An NPR piece on Jimmy Carter closed with...

[TreasonousBastard]

"He's planning his next adventure." Throughout the interview, Carter was lucid, calm, and entirely aware that this was natural end of a 90 year life well lived.

He may not have been our greatest President, but he may have been the greatest man to have been President.

[oldandhappy]

1. Amen!!!

[tblue37]

2. KnR. Well said. nt

[JDPriestly]

3. K&R.

[brer cat]

4. Very true.

It is well with his soul.

[MissDeeds]

5. "...he may have been the greatest man

to have been President". So true.



K&R

[hedgehog]

8. Well put.

[PatrickforO]

6. Well said. K&R. Carter is a truly great man.

[LuckyLib]

7. A class act all the way. Who has walked the walk.

[Fearless]

9. The man isn't dead yet.

I will wait to see if it has spread further and the radiation treatment he is receiving.

[ashling]

10. Thank you

NPR "obituary" is a little premature

[Lucky Luciano]

34. Not dead yet. He feels happy! He feels fine!

[DawgHouse]

45. True, I wish him the best!

[cwydro]

66. Thank you.

Sure seems to be a rush to bury him lately.

Even on DU.

He ain't dead folks.

[SusanaMontana41]

70. Right! What a life! And he's still living it. n/t

[Ed Suspicious]

11. I very much agree.

"He may not have been our greatest President, but he may have been the greatest man to have been President."

[MarianJack]

12. I was a Kennedy '80 Democrat and...

...I consider Jimmy Carter to be, certainly, our greatest former President ever!

PEACE!

[mountain grammy]

13. I'm not giving up on Jimmy Carter..

He's starting new treatment. I will be hopeful. I love this man.

[glinda]

14. kick

[raindaddy]

15. He may not have been our greatest President, but he may have been the greatest man to have been Pres

Well said!

[KT2000]

16. A great president

keeps peace - he did that!

[Worried senior]

46. Agree with you.

[loyalsister]

17. Death is in all of our futures

Living out one's final years with of peace when it is in plain view on the horizon is something that I would hope for everyone to have. People who are comfortable with it are more likely to make plans that alleviate the burden on the people who will feel a loss.

I have known people who have had that perspective and it made it so much easier for their friends and families to grieve and proceed with their lives.

[malaise]

23. The ultimate philosophical truth is that everything that lives

will die.
We must all strive to be comfortable with that reality.
Jimmy Carter is a class act.

[JI7]

18. he will do so much more in the time he has left than many people would do in their life time

[merrily]

38. +1

[Tommymac]

19. This

"He may not have been our greatest President, but he may have been the greatest man to have been President."

[sufrommich]

20. I'm going to cry like a baby when that man is gone.

He was my first (and second) vote for president. He walks the walk and always has.

[AikidoSoul]

63. I'm with you on this -- all the way

I will mourn him for as long as I live. He has inspired me like no other president in my lifetime.

[sarge43]

21. Certainly he is the most decent man to have been president.

He made this world a better place.

[etherealtruth]

22. He is an honorable man

... a wonderful man

I Jimmy Carter

[TBF]

24. To quote Friedrich Nietzsche -

"not just a good and great man, but an entire culture."

He was referring to his teacher Goethe of course, but it applies here as well.

[mmonk]

25. Aaaayyhhh. You're making my eyes water.

[IHateTheGOP]

26. Contrary to popular righty belief, he was a pretty damn good President. Sure beats Reagan.

[Grammy23]

27. Like others posting here, I say with pride that my first and second time to vote

were for Jimmy Carter. My first big electoral disappointment was when he was not re-elected and we had 8 years of Ronald Reagan to endure. Since leaving the Presidency in 1981, Mr. Carter, with his wife by his side, has given all of us a living example of how to make a difference in the world. He could have gone back to Plains, gone on speaking tours and written books and had a good life. Instead, he did all of those things and many more. His involvement in Habitat for Humanity helped bring that organization to our attention and encouraged many volunteers and donors to support it with time, labor, supplies and dollars. The development of The Carter Center is a shining example of how one couple's dream (he readily credits Roselyn for her role in their projects) can become reality. Never content to be just figureheads, the Carters have always been hands-on leaders who demonstrated their commitment with their time and presence at their projects. The legacy that they built will last long after the founders are gone.

