The Riddle of Jimmy Carter

[BridgeTheGap]

He seemed like the most open and honest man ever elected president. So why does his true nature remain so elusive, even to those who know him best?
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On a cloudy morning at the airport in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, a long motorcade of white Land Cruisers is lined up on a battered runway, motors idling. Secret Service agents listening stoically to their earpieces, clusters of soldiers in camo fatigues, tall Sudanese dignitaries in dusty suits — we've all been waiting out on the tarmac since well before nine, checking the sky. Jimmy Carter likes to say, "I have a fetish about being late," and even here, halfway across the world, everyone knows that showing up early to see him arrive precisely on schedule is part of the experience, like watching Clinton eat a cheeseburger or Bush clear some brush.

There is also something distinctly Carter about the choice of destination. Southern Sudan is seeking independence from the North, but after five decades of on-again, off-again civil war, the country has been so traumatized by killing, famine, slavery and disease that it can seem like a feral place — a failed state even before it has become a state. Though it is early in the morning and still cool, this is late winter, the dry season in northeast Africa, when temperatures rise through the day past 110 degrees. A faint scent of burning fills the air, and the distant echo of things either being constructed or torn apart; in Juba, a war-smashed city with gutted armored personnel carriers strewn along the White Nile, it's often difficult to tell what is a building site and what is rubble.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-riddle-of-jimmy-carter-20110201

[Still Sensible]

1. An incredibly good read. n/t

[Mopar151]

2. I concur

Especially in light of Regan's recent 100th birthday.....

[MasonJar]

3. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clintonn have both proven to be true statesmen

since they left the White House. Compare their contributions to Reagan and W or almost any other ex-President you can name. Bush Sr. has done some good.

[eridani]

4. Carter is by far the best ex-president we've ever had

I'd put him above Adams, who went back to the House of Representatives after his term.

[txlibdem]

5. Now. This will really blow your mind!

Jimmy Carter is a peanut farmer.

Nuts grow on trees.

BUT!!! Peanuts grow under the dirt.

I don't trust a man who doesn't know where his nuts are supposed to go!

:sarcasm:

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Amusing, but they're legumes, not nuts.

[txlibdem]

7. Amusing is what I was shooting for

eom?

[Enthusiast]

8. Nuts are no laughing matter. nt

[underpants]

9. What?

there are farmers who live under the dirt?

[txlibdem]

10. Yes. The Morlocks. And their food crop is called Eloi.

When I saw the documentary about that I noticed that many of the Eloi looked quite yummy.

[Beartracks]

11. K&R. Well, too late to R. But definitely K!