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The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

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Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#11

Post by paulpauper »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #6
siberianbear wrote: post #2

I decided to submit this because I have always been fascinated with Jimmy Carter. What a genuine, decent person. But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I was in third grade when Carter was running for re-election against Ronald Reagan. Our teacher gave us an assignment to create a campaign poster for your favorite candidate. I chose Jimmy Carter, and added the campaign slogan, "I will gladly trade…

But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I wonder if that is a fair judgement or whether he was just the victim of the economic cycle and external forces.

Not stopping the overthrow of the Shah (and then admitting him to the United States) may have been a mistake because of the hostage crisis that unfolded and also created geopolitical instability that continues to this day.

Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#12

Post by nabla9 »

maxxxxx wrote: post #7
siberianbear wrote: post #2

I decided to submit this because I have always been fascinated with Jimmy Carter. What a genuine, decent person. But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I was in third grade when Carter was running for re-election against Ronald Reagan. Our teacher gave us an assignment to create a campaign poster for your favorite candidate. I chose Jimmy Carter, and added the campaign slogan, "I will gladly trade…

"But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents." I think he had a bit of bad luck with the economy of his time and also with the Iranian hostage situation. If freeing them had worked he would have been a superhero. Or he could have done it like Reagan with Iran-Contra: talk tough in public but secretly pay off the Iranians.

Carter succeeded in freeing the Hostages. Carter's negotiations lead to the release of the hostages on the day Reagan was inaugurated. Iranians were deliberatively delaying the release because Carter was literally the the face of great Satan for them.

Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#14

Post by humanrebar »

pmyteh wrote: post #3

Jimmy Carter is without question one of the all-time great ex-presidents. Whatever the successes or failings of his administration, he's used his time since to improve the world, and is honest, uncorrupt, and suitably (ex-)presidential.

He's a bit opinionated to be considered "ex-presidential". He was pretty sour grapes with the Reagan administration and generally had plenty of opinions about each of the subsequent ones.

Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#15

Post by humanrebar »

ethbro wrote: post #4

If you're interested in where Carter came from, I can't recommend An Hour Before Daylight [1] highly enough. The man's a great writer, and he grew up in a fascinating time and place. You've also got to give a lot of respect to someone who could have made themselves much wealthier, but said "No." [1] https://www.amazon.com/Hour-Before-Daylight-Memories-Boyhood...

Lots of people take off work to be with their family. Lots of people work for non-profits as a career. Great teachers are notoriously underpaid. Though most of them don't write memoirs.

Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#16

Post by humanrebar »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #6
siberianbear wrote: post #2

I decided to submit this because I have always been fascinated with Jimmy Carter. What a genuine, decent person. But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I was in third grade when Carter was running for re-election against Ronald Reagan. Our teacher gave us an assignment to create a campaign poster for your favorite candidate. I chose Jimmy Carter, and added the campaign slogan, "I will gladly trade…

But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I wonder if that is a fair judgement or whether he was just the victim of the economic cycle and external forces.

No, he's a nice man but a poor leader.

He had lots of really nice things to say about Chavez and Castro when they died, for instance. Even if you're left wing, you need to acknowledge they did some pretty awful things to their people as leaders.

Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#17

Post by tonyedgecombe »

paulpauper wrote: post #11
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I wonder if that is a fair judgement or whether he was just the victim of the economic cycle and external forces.

Not stopping the overthrow of the Shah (and then admitting him to the United States) may have been a mistake because of the hostage crisis that unfolded and also created geopolitical instability that continues to this day.

The geopolitical instability was set in a long time before then, probably after the second world war, possibly all the way back to the 7th century.

Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#18

Post by AndyMcConachie »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #6
siberianbear wrote: post #2

I decided to submit this because I have always been fascinated with Jimmy Carter. What a genuine, decent person. But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I was in third grade when Carter was running for re-election against Ronald Reagan. Our teacher gave us an assignment to create a campaign poster for your favorite candidate. I chose Jimmy Carter, and added the campaign slogan, "I will gladly trade…

But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I wonder if that is a fair judgement or whether he was just the victim of the economic cycle and external forces.

He was a victim of the Iran-Contra scandal. Something that the USA has failed to deal with to this day.

Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#19

Post by AndyMcConachie »

nabla9 wrote: post #12
maxxxxx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents." I think he had a bit of bad luck with the economy of his time and also with the Iranian hostage situation. If freeing them had worked he would have been a superhero. Or he could have done it like Reagan with Iran-Contra: talk tough in public but secretly pay off the Iranians.

Carter succeeded in freeing the Hostages. Carter's negotiations lead to the release of the hostages on the day Reagan was inaugurated. Iranians were deliberatively delaying the release because Carter was literally the the face of great Satan for them.

Either that, or Reagan made a deal with Khomeni to delay the release of the hostages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise_conspiracy_th...

Re: The un-celebrity president: Jimmy Carter shuns riches, lives modestly

#20

Post by EvilEndures »

paulpauper wrote: post #11
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But history has judged him as one of the worst presidents. I wonder if that is a fair judgement or whether he was just the victim of the economic cycle and external forces.

Not stopping the overthrow of the Shah (and then admitting him to the United States) may have been a mistake because of the hostage crisis that unfolded and also created geopolitical instability that continues to this day.

> Not stopping the overthrow of the Shah (and then admitting him to the United States) may have been a mistake because of the hostage crisis that unfolded and also created geopolitical instability that continues to this day.

Fighting to defend a dictator the West effectively installed to suppress a populist movement was unlikely to have a better outcome than the Shah being ousted.

People in the West seem to forget the Iranian Revolution was _extremely_ popular in Iran.

Why was it popular?

Because the Shah was a corrupt and oppressive regime that was hated by the Iranian people. The Iranian Revolution wasn't the first time he was forced out of Iran either.

This delusion that Iran could be "ruled" by the Shah as a positive outcome needs to stop. It isn't borne out by the facts and it would have ended up collapsing eventually. Popular leaders don't need organizations like SAVAK to torture its own people.

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