A few questions about Jimmy Carter...

[mtowngman]

I was 21 when he was voted out. I voted for the independent that election, don't even remember his name. My questions 1)was he as bad a president as history portrays him? 2)is he now the best example we have of what being an American is all about? 3)any suggested reading on this topic?

[Benhurst]

1. You voted for ...

John Anderson.
:hi:

[mtowngman]

2. thanks

I also voted for the guy with the bow ties, I think his name was Simon.

[Benhurst]

9. Both were from the great state of Illinois.

Anderson was a Member of Congress.
Simon was a U.S. Senator.

(You'd never guess I was a native. :rofl:)

[mtowngman]

21. I guess that says something

for mid western sensibility. You'd think there'd be fewer red states in that part of the country.

[lumpy]

35. Paul Simon the guy with the bow tie.

He was a great Senator, good man. I always thought he'd do better without the silly tie, though. My eyes were always drawn to that tie, same with Tucker. GET RID OF THE BOW TIE !

[NewJeffCT]

62. nice guy, my dad voted for Anderson, too

I met John Anderson once on a rental car shuttle bus from the airport... seemed like a nice guy. This was maybe in the late 90s?

My dad almost always votes for Democrats, but he didn't like Carter or Reagan in 1980, so voted Anderson.

[evlbstrd]

3. Jimmy Carter was done in by circumstances beyond his control.

Especially the Oil Shocks and the Iran Hostage Crisis.
I voted for him both times.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. And also done in by Reagan making secret deals with Iran

to ensure that the hostages were NOT released during Carter's time, but would be released as soon as Reagan was sworn in.

[Bjornsdotter]

32. Exactly...

The hostages were not going to be released until after the election, not through any fault of Carter's. As Carter pointed out last night, none were killed and all of them came home.

I think as time goes by Carter will be looked on as a greater president than he was judged to be at the time. He is still number one on my "I wish I could meet" list.

Cheers!

[dennis00]

41. meet Jimmy Carter

He still preaches Sunday School at Marantha Baptist Church in Plains. You can probably find out when and make a pilgrimage to Georgia. My grandaughter had to decide whose face should be on a new quarter for her fifth grade class. We decided on Jimmy Carter.

[Bjornsdotter]

48. Oh Wow!

Thanks so much for the info! The next time I'm down there I just might do that.

Cheers!

Welcome to DU!

[dennis00]

57. saint Jimmy Carter

http:www//maranthachurchplains.org

I believe that is the correct url. His schedule is there.

[dennis00]

58. Let's try that again

http://www.maranthachurch.org

[dennis00]

60. Sorry, one last time

http://www.maranathachurch.org

[dennis00]

61. Got it this time.

http://www.maranathachurchplains.org

[Bjornsdotter]

63. Thank-you!

Thank-you so much for posting this link.

Cheers!

[progressivebydesign]

53. Oddly enough, Poppy Bush was involved with that whole thing.

Carter was set up. And the oil industry set him up, as well. NOW we can all see how easily you can manipulate the oil market to serve whatever financial or political gain you want.

[madokie]

23. Jimmy Carter was done in by the same cabal thats in the white house now

BUSH*

[mopinko]

59. both elaborate dirty tricks, imho

and slandered in the media. i shake my head now when i think of the hay that was made out of his redneck, beer-drinking brother. now we have a first brother who is a known crook and pedophile.

[panichol]

4. He wasn't as bad as they portray him

In my opinion Jimmy Carter was simply too honest to be president.

[Glenmar]

12. Agreed!!

He was called a "peanut farmer" & my repuke sister-in-law even blamed him for the Jonestown tragedy:crazy:

[Benhurst]

5. 1. No. He was the first victim of Republican smear tactics,

amplified by what was then a lazy press, all too willing to repeat the last thing heard.

2. Yes. He wasn't a bad one back then, either. The United States was widely respected around the world for his human rights policies.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is a prophet without honer in BushAmerica.

3. Sorry, I have no recommendations. I lived it and haven't gotten around to reading about it.

[Wapsie B]

13. Very true.

He got a taste of what the rwingers gave to Clinton and what the next Democratic President will get. He was everything the righties say they are for, or damn near, a military man, deeply religious with high moral standards. It shows me that the xian rwingers are a bunch of dupes.

[goclark]

19. He was a victim of the vast Right Wing

He was a smart and wonderful President.


The right wing just did their duty on him.