Now Mr. Carter is showing us how one CAN deal with the development of a potentially fatal illness. Ever the pragmatist, he is demonstrating the same attitude about this situation that he has used in other areas of his life. Calm, centered and armed with his faith and a plan to treat the cancer, he is prepared for whatever comes. No self pity, no whining or statements about why me? Just a determined outlook to live whatever time remains to him with grace, dignity and purpose. We can all learn from that.

[IDemo]

28. My first vote at age 18

And one I shall forever remain proud of. The man has been disparaged by RW'rs ever since, and I take that for what it's worth. Politicians would do very well to examine Carter's life and apply some principles to their public service, genuine public service.

[steve2470]

30. my first vote also nt

[Enthusiast]

31. +100%!

They used the media to disparage Jimmy leading up to the election then they used clandestine, treasonous subterfuge to win the election. Nazi filth.

[LWolf]

36. Yes.

My first vote, and perhaps the best I've ever cast.

[redwitch]

75. Mine too.

I will always be proud that I voted for President Carter.

[hifiguy]

55. Same for me.

Turned 18 a couple of years before the 76 election. Proudly voted for Jimmy Carter and my Senator, Fritz Mondale, who is himself still going strong.

We should all live our lives with a fraction of the basic decency, selfless humanity and thoughtful reflection with with President Carter has lived his.

[etherealtruth]

57. mine too, i pulled the lever for him when I was 18

unfortunately, Reagan won ... but I remain proud of my vote

[merrily]

29. "He may not have been our greatest President....."

Why trot that out, even if the sentence ends well? I can't rec this.

[Enthusiast]

32. NPR.

[merrily]

33. No one ever credits him for not going to war over the hostages, despite goading from many quarters.

Had he listened to that bullshit, the hostages would have been the first casualties and then thousands more would have died as well, not to mention the $$,

Amnesty for draft dodgers, no war over hostages, the Egypt-Israel peace treaty-trying to make the US less dependent of Middle Eastern oil. Yet he gets less credit than "In my heart and mind, I don't believe I traded arms for hostages, but the evidence shows I did."

[A Simple Game]

39. Not to mention that he probably would have got the hostages released if he hadn't been

undercut by a traitor negotiating to delay their release behind his back to better his chances of becoming President.

[merrily]

40. Yep. Release occurred very shortly after the inauguration of St. Ronnie.

[A Simple Game]

42. And not surprisingly there was a Bush "allegedly" in the background or in this case Paris. n/t

[merrily]

44. I did not know that.

[A Simple Game]

65. I would bet that it didn't surprise you. Yet another period in time that the

ex-CIA director Bush, the only adult person in the US that can't remember were he was when JFK was assassinated, can't seem to recall where he was or what was doing.

[Enthusiast]

48. Nazi filth....

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[hifiguy]

56. GHW Bush and William Casey were the ones who cut the deal

with the Iranians. Part of the deal was no confirmation of the release until Zombie King Reagan had taken the oath of office. To cheat Carter out of even that.

[niyad]

73. that very evening, if I recall correctly.

[Enthusiast]

47. I am so with you on that.

[TreasonousBastard]

51. That wasn't NPR, that was me. Get it straight.

[markpkessinger]

68. Carter gets a bum rap from many folks

He wasn't perfect, to be sure -- no president is. He could be irascible. He didn't play the Washington political game terribly well (although, while that may be a political flaw, it is probably a character asset). His economic policy, which was all about cutting domestic spending, probably wasn't particularly helpful to the economy at the time, although it certainly wasn't the cause of the problems. But the man did some truly great things, too, and doesn't deserve much of the criticism directed at his presidency. The bad things associated with his years in office -- the sky-high energy prices, the stagnant economy, the Iranian hostage crisis -- were largely beyond the ability of ANY president to directly control, and would have bedeviled any president who had the misfortune to occupy the White House at the time. The ongoing after-effects of OPEC's shenanigans earlier in the decade were still being felt, and an already stagnant economy was under the added pressure of having to reintegrate tens of thousands of returning Vietnam veterans. He was a fine President, and he is a great man!

