December 30, 2024

"Toward the end of their time in office, Mr. Mondale said he and Mr. Carter talked about how they wanted their tenure to be remembered."

"'We came up with this sentence, which to me remains an important summary of what we were trying to do: "We told the truth, we obeyed the law, and we kept the peace,"' Mr. Mondale wrote. 'That we did, Mr. President.'"

From "From the Grave, Mondale to Eulogize the Man Who Made Him Vice President/Walter F. Mondale died in 2021, but he left behind the eulogy he planned to deliver at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral" (NYT).

80 comments:

hombre said...

If true, they were the last Democrats to do so.

hombre said...

I'm not sure the Iran hostages would be as kind.

MadisonMan said...

"Kept the Peace" Was the result of the peace-keeping more Peace? No.

Quaestor said...

Keeping the peace on the enemy's terms is easy.

Dixcus said...

444 Days ... that's how long the Iranian hostages were kept in peace by these two fucking morons.

Kakistocracy said...

Carter did some great things in his life. Those achievements just didn’t happen to occur when he was president. Honesty and integrity he did have but those traits alone don’t make a great President. President Carter helped Americans see that our prosperity at home and security abroad are dependent on having a strong decisive leader that puts American interests first. Not every President will be great. His short comings as a President are well known so no need to dwell. President Carter’s work with Habitat for Humanity and other organizations after he left office should be his legacy. That was where he really shined.

Jaq said...

Remember when his National Security Advisor and good friend of the Bidens and Joe Scarboro, Mika's dad, wrote that book about using Ukraine to destroy Russia? "The Grand Chessboard." In it he lists a lot of wars that would need to be fought, and you know what, the guy was a regular Nostradamus. We bumbled into these wars that Brzezinski laid out, one after another. None of them were our doing, of course, it was those damn terrorist US proxies that Jimmy Carter started the training of. We have been using Jihadi terrorists and violent neo-nazis as proxies to start the wars we want to fight ever since. What a sweet peanut farmer! He started us on the course of endless wars, but he talked about peace, so he was a sweetheart.

Dixcus said...

Failing to contain the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan led directly to the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center by Osama bin Laden and Saudi Arabia, killing 3,000 Americans. Jimmy Carter armed Osama bin Laden via a CIA program now known as Operation Cyclone. A fact that we did not discover until the 9-11 Commission was empaneled.

Jimmy Carter is largely responsible for 9-11 and that is how he will be remembered ... with the blood of 3,000 Americans all over his hands.

Dixcus said...

Yes ... Jimmy Carter taught Americans the danger of electing a pussy.

Skeptical Voter said...

Nobody will (or should) speak ill of the dead. However when I see an editorial in today's San Diego Union Tribune claiming that Carter was the nation's "greatest living ex President", I have to say that's a step too far. Howzabout Slick Willie Clinton? Why throw shade on Dubya? And the biggest whopper of all was ignoring Barack Hussein Obama. Obozo was presented to the country as the New Light Worker--the once and future greatest President evah!!!! Now it's too bad that Jimmy Carter didn't live on to say February 2025. When Joe Biden leaves office Joe will claim the title of worst living ex President. Joe would have gotten Jimmy off the schneid in that regard.

Readering said...

As long as you are alive there will be a memory of that connection. Then it will be lost. The USSR was contained in Afghanistan and eventually left.

Kakistocracy said...

Didn’t Reagan and his back channel outreach to Iran have something to do with that??

Kakistocracy said...

Carter succeeded in many endeavors, but he failed in the most important one of all: aligning with my politics. ~ Dixcus

RideSpaceMountain said...

"We lied daily, broke laws many didn't know existed, and set the world on fire." - Joe Biden

Big Mike said...

Three lies in one sentence. That’s nowhere near a record for a Democrat.

Iman said...

More ka-ka…

Christopher B said...

Kaka peddling Democrat Kaka again.

Iman said...

“People also ask
What is Kak in English?
faeces, excrement, stool, muck. rubbish, nonsense, malarkey, garbage (informal) More Synonyms of kak.”

Jaq said...

Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor convinced Carter to fund, arm, and train the Taliban in 1979 in order to provoke the Soviet Union to invade. He has publicly bragged about it. So yeah, Jimmy Carter brought us 9-11. But, as his NSA said in an interview the late '90s, "What's a few excited Arab jihadis?"

Christopher B said...

Actually, with the possible exception of the impact he had on kicking off the deposing of the Shah leading to the Islamic takeover of Iran, you've got that entirely backwards. Carter did quite a bit of good as President, starting with the deregulation of a whole swath of industries (trucking, railroads, telecommunications, airlines, and, as the Insta-man likes to note, beer/home brewing) and the appointment of Paul Volker as the first step towards taming inflation. Even his foreign policy wasn't entirely bad (again, Iran excepted). His push for human rights in the Soviet Union set the stage for a strong response to Soviet plans to forcibly quash labor unrest in Poland and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He pushed forward the installation of IRBMs in Western Europe in response to similar Soviet deployments. Even in the Mideast he helped broker the Egypt-Isreal breakthrough.

