October 8, 2019

Jimmy. At this point, 40 years after his presidency, you've got to love Jimmy.

109 comments:

rehajm said...

God bless him. It took him a while but he found what he’s good at and stuck with it...

Howard said...

Carter is one of those real Christians living the life.

tim in vermont said...

I remember the Carter administration, it was a six week wait for an interview for a job at McDonalds, and your chance of actually getting one was about zero because of the competition for any job at all, since there were none to be had. I spent a couple summers picking vegetables on a farm, which was good honest work, but my God, what a shit show his years were economically.

Tim said...

Anti-semite, thy name is Jimmy Carter.

Drago said...

Howard: "Carter is one of those real Christians living the life."

I don't believe that rabid anti-semitism counts as a terrific Christian virtue.

traditionalguy said...

Jimmuh weaponized religion in politics. And religion is where the greatest liars practice their craft. All that highly publicized homebuilding is a show for the cameras designed to make you admire him.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Raise high the roof beams, Jimmy. The hysterical stuff is so obvious that no one takes it seriously, but think about all the low-grade, seemingly innocuous, propaganda we’re force fed for decades. Seeing things clearly has become the pastime of a handful of people. Well, mostly just me.

Amadeus 48 said...

How can you say that about History's Greatest Monster*?

*per "Marge in Chains".

john evans said...

Jimmy has built his house upon the sand.

Sam L. said...

No, I don't.

Howard said...

Fixed it for you learnered friend Blogger Drago said...
Howard: "Carter is one of those real Christians living the life."
I don't believe that rabid anti-Likudism counts as a terrific Christian virtue.

mockturtle said...

He looks like someone who shouldn't be trusted with power tools.

Fernandinande said...

Tom Paxton - I Don't Want A Bunny Wunny

President Carter got into his boat
Wasn't in a hurry, wanted to float
Think about the country
Think about sin
Along swum a rabbit
And he tried to climb in
And what did Jimmy say -
...????...

Clyde said...

No. No, I don't have to. And I don't. The good die young and he's 95.

Sebastian said...

"you've got to love Jimmy"

No. I don't got to. #Resistance.

Example:

"On his first visit to the Jewish state in the early 1970s, Carter, who was then still the governor of Georgia, met with Prime Minister Golda Meir, who asked Carter to share his observations about his visit. Such a mistake she never made.

"With some hesitation," Carter writes, "I said that I had long taught lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures and that a common historical pattern was that Israel was punished whenever the leaders turned away from devout worship of God. I asked if she was concerned about the secular nature of her Labor government.""

Tommy Duncan said...

I bought my first house in the wake of the Carter years. My mortgage was at 12.5%.

Don't let Jimmy run the table saw or the economy.

Chris said...

I don't like Jimmah Carter, but I do RESPECT him.

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MountainMan said...

My dad was from Albany, GA, and actually knew Jimmy Carter when both attended Georgia Southwestern Junior College in Americus. Dad went there for a year and a half before entering the Navy, Jimmy for a while before going to Ga Tech for a year then on to the Naval Academy. Dad traveled on business in that area a lot when I was going up and on several occasions stopped to see Jimmy at the peanut warehouse. Once brought home a 5lb burlap bag of peanuts from the Carter Peanut Warehouse. He did not vote for him for President though, either in 1976 or 1980. I admire him for his work with Habitat for Humanity but as ex-President he seems like he never met a dictator he didn't like.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I have to hand it to him.
Jimmy is probably not a money grubbing government money whore like the Clintons.

Chris of Rights said...

No. No, I don't. And I don't think anyone should. He was a terrible President and an even worse former President.

Why would anyone love an anti-democracy, dictator-loving anti-semite?

Jerry said...

At best he was incompetent, paralyzed by indecision. At worst, he listened to people who didn't have a flippin' clue about what needed to be done.

Redemption's difficult. Another 100 years, and he may have partially atoned for his tenure in the White House.

Nonapod said...

Nice, well meaning people can also be idiots who shouldn't be given power. Jerks can be great presidents.

Expat(ish) said...

