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I'll argue that if we had followed more of Carter's leadership, a lot less American soldiers would be dead in Iraq, the twin towers would not have been blown up, among other things. I bet our cars would have gotten a lot better gas mileage.
Carter wanted us to get along in the world as another country. Reagan acted like America was the only country.
Reagan also drove the debt skyward. Much like Obama is now. Carter didn't.
He got a lot of things wrong, I won't argue that. But if we had followed the path he was trying to lay out, instead of the one Reagan laid out before us, I think we'd be better off as a population, and as a nation. Healthier, less debt ridden, and more energy independent.
Holy guacamole! Are you incompetent? Let me re-site a phrase that helped elect, by the largest land slide in American history, one of the greatest presidents of our history.
Quote:
If Mr. Lincoln could see what's happened in these last three-and-a-half years, he might hedge a little on that statement. But, with the virtues that our legacy as a free people and with the vigilance that sustains liberty, we still have time to use our renewed compact to overcome the injuries that have been done to America these past three-and-a-half years.
First, we must overcome something the present administration has cooked up: a new and altogether indigestible economic stew, one part inflation, one part high unemployment, one part recession, one part runaway taxes, one party deficit spending and seasoned by an energy crisis. It's an economic stew that has turned the national stomach.
Ours are not problems of abstract economic theory. Those are problems of flesh and blood; problems that cause pain and destroy the moral fiber of real people who should not suffer the further indignity of being told by the government that it is all somehow their fault. We do not have inflation because--as Mr. Carter says--we have lived too well.
Some of you folks here are absolutely incompetent. You couldn't possibly see past your own Utopian ideas to see that life isn't a utopia, that life is exactly as it was given to you, a evolutionary process in which there must be successes and failures.
Well let's see. He had an incompetence towards the Soviets in Afghanistan and all their other global desires. He made secret deals with Soviet leaders to try and keep himself in power. He continually talked about the incompetence of America and its malaise. He thought, during his presidency, where high unemployment and inflation were prominent, that it would be a good time to stifle energy and, in many ways, implement a similar enactment to cap and trade. You can see his disdain for Americans in many of the post on this thread.
Should I go on?
I find it ironic that the left claim Reagan made a deal with Iran to hold onto the hostages until he was elelcted, and the right claims Carter made some kind of deal with the U.S.S.R. to gain re-election- Carter's actions against the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan were no weaker than what Reagan did once he was in office regarding the same issue- tell me what Reagan did differently that showed those evil empire goons to get out of Afghanistan?Reagan had inflation and a recession during his forst term, but the right always blames that on Carter, but say it wasn't NIxon's and Ford's fault for the inflation during Carter's term- the partison arguments I find here are really unbelievable sometimes-I would wager that the future historical record will be much better to Carter than it will be to Reagan/ BushI /BushII- of the three I bet BushI will fare the best of the Republicans-
Historians tend to rate Reagan as an average or below average president- they don't judge by emotions, they go by real accomplishments and the results of their actions-
Someone please enlighten me.. I wasn't even thought of when Jimmy Carter was president, but people on here consistently compare Obama to him in a negative way..
What made him such a bad president?
Because Republicans hate Democrats and Reagan came after, and even though he did more harm than good, Republicans think he is the greatest and therefore Carter "sucks."
One of my proudest moments was when Reagan was running for president the first time, and he came to our high school to give a peech-he spent most of the speech just saying what was wrong with Carter, and didn't mention any of his own ideas- which is a pet peeve of mine, anyone could run for office by just badmouthing the incumbant-so I yelled out during a pause in his speech-"What are YOU going to do?" of course he just gave one of his little jocular quips, laughed at his own jke(laughing at your own jokes as much as he did is just plain tacky) and never answered my question.
I find it ironic that the left claim Reagan made a deal with Iran to hold onto the hostages until he was elelcted, and the right claims Carter made some kind of deal with the U.S.S.R. to gain re-election- Carter's actions against the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan were no weaker than what Reagan did once he was in office regarding the same issue- tell me what Reagan did differently that showed those evil empire goons to get out of Afghanistan?
On the contrary, the idea was to keep the USSR in Afghanistan for as long as possible. At the same time, Reagan encouraged the Saudis to triple oil production to kill the price and stave the Soviet economy. At the same time, thanks to the late Charlie Wilson, the CIA supported the Afghan Mujaheddin against the Soviets. For every $1 million invested in Stinger missiles for the Afghans, it would cost the Soviets $5-10 million in destroyed equipment. The third point was to feign a super weapon initiative (SDI) so the Soviets would pour more money into their own military - which they did exorbitantly, eliminating production of civilian products. These three points caused civil unrest, a depressed economy, and eventually the fall of the Soviet Union.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,752,651 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by CHICAGOLAND92
Someone please enlighten me.. I wasn't even thought of when Jimmy Carter was president, but people on here consistently compare Obama to him in a negative way..
What made him such a bad president?
Like Obama, Carter was weak. He would not stand up to his political enemies at home or stand up to America's enemies abroad. He allowed Iran to hold Americans hostage for over 400 days. They gave back the hostages the day Reagan took office because they knew Reagan would not stand for that non sense for second. He allowed tin horn pipsqueaks like Mo Khadaffi to push America around. Reagan shut that guy up for good with a couple of air mailed bombs into his house. Carter was so weak that he was challenged in the primary by Kennedy.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,752,651 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by bchris02
Jimmy Carter was a moral man, he just wasn't a strong leader. Many of the problems faced under Jimmy Carter we are dealing with again today. Its hard to compare Bush to Carter because they are too completely different kind of people, but there are some definate parallels between the late '70s and today.
Agreed. The moral man does not always get things done. LBJ was not a moral man really but he got alot done (the last Democrat that actually accomplished things in office).
Historians tend to rate Reagan as an average or below average president- they don't judge by emotions, they go by real accomplishments and the results of their actions-
And which studies are you going by?
The ones I found came up with high marks for Reagan:
Top 10 on MSNBC according to 65 professional historians and observers:
I have no problem with Carter, I met him once in his hometown, but his presidency was not a successful one by any regard. What hurt him most was the lack of relations with fellow Democrats in Congress.
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