It was his post-Presidency foreign policy freelancing, and recent butting into contemporary elections that should get him the most negative comments.

Leland said...

We are still dealing with the “peace” Carter gave us with Iran. Fortunately, Reagan brought us real peace with the USSR and former Warsaw block.

RCOCEAN II said...

That's a pretty good sentence. I always like Mondale, even though he was liberal/leftist. He seemed honest and straightforward.

BTW, I'm always amazed at the amount of ink/TV time the hostages in Iran got. It dominated the news, even though it was frankly meaningless except for the hostages families. One of Carter's problems is he was always doing half-measures and appearing weak. Boycotting the Olympics for example.

Or that crazy incompentent "rescue mission". How the hell Carter ever thought that work is beyond me. You'd think Carter had never served in the military. What can go wrong, will go wrong - is the standard military cliche. Its why military missions are usually made as simple as possible, and with backup plans But in the absurd rescue mission, almost everything had to work with the precision of swiss watch.

tommyesq said...

Seems more like they kicked the peace can down the road while foisting theocratic Iran and communist/socialist Venezuela on the world.

tommyesq said...

And, of course, post-Presidency fostering Arafat's endless war against Israel.

Christopher B said...

And exposing himself as a stone-cold anti-Semite (not that it bothers Democrats anymore)

Big Mike said...

“The Debacle in the Desert” was actually an act of war. Just pointing out the truth.

Lazarus said...

If a politician does go for four years and doesn't lie it's largely by accident.

The problem with evaluating Carter’s stated positions is that inconsistent statements in his record make it difficult to tell whether he really means what he says. Is the real Carter the candidate who told the voters in Brunswick, Georgia, in 1970, “I was never a liberal; I am and have always been a conservative,” or the one who is now telling adoring audiences, “I’ve always been a liberal on civil rights and social needs”? Is the real Carter the presidential candidate who says the school integration decision and the Civil Rights Act “were the greatest things that ever happened to the South,” or the gubernatorial candidate who denied saying that the Supreme Court school integration decision was “morally and legally correct”? "Jimmy Carter’s Pathetic Lies," Steven Brill, Harpers, March 1976

Does that mean Jimmy's a liar or a bad man? Meh. Just a politician.

Jess said...

Carter, and Mondale, regardless of their opinions, were feckless, destructive, and caused me personal harm. The United States would have been better off if neither had ever been allowed public office.
**spit**

Dixcus said...

Jimmy Carter's job was to contain the USSR inside the USSR. Not in Afghanistan.

Dixcus said...

Mondale's landslide loss to Reagan was the largest loss in US electoral history. That is all people remember him for.

Amadeus 48 said...

Consider: Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Tim Walz. Something has gone wrong in Minnesota.

RCOCEAN II said...

All I can say is: I'll take Jimmy Carter over Clinton, Obama, Biden, Hillary, and Harris any day of the week. Those pack of clowns make Jimmy c. look like George Washington II

rhhardin said...

Thurber and E.B.White agreed that whichever survived would publish Thurber's dog waiting at headstone in graveyard cartoon for the other.

Peachy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Peachy said...

In the end, Carter was an election denier and he drank the MSNBC koolaid regarding Trump/ Russian collusion lie/bullshit.

doctrev said...

What on earth are you talking about? As terrible advice goes, how could escalating in Afghanistan make the pending conflict go any worse for the Soviets? Are there actually people who would have said "Send in the Marines?" Anyways, President Reagan could have done anything he liked, and he didn't- beyond the strategy which actually worked.

Some pretend nationalists are perennial bedwetters, even after a conflict which went historically well as proxy wars go.

doctrev said...

Redundancy would have helped Carter, but there are no shortage of claims that he was sabotaged from the inside. Besides which, you're wrong. Carter was slated to work aboard the Seawolf nuclear sub, and only the most intelligent/ reliable men get that kind of plum. Which only emphasizes the notion of sabotage, probably by later partners in Iran-Contra.

Duty of Inquiry said...

To be fair, it is a short sentence.

Peachy said...

Carter was not corrupt. Unlike all modern democrat Presidents.

doctrev said...

To be clear: I know you realize Carter served, but the place in which he served tends to harshly punish a lack of attention to detail.

Narr said...

Jimmy Carter: still a polarizing figure.

Goldenpause said...

And that is a blessing.

Drago said...