Carter gets a lot of flack for the terrible economy he inherited from Nixon/Ford, and he certainly did f*ck all to fix it. Bless Paul Volker.

I was lucky enough to have a full and two part time jobs in those years to pay the 12.5% (plus six points at closing) mortgage on my house and the 23% auto loan on my six year old chevy. Back in the days when a six year old car was a miracle.

The anti-semitism has always been interesting to me considering it was the Iranians that put paid on his presidency.

-XC

Rory said...

He could at least try to shame his party into acting like humans. Maybe he's past it now, but he had 40 years.

JAORE said...

Carter was shunted to the background by Democrats for years. He really was a lousy president, plus he led to RR, a really good one.

I was amused a few years ago to see his resurrection. Time heals all wounds I suppose. Especially for those where history began last Tuesday.

And I MIGHT admire him for his post presidential years if he stuck to Habitat for Humanity. But he doesn't.

Molly said...

(eaglebeak)

Carter has told a lot of lies about Israel and Judaism. I don't wish him any ill, but he should shut up about those topics and try to control his repugnant anti-Semitism.

h said...

Hope for a deadlocked Dem convention. Carter is only a few years older than Bernie.

Wince said...

Great, now the Russians actually have video of the president screwing.

Francisco D said...

I voted for Carter in 1976. I could not vote for him in 1980 because of his massive incompetence, but the MSM/DNC complex convinced me the Reagan would start a nuclear war. Thus, I did not vote in 1980.

By 1984, it dawned on me that the media were partisan Democrats who could not be trusted. Reagan did not blow up the world and the economy perked back up after Carter's stagflation. Hmmm. Should I trust my own judgement or the media?

Voting for Reagan in 1842 was the first time I had ever voted for a Republican. Thanks Jimmy!

Michael K said...

Carter gets a lot of flack for the terrible economy he inherited from Nixon/Ford, and he certainly did f*ck all to fix it. Bless Paul Volker.

You mean the economy he inherited from the 1974 Democrat Congress ? It was running wild the way they would be if Trump lost next year and they took Congress. That's what happened after the Nixon coup. Inflation went to 6% and the result was the S&L collapse ten years later as Volker tried to get inflation under control.

Carter was actually elected to try to rein in Congress but he had no clue.

At one point in 1979-1980, mortgage interest hit 21%. My partner built a custom house and the houses on either side of his were also new construction. Neither owner could qualify for permanent financing after they were finished and both went straight into foreclosure.

PB said...

As long as he sticks to building small houses. He's done great damage trying to intercede in foreign affairs.

Laughing Fox said...

I remember the Carter years. Trying to save money on beginning jobs and graduate student stipend, while inflation was double digits. It looked like the door was shutting.
Then the "hostage rescue," a mission with no back-up, no plan B. What an embarrassment! And we got the Iran oday.

TheDopeFromHope said...

He was one of our worst presidents, and certainly one of the worst ex-presidents. Always a rabid anti-semite, and he never met a dictator he didn't like.

TheDopeFromHope said...

He was one of our worst presidents, and certainly one of the worst ex-presidents. Always a rabid anti-semite, and he never met a dictator he didn't like.

Dagwood said...

Injury looks eerily familiar to the one Harry Reid suffered in a supposed workout accident a couple of years ago.

Drago said...

Howard: "I don't believe that rabid anti-Likudism counts as a terrific Christian virtue."

Transparent lie.

Carter is our Jeremy Corbyn.

Carter is viscerally anti-semitic and always has been. Carter created the first large jewish american switch from dems to Reagan.

I guess those jews didnt have the benefit of Howard's "wisdom".

Tina Trent said...

The Carter Center continues to oppose freedom while pretending to support democracy.

They bed down with repressive regimes and endorse communist dictators.

He's a sanctimonious twat. Always has been.

Big Mike said...

He was, in fact, a terrible president. People couldn’t afford double-digit interest rates attached to mortgages. He did not bring anyone competent into his administration, and the people of this country paid the price.

narayanan said...

Expat(ish) said...
The anti-semitism has always been interesting to me considering it was the Iranians that put paid on his presidency.
____________________
Using Iranians is useful for conflating Persians (Shah and others) with Shiia (Khomeini and followers).

