked by the entire Former POTUS club, Sure, I can see why perhaps the conservatives would not like him, but Obama? Clinton? And it cannot be that they are of different generations and political bents since WJC and HWB were like father and son.

There has to more to it than his being a micromanager of the staff.

Where did you hear he was disliked by them r18 ?

You’re shitting us, right? He had a butt load of scandals. Just to start with - his damn dumb ass brother, who went around and borrowed money from Ghaddafhi for his Billy Beer nonsense . Yeah, that caused a hell of a lot of scandal. His family was a constant source of embarassment - and they were pretty much low rent grifters.

Bert Lance was Carter’s OMB director and forced to resign over allegations of improprieties when he was director of a bank in Georgia. He was later cleared. But his name surfaced again in the BCCI scandal - Iran Contra.

Beyond his famous disappearing act when he simply vanished from public view for several months on his quixotic attempt to remake national energy policy on his own, there was the Torrijos concession that returned the Panama Canal Zone to Panama. Seems like NBD now - but then, this was a huge deal. We had a seroius problem with Nicaragua, we weren’t getting squat for turning over a national asset to a corrupt banana republic and we were losing one of our most important military bases in the region.

Then there was thing called “Iran”. 53 hostages, 444 days. Carter fucked that up royally and it cost him the election and irrevocably changed the world as it set the US on a path of warfare with the Middle East that started with Iran, spread to Lebanon and ultimately exploded with the Arab Spring and Syria.

Camp David Accord? Got Peace yet?

How's the weather in St Petersburg, r20?

R21 DC, cunt. Find a new punch line. He lost re-election in a landslide.

R20 Carter gets blamed for the Middle East mess but there were always problems in the region before he became President.

Many people forget that daddy Bush was RNC Charirman in 1973-74 & a steadfast defender of Nixon.

He had to pledge not to run as Pres. or Vice-Pres. during the 1976 campaign in order to get the job.

Americans didn't realize that a CIA Chief with lofty goals might be a danger to a sitting President's reelection bid.

The release of the hostages shortly after Reagan/Bush was sworn in has "CIA operation" all over it to many of us (& I say that as an Independent).

As bad as Carter's relatives were, you forgot to put his in perspective to the others that followed him = Reagan's (Nancy's psychic meddling, etc.), Bush's (2 idiot sons, etc.), Clinton's (Hillary's line crossing & scandals, idiot brother, etc.) & Trump's (where to begin there?) all surpass Jimmy's "relative problems". Only Obama seems to have the fewest "relative problems" of recent Presidents but even he had a couple minor ones (wife's $$$ traveling, etc.).

The Panama Canal was a big deal back then but we really don't know what we got behind the scenes with that one. Our government never does something for nothing (including under Carter). There are plenty of blacked out papers that haven't been revealed during the Carter years. Time will tell. Repubs might still hate what he did on Panama but most people don't care about it to tar his legacy. I didn't care about the issue then & agree with Carter's decision about it now (for the record, I was too young to cast a vote for him in '80).

I would be shocked if political secrets came out about Jimmy Carter in future years that really revealed him to be a wicked awful individual ,I really would .I do not think he is the type.

I suspect it is his idealistic nature that create an issue with the other former presidents who favoured more pragmatism in American politics.

I forget President Carter's beloved mother Mizz Lillian who famously and frequently referred to black folks(who were a major source of support for her son) as "Nigras." Can you imagine if a Trump or even a Bush relative did that?

[R25] 'Nigra' was just another white way of demeaning Blacks under the guise that they weren't saying the N word...it was more popular among the southern gentry (if there's such a thing). BTW, LBJ had the same affliction...and so it goes...white folk being white

When he made that speach about lusting in his heart, he was talking about me.

Did you feel lustful in return Blanche ??! r27

Either a magazine or newspaper did a profile on the Carters this year. Can't remember which one.

They live such a simple life & are totally devoted to each other.

They have dinner every week with in their neighbor's home. The walk hand & hand every day. He preaches children Sunday school. He builds houses for the poor even at his age.

The article made me weep for how far human decency has fallen from The Carters to The Trumps.

No surprise DL appreciates a bigoted geezer.

Before you call Jimmy Carter bigoted, you should read about Mary Prince, the African-American woman wrongfully convicted of murder, whose cause he championed as Governor. Rosalynn Carter said Prince was convicted because of the color of her skin, and Jimmy dedicated a book to her. Eventually Prince was hired as nanny to the Carters' daughter.

Cf. Bill Clinton and Ricky Ray Rector.

Here Here r31 Well said and well highlighted.

How many bombs were dropped by the USA when Carter was commander in chief? How many servicepeople were killed?

Do tell if you already know r33 and your post is just a rhetorical question.

Whilst?

Yes its a word r35.....

How many more days before the Carters overtake the now dead bushes as the longest married Presidential couple?

Rosalynn was such a MILFy FLOTUS. She had a late 70s elegance and easy Southern sensuality to her.

Their kid Amy was a massive asshole according to long time WH staff. Total nightmare.