I suppose it was inevitable LLR-democratical Rich would use this occaslsion to peddle the most ass backwards moronic conspiracy theory of all time.

This Reagan-Ayatollah-hostages conspiracy stupidity literally includes the requirement that you believe HW Bush and his henchmen , at Reagans direction, commandeered an SR-71 and flew it to Paris to secretly meet with and convince the Ayatollah's reps to hold the he hostages until after Reagan won the election!

And Abacus Boy Rich believes it!

I guess if you dont have a Russia Russia Russia hoax to peddle then a Reagan-Ayatollah hoax will have to do in a pinch, right Rich?

Wilbur said...

Carter was a Grade C-/D President in my view. There have been worse, both before and since.

It's his post-Presidential activities that I find most objectionable. Particularly, after breaking with the centuries-long custom of ex-Presidents laying low, he regularly and publicly criticized his successors. He appointed himself World Election Monitor and felt he could freely stick his nose into the affairs of other countries, conducting his own foreign policy, often to little benefit redounding to the USA.

He's no hero to me. Mondale was more admirable to me.

Paul said...

"We told the truth, we obeyed the law, and we kept the peace..."'

And didn't do shit... Among 100s of things he f*cked up the Iranian Hostage situation!

Does anyone remember the FAILED ATTEMPT TO FREE THEM??? You know 'Operation Eagle Claw'..

Where 1 helicopter and 1 transport aircraft destroyed 5 helicopters abandoned/captured by Iranians, 8 US servicemen killed & 4 injured plus 1 Iranian civilian (alleged by Iranian Army) killed!

Aggie said...

The funeral is planned for the 9th January. Will the President-elect be invited? The tradition is that past-Presidents attend. I suspect Trump will be there, but not without the drama beforehand.

gadfly said...

The Soviets were still around so the Cold War never stopped but Carter did end border incursions between Egypt and Israel at Camp David. He attempted to end the Iran Hostage Crisis peaceably through a secretive rescue but we crashed helicopters instead.

When Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's Islamic monarchy was essentially overthrown (ah yes, "The Islamic Iranian Revolution") late 1970s by conservative Shia Muslims led by Ayatollah Khomeini, the result was the establishment of a less-than-perfect Islamic Republic. The Shah was accused making Shi’ites poor because of his extravagances while westernizing Iran's culture - so the American's were bad guys despite our economy building with oil wells and refineries. None of this was our fault but our Embassy was invaded in an act of war. Carter didn't start the fire.

From a well established story, wherein Ronald Reagan told the Ayatollah to release the hostages or else, the boring and emotionally unsatisfying truth is that the Carter administration secured the Americans’ release through protracted negotiations — and by releasing millions of dollars to the Iranian government.

Jersey Fled said...

For awhile

Jersey Fled said...

My most enduring image of Carter is of him sitting in front of an unlit fireplace with a yellow sweater on telling us to turn our thermostats down.

65 degrees during the day and 55 at night.

Ambrose said...

Says a lot about the entire Carter presidency – more interested in virtue signaling than in effective governance.

Mary Beth said...

He should have asked Ross Perot for help.

Leland said...

The Shah was accused making Shi’ites poor because of his extravagances while westernizing Iran's culture - so the American's were bad guys despite our economy building with oil wells and refineries. None of this was our fault but our Embassy was invaded in an act of war. Carter didn't start the fire.

You just ignore the part of Carter protecting the Shah rather than having him face the poor that rebelled against him, which is what led to the Embassy invasion. Just like you ignore the part of Jimmy forcing Israel to give Egypt the Sinai.

Money Manger said...

I remember being in the Garden when Jimmy paid tribute to Hubert Horatio Hornblower

The Godfather said...

I don't remember 'Operation Eagle Claw'. Was that the official name of Carter's failed ("doomed" might be better) attempt to rescue our hostages in Iran? We all called it "The Jimmy Carter Desert Classic".

The USA is and was supposed to be one of the two SUPERPOWERS, and we didn't have a spare chopper for a rescue mission? Of COURSE! everyone with any sense voted for Reagan (who ended the Cold War by ending the Soviet Union).

Big Mike said...

I've always believed that Reagan's people took advantage of the American press claiming that "the cowboy" was a loose cannon who might do anything. A reputation for being dangerous is useful, if properly exploited.

lonejustice said...

The first Republican presidential candidate I ever voted for was Ronald Reagan. Before that I was a Democrat, but Carter changed that. Since then I have voted for every Republican for President, including Bush 1 and 2, Dole, Romney, and 3 times for Trump, although Trump was not my first choice. This is how Carter changed the political landscape for me.

narciso said...

Sure you did

Narayanan said...

the Iranian crowd knew when Nightline broadcast start time; it was cue for their day job! Cameras light goes red when turned on for coverage!

