Reccommended viewing-This American Experience-Jimmy Carter

[Thump553]

The PBS series This American Experience has what I feel is a very informative and illuminating documentary on Jimmy Carter's presidency this week. You can see it online at the link below:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/carter/

Most posters here probably weren't alive or were infants when Carter was President, and their knowledge of him and that era are based solely upon second and third hand summaries by pundits. Take a look at this documentary, which in my view does a good job at summarizing the era, and post your thoughts.


It's sad that subsequent Presidents botched following up on the Camp David Accords.

 

[MooseNSquirrel]

Read back on his speech on energy policy.


Amazingly prescient.

 

[Thump553]

Ironically Carter was universally blasted by the pundits of the time for that speech as being simplistic and too negative. But I have read histories since then that say that speech actually went over well with the American public.

Personally I'm conflicted about Carter. Choosing between him and Ford was the hardest choice I ever made for President. Ford was a truely decent guy thrust into a tough job who almost certainly sacrificed any chance of re-election by pardoning Nixon. He almost certainly knew that beforehand and made the sacrifice for the good of the country. Carter had amazing credentials (former nuclear sub captain, governor, successful businessman and all self made) but he had such bad luck (like the killer rabbit, Iran) and got bogged down in stuff instead of delegating it. His brother was an absolute joke-Billy Carter was a walking parody of a drunken redneck.

Carter (and Ford) may have faced the toughest times any peacetime President ever had-tough problems not amenable to quick, simple solutions, and both are unfairly labeled failures because of that.

 

[werepossum]

Ironically Carter was universally blasted by the pundits of the time for that speech as being simplistic and too negative. But I have read histories since then that say that speech actually went over well with the American public.

Personally I'm conflicted about Carter. Choosing between him and Ford was the hardest choice I ever made for President. Ford was a truely decent guy thrust into a tough job who almost certainly sacrificed any chance of re-election by pardoning Nixon. He almost certainly knew that beforehand and made the sacrifice for the good of the country. Carter had amazing credentials (former nuclear sub captain, governor, successful businessman and all self made) but he had such bad luck (like the killer rabbit, Iran) and got bogged down in stuff instead of delegating it. His brother was an absolute joke-Billy Carter was a walking parody of a drunken redneck.

Carter (and Ford) may have faced the toughest times any peacetime President ever had-tough problems not amenable to quick, simple solutions, and both are unfairly labeled failures because of that.

I had the same view as did you about Carter, and thought Ford a decent guy in way over his head, and my family were lifelong Yellow Dog Democrats, so I was a big Carter supporter in '76. To my then-disappointment but later everlasting relief I was spared the ignominy of having voted for Carter by virtue of being just a bit too young to vote, and by the time he ran for re-election I'd have voted for Billy Carter before Jimmah. At least Billy seemed to not hate his country. Jimmy Carter was the darling of my Democrat family in '76, but in conjunction with Reagan almost single-handedly converted my whole family from voting 100% Democrat above the local level to almost never voting for a Democrat above the local level - although granted, many of us tend to vote Libertarian rather than Republican - and in the years since being rejected he has only strengthened his America-hating, Jew-hating image. I despise Carter, although perhaps being such a big fan initially has a lot to do with that. Had I been more of a Ford fan (or just less rabidly Democrat), perhaps I'd be less judgmental of Carter.

And yes, Billy was a walking parody of a drunken redneck, but it could have been worse. GWB has a brother who's a convicted felon if memory serves.

 

[Phokus]

Carter was the last president to tell the unpleasant truth. Reagan was the first president to show that marketing (and making people 'feel good' by telling them what they wanted to hear) was more important than anything else and every president after has followed in his footsteps.

 

[wuliheron]

I was just shy of my 18th birthday and couldn't vote for him. To this day I still consider him to have more integrity then any other president in my lifetime and this shows in the work he's done after leaving office. With most of congress now consisting of lawyers and billion dollar presidential campaigns I don't think we'll see his like again soon, but you never know.