Shame

[Matariki]

30. do you happen to know if any other US presidents were nobel prize winners

?

[Benhurst]

45. Teddy Roosevelt

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his work in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War in 1905

[DelawareValleyDem]

56. Woodrow Wilson

1919 Nobel Peace Prize

http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1919/

[JHB]

33. The first prseidential-level victim, in the first group...

...of Democrats targeted to be put out of office.

Also in that "first group" were congressmen like Frank Church and Otis Pike, who's opponents had lots of nonlocal support and backing in order to oust them.

[happyslug]

50. No, just the victim of the 1970s.

Causes has been attacking Democratic Presidents (and Democratic Presidential Candi ates) like they did to Carter and Clinton since the time of William Jennings Bryan.

In fact the attacks started with Bryan and continued 30 years after he was dead. These attacks prejudice people to this day for if you read about theScopes Monkey Trial, Bryan is NOT the bigoted prosecutor pportrayedin the play "IInheritthe Wind", far from it, Bryan even offered to pay the fine but was told that had already been arranged by the town (The Trial was made up to generate revenue for the town so the fine was fixed and paid for even before Scopes agreed to say he taught evolution). Thus the last scene in the play where the prosecutor objected to the $100 fine did not occur for everyone in the Courthouse knew what the fine was to be and who was going to pay it. In fact the scene in the Play of the Prosecutor going berserk is NOT what Bryan did but what Joseph McCarthy did it in the early 1950s. Yes, "Inherit the Wind" is a great anti-McCarthy play, but built on the lies spread by the GOP machine about Bryan.

These lies were common and vvicious one of the Reporter at the SScopesMonkey Trial was seen typing his report on the famous cross-examination of Bryan while Bryan was still on the stand when asked why he ssaid"I know what my editor wants to hear". That is how bad it was then, and Bryan was the best orator this country has ever produced and that ability was the only thing that saved him from being considered "Insane", a "radical" etc that the GOP used aagainsthim, against FDR, Against Truman, Against Kennedy, Against LBJ, against Carter and Against Clinton.

That is the level of "oopenness you have among Republicans. They want to hear what they want to hear, not any facts to the ccontrary GOP would oppose Bryan's last comment on the Scoops Monkey Trial:

“Causes stir the world, and this cause has stirred the world. It is because it goes deep. It is because it extends wide and because it reaches into the future beyond the power of man to see. Here has been fought out a little case of little consequence as a case, but the world is interested because it raises an issue, and that issue will some day be settled right, whether it is settled on our side or the other side. It is going to be settled right. There can be no settlement of a great cause without discussion, and people will not discuss a cause until their attention is drawn to it, and the value of this trial is not in any incident of the trial, it is not because of anybody who is attached to it, either in any official way or as counsel on either side.

Republicans reject the above for they want us to accept things without debate or discussion. They attacked Bryan for he liked Debate and Discussion, he took the stand in the Scoopes Trial so to give the Defense an opportunity to be heard and to hear his side (Bryan had agreed to be called on a Witness only on the Ground he could so the same to Darrow, something the Judge later denied to Bryan, but that is typical of Bryan encouraging debate from all sides, something he was attacked for while alive and for 30 years later as can be seen in the play "Inherit the Wind").

[panichol]

6. He still is.......

Limbaugh is still trying to smear him.....he was saying on his show that Carter sent 6 helicopters to attack Iran.....in reality they trying to rescue the hostages, not attack...

[marbuc]

16. Limbaugh and his ilk

do not understand humanitarianism. They believe every exursion should be full military assault.

[Ksec]

7. I love Jimmy Carter

Actually he has a new book out and I cant think of the name right now. Carter was a great President with Ethics. I voted for him and was alarmed when Reagan won that election. I knew the country would be taking an uber right wing dive and it sure did.

I saw Carter on tv yesterday and the man is pure class. He debates well withour resorting to yelling over his opponent and effectively uses facts to support his argument.

[mtowngman]

15. agree

I think it was the tv appearances yesterday that really got me thinking about what a stand up guy this is

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Don't know about the first question, it's up for debate,

but the answer to question two is a resounding YES!

I read Carter's autobiography that came out a couple years ago. I can't think of the name, sorry about that, but it was excellent - here's a man who claims his Christianity, and then actually lives it, unlike the republican hypocrite jackoff fucks.

I also saw that Carter has a new book that just came out, slamming the religious right.