[merrily]

76. I don't see the Democratic Party as many do.

Many see see it as a liberal spending party that made a U turn in that regard after the DLC. I see the New Deal and the Great Society as the aberrations--and probably conceived in part out of fear of armed revolution, or at least violence erupting around the coutry, especially the New Deal. We forget: Black Tuesday was not very far removed from the Russian Revolutions. That must have set the Rockefellers and Joe Kennedy alike to quaking. But, all is well. The Patriot Act, Homeland Security and militarized law enforcement will keep everything under control. And, technically, it's not really posse comitatus.

[LWolf]

35. Yes.

I don't know who our "greatest" president has been, but he's the only president in my lifetime that I've actually admired.

[merrily]

41. He talked as straight as Bernie.

I wonder what DU would have made of "I have lusted in my mind" or whatever he said about lust to Playboy.

[Stellar]

37. This is making me awfully sad. nt

[DirkGently]

43. 90 years old, brilliant, kind, and brave.

Simply inspiring.

I wish him all the good things.

[aquamarina]

49. What a beautiful sentiment.

[Xyzse]

50. True enough.

I wish him only the best.

[Gothmog]

52. President Carter is truly a great man

[magical thyme]

53. agreed, 100%.

[hifiguy]

54. His calm, composed demeanor

at this juncture of his long life is inspirational. That is a man unquestionably at peace with himself and the world, and deservedly so.

He knows that he has lived an astonishingly rich, full life, much of it in unselfish service to humanity and that he has nothing to regret.

A great man, indeed.

He will be deeply and sorely missed.

[Liberal_in_LA]

58. May his cancer be healed

[lark]

59. And it's not even close.

Carter was always honest to a fault and cared deeply about the planet and his fellow humans. think how much better off we'd be as a country if the hated idiot Raygun hadn't undone so many of Carter's energy saving initiatives. Carter was never a tool of the 1%, which was probably, sadlly, his undoing.

[JCMach1]

60. We shall see... he might make it out yet...

[AikidoSoul]

61. You said it very well

He may not have been our greatest President, but he may have been the greatest man to have been President.

Kick and rec

[aikoaiko]

62. "a 90 year life well lived" -- beautifully said, beautifully.

[blackspade]

64. He is still my favorite president of my lifetime.

Obama being a super close second.

[markpkessinger]

67. By no means did he acknowledge this as the "natural end of a life well lived" . . .

. . . he said he intends to pursue treatment and hopes to extend his life as long as possible. Sure, he's aware that treatment may or may not be successful, but for God's sake, the man hasn't thrown in the towel yet!

[secondwind]

69. he will be alright.. he knows where he is going...n/t

[The Jungle 1]

71. I say he was a great president

Carter could have easily gotten reelected if he did only one thing Reagan did.
Spend spend spend.
If Carter would have spent the way Reagan did he would have had a great economy. Reagan tripled our deficit. That, folks, is a lot of spending. Even I could produce a great economy spending the way Reagan did. The ongoing republican lie of fiscal responsibility is disturbing.
Carter didn't spend which is why he is great.

A noble quite man doing great things his whole life.

[Unknown Beatle]

72. In my lifetime, there have been three great presidents and one good president.

Three great: Eisenhower, Kennedy and Carter.

One good: Johnson

The Horrible: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Clinton, Bush I & II, and Obama.

Yes, Obama. He sucked up to Wall St. and didn't help Main St. He picked Holder and Lynch because he knew they wouldn't hold WS accountable for criminal activity.

He knew about Occupy Wall St. and the crackdown that was happening and didn't do anything about it, maybe he was quietly communicating with the FBI and NYPD and gave the go-head to stop OWS in its tracks.

Although the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare has helped a lot of people, it was written by insurance companies.

But I digress. Carter is a great man and his humility and empathetic and when he's gone, will surely be missed the world over. As a matter of fact, they should have a national holiday once a year for this great human being.

[hifiguy]

74. i concur.

And if LBJ had possessed the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the generals,who were the only people who ever got the political best of him, he would have been been resoundingly reelected in 1968 and outdone his hero FDR.

And James Earl Carter is one of the finest men to ever sit in the White House.