If USA is fractured so are many other countries

narayanan said...

Rory said... He could at least try to shame his party into acting like humans.
____
Carter is mean SOB - there is no grace in him.
Probably chuckles to himself when called Humanitarian

tcrosse said...

Looks like some of Harry Reid's friends paid him a visit.

Skeptical Voter said...

Ah well, not worth the time to rag on him. He was not a terribly effective President, and his performance didn't get better as an ex President. Still Habitat for Humanity is one of those feel good things--my direct experience with that was as part of a corporate team building exercise. Take a Saturday and go out and hang some cabinets and bang some nails in a home intended for a low income family. The family gets a house of less than commercial built quality and the corporate employer feels good. That may be a metaphor for Jimmy's term as President, although I don't know who felt good about it other than the then Democrat party.

hombre said...

Jimmy is a morally decent, politically misguided man. Just like other Democrats - except for the morally decent part.

gahrie said...

Jimmy's heart was probably in the right place, but he was a failure as a president, and coddled dictators as a former president. His biggest failing was allowing the Democratic Party to go insane without making any efforts to prevent it.

stevew said...

Terrible president, worst of my lifetime, but seems to be a good human being, however misguided he may be on policy and politics.

Not sure it's a good idea to let a guy who fell at home and needed stitches have access to power tools. Though it appears he's using that drill to drive screws rather than drill holes.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Jimmy might have been a decent mayor of Plains. As a president he was a mess.

And, as others have pointed out, he's a nasty anti-Semite who never met a dictator he didn't love.

No, no love for Mr. Peanut.

Charlie said...

I'm not sure I want an injured 95 year old working on assembling my house.

Bay Area Guy said...

As a man, Carter served as an engineering Officer in the Navy, and had a nice wife, and lived an honorable life, so I respect that.

As a President, he was inept and hopelessly naive, to the point of being dangerous. Thankfully, his ineptitude paved the way for the Reagan Revolution.

As an ex-President, well, thanks for building the homes, but his advisory opinions on foreign policy ain't too hot or too relevant.

Aggie said...

I give him credit for not being corrupt, which is saying a lot for a creature of Washington DC, and I give him credit for his humanitarian work, because he has done a lot, but I don't give him any credit at all for being effective. As a President, he does pretty good charity work.

JPS said...

Well, he's complicated. For every admirable trait and statement he seems to have a not-so-admirable one.

I don't think he's anti-semitic. He certainly is anti-Israel, and not (pace Howard) just anti-Likud. He can be counted on not to take Israel's side as long as they're taking their own. He seems to have a soft spot for dictators as long as they criticize us in the right terms, and he did more harm than good in trying to mediate between the Clinton administration and Kim Il-Sung. He's got a nasty streak that's hard to reconcile with his Christian virtues.

And now here he is, 95 years old, still helping build homes, and even occasionally trying to talk sense to his party.

gspencer said...

Yes, I love Jimmy Carter as a carpenter. I'd have preferred that he had done that his entire life.

Todd said...

Sorry but no, you don't "have to love him". You can respect him for being President, even if the second to worst one ever BUT you do not have to love him. He was an awful President and an awful representative for America to the world. Since he left office there hasn't been a dictator he hasn't kissed up to or lent legitimacy to. I believe he was never "evil" but he did much wrong in his attempts to do what he thought was right.

FullMoon said...

Was not into politics then. Just remember Jimmy as the guy who fucked our pal, the Shah. No doubt there is more to the story.

Cannot think about that without thinking about Big O and Hillary fucking Qaddafi after he gave up his nukes.

"We came, we saw, he died", cackle cackle.

Obvious lesson, you cannot trust United States because their (our) government changes frequently.

richlb said...

Jimmah just fell on a door knob.

William said...

King George III never cheated on his wife. He was wrong about pretty nearly everything and had episodes of madness to boot, but history remembers him kindly. Maybe the same phenomenon will happen with Carter. He does appear to be a good man....I don't know if Carter is an anti-Semite, but he did broker that peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Nixon was definitely an anti-Semite, but his emergency shipment of military aid during the war saved Israel's bacon. With anti-Semites like that, Israel doesn't need the ADL.

