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Old 03-20-2014, 11:40 AM
 
5,544 posts, read 8,282,592 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mofford View Post
Well, one would think a former peanut farmer from Plains Georgia might be a good president for the farm economy. Many farmers that normally voted republican, went for Carter. Buyers remorse to say the least. The embargo was short, but because we broke our grain contracts for political purposes, the US was seen as an unreliable supplier and this hurt in years to come.

One thing Reagan did to Carter, was paint him as a tax and spend liberal. This was not really correct, Tip O'Neil and Ted Kennedy were the tax and spend liberals, but Carter said no to them when they wanted more money for all sorts of things we couldn't afford. In fact, Carter cut spending for social programs. This is what got him in trouble with his own party. When Ted ran against him in 1980, he did more damage to Carter making it easier (if that was possible) for Reagan to defeat him. His sleezy brother Billy did not help matters either, with the Billy Beer, taking a pee on the airport runway in full view of the press, or when he got busted for taking a 220 K loan from Libya and arrested for acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Libya, influence peddling....or Billygate as it was called. Of course the 13% inflation, 21% interest rates, 8% and climbing unemployment, doubling of gas prices and shortages, and the fact that it rained rats and cockroaches for the whole of 1979 and 1980, did not help much either. Love Canal, Three Mile Island, Jonestown, Iran Hostage, Gacy, Mount St. Helens, boat people, the Village People......
really odd when what we lived through becomes history
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Old 03-20-2014, 02:08 PM
 
Location: Florida and the Rockies
1,964 posts, read 2,215,834 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mofford View Post
...the fact that it rained rats and cockroaches for the whole of 1979 and 1980, did not help much either. Love Canal, Three Mile Island, Jonestown, Iran Hostage, Gacy, Mount St. Helens, boat people, the Village People......
The Jonestown mass-murder was really shocking. And the Carters knew Jim Jones -- Rosalynn had campaigned with Jim Jones back in 1976 before Jones moved his "flock" to Guyana. To be fair, Jim Jones was vouched for by San Francisco Mayor Moscone and Governor (both then and now!) Jerry Brown.
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Old 03-20-2014, 02:20 PM
 
Location: Iowa
3,318 posts, read 4,108,976 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by theoldnorthstate View Post
really odd when what we lived through becomes history
I only have one good thing leftover from the Carter years that still works:



Merlin - Merlin The Electronic Wizard - TV Commercial - Parker Brothers - YouTube

Last edited by mofford; 03-20-2014 at 03:34 PM..
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Old 03-20-2014, 02:46 PM
 
8,289 posts, read 13,529,842 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slowlane3 View Post
To look at it in perspective, the number of American embassy staff who were held hostage in Iran (approximately 40) -- times the year or two duration that they were held, would be equal to the entire lifetime of just one person. But Americans and the news media were positively obsessed with the hostage crisis for a long time. They could think of nothing else. The public were very mad and frustrated about it for a long time. The hostages (if I recall correctly) were finally released on the very day that Reagan was inaugurated, and Carter left office. As I recall, an American commando strike by the Carter administration, landed in Iran, trying to rescue the hostages, but the effort failed.
You are correct that the "hostages" were released the day Reagan became President and God only knows what kind of "slimy" deal he did with the Iranians to pull that "feat" off!
Let's not even start with the whole "Iran -Contra" mess and Oliver North and the Sandinistas!

As for Carter I can remember Camp David and the peace accords between Israel & Egypt and he was a peace maker.
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Old 03-20-2014, 10:10 PM
 
Location: Iowa
3,318 posts, read 4,108,976 times
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Here's my favorite Carter campaign button from 1980:





and a few others from '76 and '80



[IMG]https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?
q=tbn:ANd9GcQFiSVdHMO6yN0ydbXwG_wavJiDJy71durozjqE 0o1nDkAVZE2EtQ[/IMG]










Last edited by mofford; 03-20-2014 at 10:46 PM..
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Old 03-21-2014, 02:39 PM
 
Location: Earth
17,440 posts, read 28,511,716 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by markg91359 View Post
Jimmy Carter is mostly vilified because of the times in which he was President than because of anything he did or didn't do. The fact of the matter is there is very little any President could have done to prevent the severe economic recession that took place, or the hostage crisis that occurred in Iran. Both of these events are what lead to his landslide defeat when he ran for reelection in 1980.

In fairness, the economy went considerably downhill during the four years of his presidency by any objective criteria. During his last year in office, unemployment was over 8% and the inflation rate was about 10%. These are not the kind of numbers that get any president reelected. What is left out of the equation though is that these problems would have been very difficult to prevent. Carter was dealing with a round of inflation that historically occurred after the end of every major military conflict the USA has ever participated in. There was great inflation after World War II and great inflation after World War I. The Vietnam War had ended in 1975 and the country was absorbing the shock of economic realignment. Carter became President at almost exactly the wrong time.