Christopher B said...

Weren't you (gadfly) one of the people who claimed they weren't coming around here again after all your claims about Trump turned to crap? At least Inga has the decency to keep her mouth shut (if her comments aren't being purged)

Christopher B said...

Humphery helped purge the Reds from the DFL, and I even if I don't agree with Mondale he had the best interests of the US at heart. The rot in Minnesota is far more recent than that.

Christopher B said...

It wasn't Carter who changed the political landscape (Steve Hayward @ Powerline) despite your solipsistic view. I'm also old enough to remember when the Upper Midwest and Great Plains were certifiably Purple (as we say today). The county data map is the most interesting.

Martin said...

And planted the seed of chaos all over the middle east that we have been reaping for the last 23 years.

Narayanan said...

what was death toll on that mission?
On April 24, 1980, he ordered a military rescue. The mission failed, leading to a disastrous loss of helicopters and the deaths of eight soldiers in the Iranian desert. Cyrus Vance, Carter’s valued secretary of state, who had counseled against the mission, resigned in protest four days later.

RCOCEAN II said...

Seems a lot of Carter hate comes from his refusal to "Stand by Israel no matter what". In 2002, he wrote a book called "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid".

According to his Jewish advisor, some of his criticisms of Israel were certainly valid. Of all the former politicians in the world, Carter knew fact from fiction about Middle Eastern diplomacy; Moshe Dayan had lauded him for his dedication and knowledge of detail.

Deep State Reformer said...

Carter was a former POTUS (left office 43 years ago btw) and not king for pity's sake. A dignified burial

Oso Negro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oso Negro said...

If only all that Middle Eastern knowledge had given him the understanding to curb stomp Iran the day after the hostages were taken. I felt such shame as an American during that crisis. If he had fucked them up properly for their ACT OF WAR, much later trouble might have been avoided. Will always detest him.

Tina Trent said...

Bullshit.

It has undigested straw in it.

Rusty said...

Chris. You're expecting the likes of Gadfly to be as good as his word?

Rusty said...

The CArter legacy? Everything that man touched turned to shit.

chuck said...

I knew several retired Green Berets at the time. They kept in touch with the scuttlebutt of the active forces, as one will do. They didn't say much, but I got the impression that the whole operation was a cluster f*ck long before the actual attempt. JFK, Johnson, McNamara, Carter ... messing up military operations is a Democrat tradition.

Iman said...

So he DID have a hand in brewing Billy Beer then.

jnseward said...

Jimmy Carter has gotten a bad rap. Unlike Joe Biden he wasn't a criminal. Unlike Barack Obama he did not foster racial division. Jimmy Carter was an honest man who wanted to do good. He believed that the United States should be more humble, be one nation among other equally sovereign nations. He believed that the Palestinians had a right to exist. I didn’t agree with him about those things at the time, but I do now. however incompetent a President he may have been, and I'm not at all sure he was incompetent, after George W. Bush and Barack Obama and Joe Biden he is looking pretty good.

Drago said...

LOL

Christopher B said...

One other thing that tends to get lost in the debate over Carter is how surprising his nomination was. With the exceptions of Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson (both of whom were nominated in their own right only after ascending to the Presidency due to the death of the President) the Democrats hadn't put anyone from a Confederate state on the Presidental ballot since before the Civil War. Also lost in the splashy headlines after the 1976 Iowa caucus was the fact that "uncommitted" actually won, and Carter came in second. His surprise nomination, and then fairly surprising (at least in scope) defeat in 1980, bookended by McGovern and Mondale being humiliated by the two most hated (at the time) Republicans seems to me to have led directly to the Democrat's obsession with manipulating their nomination process to ensure the 'right' candidate wins, which also seems to have a direct line to their current claim that it's only 'democracy' when the 'right' candidate is elected.

Amadeus 48 said...

I agree with Christopher B. Actually, I was trying to depict a decline from Humphrey and Mondale to Walz.

lonejustice said...

I did indeed vote for Trump all 3 times. I always vote for the lesser of 2 evils. That's my guiding principle in all political elections.

Rick67 said...

"We kept the peace"

Iran, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Venezuela, Yemen would like to have a word.

I find especially reprehensible his anti-Israel rhetoric and policies.

Former Illinois resident said...

I remember the Carter administration. Carter/Mondale could be memorialized as the Beavis and Butthead presidential term. Carter was not a nice guy; go read the articles quoting folks who knew him in Georgia, who worked with him at WH, still pontificating during his four decades of post-presidency. Not even the Habitat folks succeeded in fully rehabilitating his reputation as a mean man.

JAORE said...

"We ... kept the peace,"' Yeah, NO. You sowed the seeds of numerous future conflicts. Then, in your retirement you kept the seedlings watered.