2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumUS Presidential Candidates Are 'Quite Unpopular', But Clinton More Qualified: President Carter
By AP
Published: 23rd August 2016 11:37 AM
MEMPHIS, Tenn.: Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that both major presidential candidates are "quite unpopular," but he knows who's more qualified and he's voting for Democrat Hillary Clinton in November.
The 91-year-old Carter spoke with The Associated Press on the site of a Habitat for Humanity construction project in Memphis.
Carter, considered a worldwide ambassador for Habitat for Humanity, said he doesn't like to advocate for particular issues because he works equally with Republicans, Democrats and people of many religious beliefs in his role with the home building charity.
But he did say that "everybody knows that I'm a Democrat, and I'll be voting Democratic."
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underthematrix
(5,811 posts)which is playing all Presidential documentaries beginning with Eisenhower. It's such an eye opener and I've rewatched all of them several times. One of the most interesting is Eisenhower because it was doing his time in office that the Vietnam war actually started (Beginning in 1953). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower
Exilednight
(9,359 posts)I saw the one on Carter, and it was excellent.
The George H W Bush one kind of gave me a new found respect for the senior Bush, and it provided an excellent explanation as to how he saved Reagan's legacy by sound things that Reagan refused to do.
Next up for me is LBJ and Kennedy.
I also watched the Watergate special which is available if you have Xfinity on Demand.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)Reagan pulled the stunt of negotiating with the Iranians behind Carter's back, and got them to agree to not release them till after the election. That ruined Carter's chances for a second term.
Else You Are Mad
(3,040 posts)Was a Reagan Era revision of history to make Reagan seem like a better president. Carter was much more popular during his presidency than people now believe that he was.
DURHAM D
(32,610 posts)He is a much better X President.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)
still_one
(92,273 posts)NWCorona
(8,541 posts)Although I was alive when the Motor Carrier act passed I wasn't old enough to enjoy the so called golden age of flying. It's sounds like it was something else but not really available to the masses. I have mixed feelings at this point. Here's an interesting read if interested.
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/12/blame_jimmy_carter_for_all_the_airline_bankruptcies_or_better_yet_thank_him_.html
still_one
(92,273 posts)cronies, along with the Iran-Contra crimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/15/world/new-reports-say-1980-reagan-campaign-tried-to-delay-hostage-release.html
Regan should have been impeached for that.
Thanks for the article, I will read it a little later.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)I agree with you on Regan.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)hostage crisis, among other things. Every day on the evening news, they announced how many days (in the hundreds) the hostages were still being held.
http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/jimmy-carter
Throughout his presidency, Carter struggled to combat the nation’s economic woes, including high unemployment, rising inflation and the effects of an energy crisis that began in the early 1970s. Though he claimed an increase of 8 million jobs and a reduction in the budget deficit by the end of his term, many business leaders as well as the public blamed Carter for the nation’s continuing struggles, saying he didn’t have a coherent or effective policy to address them. In July 1979, Carter called a special summit with national leaders at Camp David. His televised speech after the meeting diagnosed a “crisis of confidence” occurring in the country, a mood that he later referred to as a “national malaise.”
HOSTAGE CRISIS AND CARTER’S DEFEAT
In November 1979, a mob of Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took its diplomatic staff hostage as a protest against the arrival in the United States of the deposed Iranian shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, in order to receive medical treatment. The students had the support of Iran’s revolutionary government, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Carter stood firm in the tense standoff that followed, but his failure to free the hostages led his government to be perceived as inept and inefficient; this perception increased after the failure of a secret U.S. military mission in April 1980.
Despite sagging approval ratings, Carter was able to defeat a challenge by Senator Edward Kennedy to win the Democratic nomination in 1980. He was defeated by a large margin in the general election that year by Ronald Reagan, a former actor and governor of California who argued during his campaign that the problem facing the country was not a lack of public confidence, but a need for new leadership.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)does he get off supporting that dishonest candidate-equalizing "very unpopular" theme? There is a tremendous disconnect between her actual performance with voters and those poll questions and results that show that "people" dislike and distrust her.
I'm not forgetting the highly respected Iowa pollster whose exit poll revealed that 80% of BERNIE voters were glad to have her as their second choice. This was right after they voted against Hillary for Bernie. The pollster also offered them the word "respected" to respond to or reject and virtually all this group agreed they respected her.
This is far more in line with Hillary's current 89% support among Democrats, especially considering that 17-20% of all Democrats are conservatives who usually vote for Republican presidents. Hillary is drawing conservative Dems!
Both facts strongly suggest that the widespread meme that Hillary is very unpopular, like Trump, is mostly a fabrication of bad polling, right-wing propaganda, and corrupt media.
