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Jimmy Carter has died

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Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#161
post #20

Looking back, to me he was a much better president then people believed in the 80s. I believe if he got re-elected in 1980, the US would be in a much better place. One thing, it could be argued real work on Climate Change would have begun in 1981 as opposed to where we are now, which is just watching the average probably blowing past 3C in around 70 years from now. For his loss in 1980, I still blame Kennedy. RIP, he…

Look a little harder. The people living through the 1970s knew how bad he was and chose to put him out. He had bad staff, bad relations with the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, and we got the Mayaguez, iran hostage, stagflation, and other troubles too many to list. He was a bad president, a good man, and a great ex-president.

Stagflation was a result of the guns and butter policies of the Vietnam war and the oil crisis.

Carter wasn’t responsible for the Iran hostage crisis.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#163
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrible. He should have resigned, but was too proud to. But also, you know, this isn't a left/right issue. It's mostly one of power. There's a republican member of congress right now that's in a retirement home and hasn't been in congress since July. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/us/politics/kay-granger-c...

WTF… how is this even legal?

It's not how it was legal, but why the house leadership didn't mention it before the last election cycle. It's similar to why the ethics committee didn't want to reveal the dirt on the first Department of Justice nominee -- it would make them look bad!

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#164
post #20

Looking back, to me he was a much better president then people believed in the 80s. I believe if he got re-elected in 1980, the US would be in a much better place. One thing, it could be argued real work on Climate Change would have begun in 1981 as opposed to where we are now, which is just watching the average probably blowing past 3C in around 70 years from now. For his loss in 1980, I still blame Kennedy. RIP, he…

Look a little harder. The people living through the 1970s knew how bad he was and chose to put him out. He had bad staff, bad relations with the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, and we got the Mayaguez, iran hostage, stagflation, and other troubles too many to list. He was a bad president, a good man, and a great ex-president.

While I disagree with your verdict, those are all valid points. I don't think stagflation can really be pinned on him, though.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#165
post #20

Looking back, to me he was a much better president then people believed in the 80s. I believe if he got re-elected in 1980, the US would be in a much better place. One thing, it could be argued real work on Climate Change would have begun in 1981 as opposed to where we are now, which is just watching the average probably blowing past 3C in around 70 years from now. For his loss in 1980, I still blame Kennedy. RIP, he…

> to me he was a much better president then people believed in the 80s

It would be hard to be worse

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#166
post #68

One could argue he set the stage for the 1980s economic boom by making short term sacrifices that cost him re-election. It was his administration that did market-oriented deregulation around airlines and trucking industries (meaning you didn't need to have a licence to ship goods across state lines and go through monopoly trucking companies to get your goods to market) as well as appointed Paul Volcker as Fed chair w…

For these reasons, Jimmy Carter is my third-favorite president of the 20th century, behind my favorite, Calvin Coolidge, and my second-favorite, Dwight Eisenhower. I am a very big fan of Paul Volcker and I’m glad Jimmy Carter nominated him as chair of the Fed. I wish Reagan kept Volcker as chair during Reagan’s second term.

> For these reasons, Jimmy Carter is my third-favorite president of the 20th century, behind my favorite, Calvin Coolidge, and my second-favorite, Dwight Eisenhower.

Aside from Amity Shlaes, who seems to have worked backwards from her desired conclusion, I've never heard an argument put forward for Coolidge as among the great presidents. What do you particularly admire?

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#167
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reagan’s first 2 and a half years also were setting the stage for the growth of the 80s and 90s by taming inflation with very high interest rates and a painful recession. Reagan would have lost by a lot if his gamble hadn’t paid off but instead by 1984 strong growth had begun and he won in a landslide.

Carter appointee Paul Volcker controlled interest rates at the Federal Reserve from 1979 until 1987. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker

Rates peaked in 1982.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#168
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reagan’s first 2 and a half years also were setting the stage for the growth of the 80s and 90s by taming inflation with very high interest rates and a painful recession. Reagan would have lost by a lot if his gamble hadn’t paid off but instead by 1984 strong growth had begun and he won in a landslide.

Carter appointee Paul Volcker controlled interest rates at the Federal Reserve from 1979 until 1987. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker

Carter interviewed Volcker for the job of Fed chairman and asked him what he would do to lower inflation (which had been persistently high since about the middle of the Nixon admin). Volcker told him he would immediately and significantly raise interest rates. This was in '79, there was an election the next year so Volcker figured that Carter wouldn't pick him. But Carter realized that Volcker was right and did pick Volcker who then went on to raise rates into the double digits (and people now complain about 5%). As predicted that tanked the economy in the election year, but in the long run it did the job of extinguishing the 70's inflation.

Re: Jimmy Carter has died

#170
post #20

Looking back, to me he was a much better president then people believed in the 80s. I believe if he got re-elected in 1980, the US would be in a much better place. One thing, it could be argued real work on Climate Change would have begun in 1981 as opposed to where we are now, which is just watching the average probably blowing past 3C in around 70 years from now. For his loss in 1980, I still blame Kennedy. RIP, he…

Look a little harder. The people living through the 1970s knew how bad he was and chose to put him out. He had bad staff, bad relations with the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, and we got the Mayaguez, iran hostage, stagflation, and other troubles too many to list. He was a bad president, a good man, and a great ex-president.

Most people I’ve spoken to about Jimmy Carter who were alive at the time seem to say the same as you. I’ve heard that living in America at the time was depressing and embarrassing. I have a feeling a lot of the praise for the man is from people who weren’t even around when he was president but have been fed some story about how he was great. I see a lot of praise for him online yet it’s very hard to find from the lips of American who lived through it.
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