[libnnc]

10. I would suggest reading any of his books

look him up on amazon.

[MarianJack]

14. I Was a "Kennedy '80" Democrat...

...and in November I thumbed my nose at Carter and voted for reagan. I have LONG SINCE repented of that bone headed move of tempestuous 25 year old immaturity!

I don't think he was a good president, but there were those (like kissinger) who were also stacking the deck against him.

Today I consider Jimmy Carter to be the greatest EX-president we've ever had, and had unlikely hopes that he would have been Secretary of State in a Gore administration, or even a Kerry presidency.

I learned in the years since 1980 that division among Democrats is the rethuglican's bread and butter. Hence, I will NEVEr vote for a non-Democratic presidential candidate again. Our worst is FAR superior th their best!

[TriMetFan]

26. I agree with you. But.....

I was a dumb ass stupid 18 year old who should have listen to her father and voted for Carter instead of Reagan. I will fight the right wing nuts of my Nation to end of my life. Here was a honest man President Carter and people like myself let the wacko's hurt him.

[MarianJack]

34. YEP!

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

As the moron says, "You can't get fooled again!"

[TriMetFan]

36. You got it.

This is how honest of a man President Carter is. Back when he was our leader he was asked if he believed in UFO's and he said that he had seen something one night and that he thought that there could be UFO's. What we all got to remember is that President Carter took over after the the Republics had fucked up our Nation. We are replaying the policital mess of the 70's all over agian but with more major consequenses.

[mtowngman]

37. LOL

[WI_DEM]

17. HIstory doesn't rate him a bad president

his reputation has risen dramatically since he was defeated. An excellent book about Carter is "The Unfinished Presidency".

[Lochloosa]

18. And don't swallow the argument about inflation...

People forget Gerald Ford's campaign slogan..."WIN" for "Whip Inflation Now"

I think Carter did a great job handling the economy. He had to deal with the OPEC cartel cutting our oil imports 20%. What do you think would happen if they did that today?

And we won't even mention Nixon's Wage and Price Freeze.....

[harlinchi]

20. Don't forget the hostage release on the day of Reagan's inauguration!

I'm sure that was just a coincidence. It couldn't have been a deal between Reagan's boys and the hostage-takers! It's not like they'd be likely to deal with them, notwithstanding the later 'Irangate' scandals.

[mtowngman]

27. at the time I remember talk of how Reagan really had nothing

to do with that, but the Iranians hated Carter so much that they orchestrated the timing just to shove it up his

[JHB]

29. Actually, they DID hate him enough to do that...

...it's just that the Reaganites let them do that AND get paid for it.

[kath]

38. You need to read up on the "October Surprise" - someone here should have a

link.

[CottonBear]

39. October Surprise link:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/1992_cr/h920205-october-clips.htm

[mtowngman]

51. thank you

[progressivebydesign]

54. Nope. That's not it. Look into Poppy Bush's meeting...

He was at a meeting.. where was that.. a Hilton? It was where the deal was made. Are you unaware of the entire purpose of the whole Iran/Contra weapons deal?

[mtowngman]

55. yep

O.K. with acknowledging my ignorance. Reading this thread is really educational.

[CottonBear]

22. He was a very good president in a difficult time.

He was a very good president who was taken down by the very same PNAC NeoCon cabal that is ruling us today.

Two words: October Surprise (ironically coined by Bush 41.) "...individuals associated with the Reagan-Bush campaign of 1980 met secretly with Iranian officials to delay the release of the American hostages until after the Presidential election. For this favor, Iran was rewarded with a substantial supply of arms from Israel."
Information link here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/1992_cr/h920205-october-clips.htm

He is, in my opinion, the best ex-president ever and an example for all Americans of a truly good Christian and humanitarian.

I suggest that you read all of his books especially the one on the history of conflict in the Middle East and the one about his childhood in Plains, GA.
:)

edit: He atteneded the Naval Academy and served as a Naval officer. He has a degree in nuclear engineering! He was governor of Georgia. He just had a HUGE nuclear submarine named after him!
He and Rosalyn have helped to build countless Habitat for Humaity homes. He is invited by many countries to monitor their elctions to ensure fair elections!

[nickyt]

24. Jimmy Carter is a true spiritual giant. I love him dearly.

[Flubadubya]

25. As far as the right wingers are concerned, a Democratic President...

simply does not have the "entitlement" to that office that a Rethug does, so, any time we get one he/she is going to catch hell and will be literally hounded out of office by the right wingers and the media if at all possible.