Also, one Hillary-deranged froot-loop does not result in a group of 4 otherwise-sensible people from across the spectrum averaging out negative. All the froot-loop's "excess" hate is wasted as that person has only 1 vote, not 4.
I suspect a more honest interpretation is not 89% Clinton support but 89% anti-Trump sentiment.
By the way, the statement that Carter was much more respected in his actual term is rot - people actually alive then will tell you he was deeply unpopular, considered very weak economically and terrible in foreign relations. A nice man overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control would be a pretty accurate representation.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)to be president, just more afraid of Trump? Very interesting viewpoint for a poster on this forum, and IMO that would be a very peculiar sort of "honesty."
BobbyDrake
(2,542 posts)If I'm being honest, that is.
synergie
(1,901 posts)don't understand and which do not agree with your dislike. Clinton is immensely popular among liberals and Democrats and respected even across the aisle. So your suspicions, if one were being honest, are not based on anything but your own personal feelings. The vast majority of Bernie supporters were pretty clear about liking both, picking one, but feeling just fine about supporting the other in November.
Honest interpretations should be based on honestly looking at the facts at hand, and doing that doesn't support your thesis.
snowy owl
(2,145 posts)What do you think? Americans reliant upon oil that was cut off by a madman called Khomeni. Carter got all the hostages home in one piece. He was patient, he was smart, he mediated peace in the middle east, and I thought he was an excellent President for the times. I'd hate to think of the legacy of a Reagan or Bush had they been in power during those times. Or even Clinton who was only really tested by his own conduct.
Rather a superficial take on Carter in my opinion.
still_one
(92,273 posts)
spooky3
(34,461 posts)
George II
(67,782 posts)Last edited Tue Aug 23, 2016, 05:29 PM - Edit history (1)
1. The previous Nixon/Ford administration was mired down in the Watergate cover-up did virtually nothing during Nixon's (and Ford's) second term. the 1973-1977 administration was entirely ineffective, and resulted in major economic issues that resulted in a recession inherited by Carter.
2. During Nixon's administration, his Middle East policy resulted in the first oil embargo, resulting in huge increases in oil prices and inflation. Remember, Carter inherited massive inflation due to Nixon/Ford ineptitude - remember Ford's inept "WIN" ("Whip Inflation Now" buttons) and Nixon's wage and price controls, the first initiated since WWII.
3. The hostage crisis mentioned above.
On top of that, late in the hostage crisis and in the heat of the campaign, Reagan secretly sent representatives to Europe to negiotiate with the Iranians to hold the hostages until after the election. In fact, the hostages left Iran at noon on January 20, as Reagan was being sworn in:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/20287-without-reagans-treason-iran-would-not-be-a-problem
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Global-Viewpoint/2013/0305/Argo-helps-Iran-s-dictatorship-harms-democracy/(page)/2
One thing that really irks me now is that as President, Carter warned Americans that there would be a major energy crisis, and came up with the idea of creating large underground oil reserves in the South (Louisiana, Texas, etc.) He was ridiculed by republicans and Reagan for the "stupid" idea. Now, every time someone proposes releasing oil from those reserves to stabilize prices, republicans moan "no, they're critical and strategic, we shouldn't deplete them"!!!
Carter was a much better President than many people give him credit, his misfortune was the situation he inherited and events out of his (ANY President's) control.
snowy owl
(2,145 posts)I have nothing but admiration for him. Americans hate sitting in long lines for gas. So superficial.
George II
(67,782 posts)gabeana
(3,166 posts)tired of the nonsense regarding Carter,Carter was ahead of his time and a man of integrity to his own detriment, watching the Doc. Carter is the kind of President the American people say they want, a man that believes in his convictions but many seem to fall for the huckster (Reagan). The pie in the sky
Carter's big fail is that he wouldn't play ball/politics
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)If one reads the available material on Carter, it becomes obvious that his strengths have been trivialized and his practical policies regarding both national and international policies have been re-narrated as weak or ineffectual when they were anything but.
From Camp David to SALT II to the Panama Canal Zone treaty, he efficiently walked an ever-tightening rope of international and regional conflicts-- both diplomatic and real. On the home front, unemployment declined from 7.5% in 1977 to 5.6% by 1979 and investments grew by almost a third.
One or two documentaries and a preexisting narrative 35 years old is the extent of most people's knowledge of his presidency, but should you choose, his administration was one of the most intriguing (opposition not only from the right, but from the Kennedy-wing of the Democrats and John Anderson from the center).
Thirteen Days in September by Larry Wright, The Presidency of James Earl Carter by Burton Kauffman, and An Outsider in the White House by Betty Glad are each as objective, well-sourced and noted, and well-written as looks (minus the contemporary narrative so many use these days to sound more clever than reality may agree with).