Hagar said...

No, I don't have to like Jimmy Redeless.

mccullough said...

When that house collapses, someone will sue Habitat for using a 95 year old carpenter who was a shitty president

eddie willers said...

Nice guy, Lousy President.

The Swamp ruined his administration.

"'If, after the inauguration, you find a Cy Vance as secretary of state and Zbigniew Brzezinski as head of national security, then I would say we failed."

Hamilton Jordan

Quaestor said...

[Carter] said that I had long taught lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures and that a common historical pattern was that Israel was punished whenever the leaders turned away from devout worship of God. I asked if she was concerned about the secular nature of her Labor government.

I don't believe that rabid anti-Likudism counts as a terrific Christian virtue.

It must really suck to be so deficient in understanding.

cubanbob said...

How much better off the country would have been if he skipped being president and had gone straight to charity.
For Christian he seems to have a soft spot for Communists and with that he can die knowing Obama was an even worse president than him.

PM said...

Gotta love him for walking the walk.

RobinGoodfellow said...

“At this point, 40 years after his presidency, you’ve got to love Jimmy Carter”

Um ... no, I don’t. But thanks for playing.

Ralph L said...

I had a summer job in 1979 working for part of DoE that made the gas crisis much worse with price controls and emergency allocation rules. I did my part by transferring calls from irate and confused wholesalers to the few people who knew what to do but had gone on vacation.

The Administrator wore sandals and took the bus to work.

Bill Peschel said...

His feckless foreign policy allowed Iran to fall to the Mullahs and trigger another round of Middle East wars. He was also a reformer who took advantage of Watergate. And wasn't that when the FOIA came into being that's allowed us to see the Deep State in action? So maybe he wasn't the worst president, but he was in over his head.

Doodad said...

Sorry, no. He was and remains a Christian anti-Semite.

GingerBeer said...

"Habitat for Humanity" founder Millard Fuller was forced out of the organization for serial episodes of sexual harassment of young women working at the charity. The always helpful Jimmy Carter was only too happy to intervene, asking Fuller's victims to withdraw their complaints less a good man's reputation be damaged. Carter has always held a soft spot for tyrants, despots, and terrorists. Mr. Fuller must have hated America quite a lot to engender Carter's devotion and loyalty. Still our worst president and worst ex-president.

Seeing Red said...

I don’t have to love him.

He should have kept his mouth shut like previous presidents. He didn’t.

daskol said...

I always found him fascinating for his sincerity, even though I didn't like him. The Playboy interview is worth a look.

fleg9bo said...

Jimmy was into being photographed hugging thugs. Maybe if I had lived somewhere other than Portland my collection of Jimmy Carter thug-hug mugs would have sold better at the art fairs, what with the popularity of coffee and all.

vanderleun said...

Sadly, the first fall at this age indicates a mini-stroke. With more at the door.

bagoh20 said...

My first presidential vote cast was for Jimmy, and it was the last one I ever cast for a Democrat, despite remaining registered as one for over 40 years. I wish we had a Democrat party that appreciated America, its Constitution, its history, its values, and its people. That never materialized, and they drifted further and further away, so I finally left them last year.

readering said...

My first presidential vote. (But went for Mo Udall in primary.) Also my second (and stuck with him in primary). Remember being more distressed by him losing than Clinton losing.

TheDopeFromHope said...

He was one of our worst presidents, and certainly one of the worst ex-presidents. Always a rabid anti-semite, and he never met a dictator he didn't like.

Jim Gust said...

Worst ex-president of all time, and history's greatest monster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q52EnHo4r7U

I do not admire the man.

Jim at said...

No. I don't have to love Jimmy Carter. I came of age during his so-called Presidency.

And building houses doesn't make up for his meddling in foreign affairs since he left office.

Rosalyn C. said...

c

Rosalyn C. said...

I never had the sense I knew Carter the way I have with other presidents. He comes across as meek and mild, but such men don't become presidents. So that's an enigma. Maybe he is not an antisemite, perhaps he believes that Jews should have waited for the messiah, or the second coming, before establishing the State of Israel. There is a fringe group of Orthodox Jews who have that conviction based on religious teachings.

