They say that as you age, you become more of who you truly are.
In that case, we're seeing the preening vacuous fool that James Earl Carter must have always been.
"I guess my biggest failure was not getting reelected," he said in an interview with Big Think, referring to the 1980 presidential election.When his minion Warren Christopher shined his shoes and explained
Carter, 86, said the loss taught him "not to ever let American hostages be held for 444 days in a foreign country without extracting them." He added, "I did the best I could, but I failed."
Not "maybe we wouldn't be looking down the barrel of a major confrontation with state-supported Islamist radicals." Not "maybe 9/11 wouldn't have happened, and tens of thousands of people wouldn't have died." Not any number of other things involving the United States and our relations with the rest of the world. Ronald effing Reagan's election is as bad a thing as he can imagine.If you wonder why some people (not me) want Palin for President, think about what it means that these clowns are the height of Washington respectability.
I can't imagine a more insular view of things. And I'm terrified that one of the actual people who shaped events can't see past the mirrored window of his political party.
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Curious is it not that for former President Carter his greatest failure was the event that did not validate his own opinion of himself.
The fact that it took a loss of an election to convince him his handling of the embassy hostages was dismal is telling. Furthermore, where is his reflection on the issue that his seriously misjudged that the Shah of Iran, could and was replaced by a successor who's could be worse with regards to human rights? Where is his reflection that the Soviets informed him they had no aims in Afghanistan, and then invaded anyway?
I would have thought that one of those events would have qualified as his greatest failure, not the event of the American people admonishing him for his failures.
At least he can look back on his many achievements, like the 55 mph speed limit.
It's easy to look back at '76-80 with 2011 eyes...I lived thru it as a U.S. Marine. I will always believe Carter's attempts to resolve the hostage crisis was sabotaged by the Nixon Republican super rich to re-gain control of the White House...They put a bafoon movie star in the President's seat so THEY (Bush,Cheney,Rumsfeld,etc)could futher their agenda, which began when Nixon was vice-president under Eisenhower.
They killed the Kennedys to stop what would've been a Democratic party Presidential dynasty, with all of Joe Kennedy's boys serving in turn...
Wow.. there goes 3 yards of tin foil the world will never get back.
Anyway- its rather telling that the words Soviet Union don't seem to show up in his recollection. Its impossible (though pathetically common) to evaluate Reagan without the prism of the Cold War. Reagan's policies facilitated (and forced) a peaceful end to the Soviet Union. Reagan foes want to make it seem that was an eventuality, but things could have gone much, much differently. With a weakling and moral midget like Carter in the WH it likely would have.
Jimmy Carter was a decent citizen. But, as President, he didn't have the internal fortitude and 'courage' it takes for such a job.
Angst is just not the same thing as a sense of direction with convictions and beliefs behind it. Carter had lots of the former and was weak in the latter.
Jimmy Carter was a decent citizen. But, as President, he didn't have the internal fortitude and 'courage' it takes for such a job.
Angst is just not the same thing as a sense of direction with convictions and beliefs behind it. Carter had lots of the former and was weak in the latter.