Compounding matters was the hostage crisis. The USA had supported the Shah of Iran for twenty years because he was a leader who was friendly to the west in a region of the world where there was much hostility to America. In fact, the USA engineered a military coup in Iran in the 1950's that removed an elected leader, Muhammad Mossadegh as Prime Minister in Iran. Many in Iran were extremely angry at the United States for doing this. When the Shah was overthrown, it lead militants to occupy the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and seize the embassy personnel as hostages. All this is vividly portrayed in the movie "Argo". Jimmy Carter was unable to secure the release of these hostages before the election in 1980 and the voters held this against him.

On the positive side, there were some accomplishments during the Carter Presidency. He obtained ratification of the Panama Canal Treaty. He persuaded Congress to pass an energy bill that at least got the USA looking seriously at alternative sources of energy to oil. President Reagan gets the credit for the economic recovery that occurred in the 1980's. However, policies pursued by Jimmy Carter and most particularly the Federal Reserve Board while he was President (high interest rates) ended the inflation of the late 1970's. Carter stood for the concept of human rights abroad and our diplomacy persuaded many countries around the world to become less repressive. Although, ironically Carter's greatest accomplishments may have come after he left office as President.

Perhaps, the most similarly situated President to Jimmy Carter was Herbert Hoover. Hoover was a good man, but had the misfortune to be President just as the stock market crashed and the Great Depression of the 1930's occurred. His reelection was simply an impossibility in 1932. In judging such men, its important to assign blame and credit based on what they actually could do as opposed to what happened while they were in office. Such is life. We all play the hand that we are dealt and we all must suffer the consequences whether it is our fault or not.
Hoover and Carter were the only engineers to become president. Both were decent men but lacked what it took to be president during a time of crisis. Neither one had leadership skills. The engineering temperament doesn't go well with being POTUS, as one sees everything in a black and white fashion.

Carter's appointment of Paul Volcker as Fed Chairman was the best appointment he made. Volcker helped tame inflation and restore the US economy, although the result of his work did not kick in fully until Reagan was president. Carter also deregulated airlines and trucking, to his credit.
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Old 03-21-2014, 07:24 PM
 
Location: New Mexico
471 posts, read 973,700 times
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I watched President Carter give a speech on TV when I was a teenager. I was really into politics then and I remember getting the strong feeling and sense that this President was the most honest and straight forward politician I had ever seen. History will be kinder to him during the next generation than it has been in this one...
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Old 03-21-2014, 10:38 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,579 posts, read 86,702,293 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IloveYOU2 View Post
Americans yearned for a big talking President, no matter if he was lying to them. Enter Reagan.

This pretty much comports with my recollections as a middle-aged adult during the Carter administration. For generations, people had complained "If only we had an honest politician". When we got one, we couldn't wait to thrown him out.
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Old 03-22-2014, 12:51 PM
 
Location: Iowa
3,318 posts, read 4,108,976 times
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Carter may have been honest, but he was ineffective. I refuse to believe we can't have both. I can't see why he wanted to be president in the first place, he had nothing but contempt for Georgia politics and the things politicians did at the statehouse to further their political careers. He thought the political game was beneath him. He never got down to business after that great expression of politics he gave us with the 1976 campaign. When the honeymoon is over, you have to negotiate, compromise, work with your party AND across the isle to get things done. He was a religious baptist who was trying to hide it (playboy interview). But it came out a little with his malaise speech, which was a bit like a sermon. It was a time of escapism and people didn't want to hear it, he should have tried the FDR approach.

Carter had no economic plan, although I believe even today, wage and price controls could work OK for a large portion of the medical sector, and with utility regulations, but it doesn't work on a broad basis. It was an uphill battle in those days, and perhaps it worked out better to have Carter take the fall, rather than Ford. Had Ford won, he and the republicans would have looked pretty crappy in 1980 after 12 years in the white house. Reagan would have lost his last chance to become president. I do think Carter would have been better than Clinton or Johnson in their place and time.

Here's some more campaign buttons from '76 and '80

















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Old 03-22-2014, 01:31 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,092 posts, read 107,197,582 times
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The reason the economy struggled during Carter's presidency was due to the Arab oil embargo. It had nothing to do with Carter's policies. Carter used the crisis to stimulate investment in alternative energy development. If the US had stayed on that track, the US would be closer to energy independence today.

Carter invented the concept of tying foreign policy to human rights, which was considered radical and by some, foolish, in his time. Others considered it visionary. His application of that principle was inconsistent, however.

Carter very reluctantly admitted the Shah of Iran to the US for cancer treatment, which precipitated the Iran hostage crisis. The media harped on the crisis mercilessly, undermining Carter's reputation and support among US voters.

Carter recognized the People's Republic of China as the one legitimate China, ending the US defense relationship with Taiwan, and paving the way for trade relations with China.

Carter has published several autobiographical books about his years as President, and his life after the Presidency, his diplomatic activities through his Carter Center, and his work to improve health in developing countries. They make fascinating reading.
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