However anyone who places blame solely on Israel for the Mideast conflict and who willfully ignores the endemic Jew hatred in the Koran and the Muslim world probably is probably also an antisemite, imo. Ignoring the charters of the PLO, PA, Hamas, etc., which all call for the annihilation of Israel is willful ignorance as well on Carter's part, imo. As I said, perhaps he justifies this willful ignorance on religious grounds which allows him to overlook the problems the Arabs cause. But he has never expressed this opinion publicly. At some point he should have said so because he otherwise appears to be an antisemite.

His volunteering for Habitat for Humanity is the best thing I know about him. I respect his commitment, especially since he needs assistance at this point to do simple tasks.

Unknown said...

I like him less and less. More to the point, I used to like President Carter. He may not have been much as a president, but I always thought he was a decent man. He did some good things after his term. But he's gone farther and farther to the left, and his stance on Israel is just shameful.

bagoh20 said...

Good intentions can often lead a man astray of good results, and Carter was led astray more than most. He bought some serious bullshit from some very bad people around the world and gave it undue credibility.

Robert Cook said...

"As long as he sticks to building small houses. He's done great damage trying to intercede in foreign affairs."

Not as much as the damage done by US intervention into foreign affairs.

Howard said...

Blogger Drago said...Carter is viscerally anti-semitic and always has been.

So you keep saying... Being critical of Israeli military, economic, and political actions and holding them to an elevated standard is what rich liberal democratic republics should do. Lockstep approval doesn't even exist in Israel... is half their population self-hating anti-semitic semites?

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pookie Number 2 said...

However anyone who places blame solely on Israel for the Mideast conflict and who willfully ignores the endemic Jew hatred in the Koran and the Muslim world probably is probably also an antisemite, imo. Ignoring the charters of the PLO, PA, Hamas, etc., which all call for the annihilation of Israel is willful ignorance as well on Carter's part, imo.

I was going to suggest that Carter’s willful ignorance regarafing the only Jewish country in the world is necessarily anti Semitic, but the truth is, he seems to always side with the oppressor over the oppressed, so maybe that’s his thing.

narciso said...

like when puts trust in the late hafez assad, as he did in Arafat, the former enabled the attacks on our embassies and marine base, the latter lent mugniyeh and other force 17 operatives to Hezbollah, to enable the earlier examples,

Drago said...

Howard: "Lockstep approval doesn't even exist in Israel... is half their population self-hating anti-semitic semites?"

LOL

I'm fairly certain 100% of the jewish population in Israel opposes the extermination of the jewish population of Israel.

But yes, there are a surprising many who have made common cause with those who would happily exterminate the Jews.

Drago said...

Jimmy Carter's next criticism of any of the murderous islamic cults will be his first.

So, don't hold your breath.

readering said...

Boy, a lot of people slinging the term anti-semite here. Recommend watching a documentary from 2007 by the late great director Jonathan Demme (who made "Silence of the Lambs" and my favorite rock concert film, "Stop Making Sense"). "Jimmy Carter Man from Plains". Covers his book tour for "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". Sympathetic portrayal for sure, but it's a terrible slur to call the subject of that film an anti-semite because of his well thought out and prayed-on views on Israel and the Arab world.

But then it's could almost be attached as trolling for AA to post something sympathetic to Carter on her blog with her commenter base.

Swede said...

No, actually, I don't.

And in fact I don't.

He could live another 100 years, building houses every day for HFH, and that still wouldn't erase the stain of his presidency.

TWW said...

No, I don't.

Marcus Bressler said...

Is the hostess trolling again.

The second-worst president and the worst ex-president (so far).

THEOLDMAN

Maillard Reactionary said...

No. We don't have to like "Jimmy".

If you like your anti-Americanism wrapped in a thick layer of smarmy, cornpone sanctimony, Jimmie's your man.

One of the wonders of recent history, to me at least, was the election of a President who was even worse than Jimmy Carter, viz., International Man of Mystery Barry Soetoro, The Lightworker, Prince of Lower Tides, the red diaper baby who very nearly finally brought home the goods to the Stalinst American Left. Had I not lived through it, I would not have believed it could happen.

I hope to go to my grave not seeing a worse President than either one of them, but The Massachusetts Mohican has already asked the Democrat party to hold her beer. Lacking Jimmy's hayseed grin and Barry's aloof noblisse oblige condescension, she nonetheless does excel in the art of shameless mendacity, which accounts for her position in the polls.

Danno said...

Blogger Tommy Duncan said...I bought my first house in the wake of the Carter years. My mortgage was at 12.5%. Don't let Jimmy run the table saw or the economy.

Ditto. I didn't even try for an 18% mortgage, but negotiated an 11% contract for deed with a balloon due at the end of five years. He was a putz in all things economics related.

And remember his sweater campaign for the colder months and double-nickels (55) speed limit?

Danno said...

Also, he has served as an international election observer in way too many places where the voting is totally corrupt, where he does his Mr. Magoo thing and says nothing nefarious happened.

sdharms said...

Jimmy shows up at a build for the photo op.

walter said...

I suspect the only prez to survive a rabbit attack.
Shit economy..but we had Billy Beer!!

rcocean said...

Carter took some brave stands on Foreign Policy and seems to have been a decent man, compared to the Clintons, OBama, and the Bushes, BUT whenever the the chips were down he was just another liberal Democrat. He stooped to calling Reagan a "racist", appeased the USSR, and on every important issue he came down on the hate America, abortion loving, globalist, open borders, side.If he was a truly good man, he'd shut up about Politics. After all he's 95. But he's still an egomaniac, like they all are.

Even so, I like him more than Gerald Ford, who on election night November 1976 exclaimed: "Who can believe it? I lost to a peanut farmer!" Haha.

DavidUW said...

No. No I don’t.

He’s better than Woodrow Wilson. I’ll give him that.

Michael said...

He will be gone soon enough. We survived worse. Let him live these last days in peace.

Birkel said...

People who knew Jimmy Carter did not like Jimmy Carter.
I happen to have personal knowledge of that subject.

Big Mike said...

@Michael (8:38), no. Too many people I knew suffered too much pain.

Drago said...

Michael: "He will be gone soon enough. We survived worse. Let him live these last days in peace."

He wants to inject himself into the political fray so he gets ZERO consideration and reaps the response he so richly deserves.

mikee said...

Jimmy Carter has loved every dictator he could, and repudiated every attempt to stop totalitarianism everywhere he went.

Nichevo said...

Obama may have taken the title of worst ex-Pres away from him, what with his sedition and all. He may also have taken second-worst Pres, but I think Buchanan retired the title for worst, yes? Until/if nuclear war perhaps.

Rusty said...

He might be a decent man. But as a citizen who is condemned to live with his decisions, he's a shit.

Big Mike said...

@Nichevo, I agree. The clincher is that Buchanan’s administration shipped muskets and cannon to armories in the South on the eve of the Civil War. To me the rest of the bottom five are Obama, Carter, LBJ, and Wilson. All Democrats unless you’d like to elevate one of them to sixth-worst and slip Grant in there.

Bilwick said...

" . . . you've got to love Jimmy." No, I don't.

I used to just think he was fatuous--Mr. Peanut Brain. Then I read an interview with him where he talked about working with "those people we call 'dictators.'" 'Nuff said,

Maillard Reactionary said...

Big Mike: I don't think Grant deserves that, although I'll freely admit he's in the 50th percentile somewhere. Like it or not, the top guy owns what his subordinates do.

He was way too trusting and straightforward a man to deal successfully with the snakes that inhabited that place even then. In retirement, he was completely fleeced by them and forced to write his Memoirs (which he had never intended to do) while dying of cancer, so that his wife would not be left destitute.

I do agree with your bottom five. Would that they could have been smothered with pillows at birth, especially Wilson--the closest in style to Obama, but far less lazy, and consequently even more destructive, in his way.

Blair said...

Nope. And don't have any respect for HfH either. It's the ultimate virtue signaling charity. You have about as much chance of getting an HfH house as winning the lottery.