[SheilaT]

28. I consider Carter to have been

the best president of the second half of the twentieth century.

He gave us the Camp David accords.

When blaming him for the high inflation of the late 70's, everyone conveniently forgets the wage and price controls instituted by Nixon in August of 1971. Inflation was thought to be out of control -- I think it was running at perhaps 4%. Sensible economists said wage and price controls only make things worse, and of course they were right, and of course Carter has taken the blame for something he is completely not responsible for.

The problem with Carter was that he was a micro-manager, and that didn't really work well as president. He also got blindsided by the Iran hostage crisis, and Ted Kennedy's running against him in 1980. But he was then and still is a man of high moral character -- genuine moral values, and his life since leaving office is an absolute testament to that.

He is one of the few self-proclaimed "born again Christians" whom I completely respect. Habitat for Humanity is one of the best things out there and could serve as a model for how more social services could be run.

I have not read any biographies so can't suggest anything, but he's written about his own life in several books, so you might also want to look at them.

[DerekG]

31. He certainly wasn't the "human rights" president (we never had one)

Like his successor, Carter lent aid to the Salvadorian death squads, and fanned the flames for Islamic fanaticism in Afghanistan. I suppose he's the most austere president we've had, but he's got blood on his hands, make no mistake. We could do a lot better.

For an overlook of Carter's crimes, check out Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."

[cally]

40. I can relate to your question...I was 22 for Carter's re-election

and I didn't campaign for him. I did vote for him because I hated Reagan. I was bothered by Carter's record on human rights and I wanted someone more liberal. :eyes: I had no idea how much worse it would get.

Looking back at that time, I now believe Carter was a great President. All the media kept after him for being too soft on defense just like they do for all Democratic Presidents. The rightist shills come on and belittle any attempts at diplomacy or internationalism. The pundits always said that we need a strong father figure and Carter was too honest. Carter did not work well fighting back with the attacks and getting cooperation from Congress. I think his ideas were great but he was too nice to fight with Congress and the press.

[H2O Man]

42. Good man, weak president.

He did not understand how Washington worked, and was overwhelmed by circumstance. Makes a heck of an ex-president, though.

[Lasher]

43. The Truth Regarding Carter vs. Reagan

Strong evidence suggests that both Bush and Casey made a secret deal with Ayatollah Khomeini's Iranian government to delay the release of American hostages until after the 1980 presidential election. Going into the election, the U.S. government had been deadlocked with Iran for almost a year over the fate of American citizens held by that country. The impasse had become an albatross around President Carter's neck and CIA-men, Bush and Casey were determined that the hostage issue would not be resolved while Carter was in office. To this end, Bush and Casey allegedly made a secret arrangement with the Iranians to delay the hostages' release and help ensure Carter's election defeat.

"I think the hostages' release...had to do with a deal, struck before the deal-maker was in office."
--Patti Davis (formerly Patricia Ann Reagan), The Way I See It

"The Iranian parliament was meeting and we had every information from Bani-Sadr and others that they were going to vote overwhelmingly to let the hostages go. And at the last minute on Sunday for some reason they had adjourned without voting.... The votes were there, but the Ayatollah or somebody commanded them to adjourn."
--President Carter, interviewed in The Village Voice

http://www.geocities.com/thereaganyears/1980election.htm

1/20/81 Ronald Reagan inaugurated as President of the United States. Four hours after the inauguration, militants holding 54 US citizens hostage in Iran since 11/4/79 released the hostages, after 444 days in captivity. Reagan's foreign policies included aid to the Mujihadeen resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:FM_Eu11qOBkJ:www.finchfactory.com/howdiditcometothis.htm+iran+reagan+hostages+release+1/20/81&hl=en

***

Virtually unchallenged by the complacent news media, Reagan frequently blamed Carter for his own failures, almost to the end of his eight years in office. To this day, there are those who actively postulate a Saint Ronnie of Reagan myth, seeking to perpetuate a Reagan legacy that is much more favorable than reality supports. Carter's reputation has been unfairly damaged by this propaganda.

If Reagan hadn't committed treason concerning the hostages in Iran, as I have shown above, and if Reagan hadn't stolen Carter's briefing papers, which was another serious crime that was never seriously examined, Carter would have been re-elected.

BTW, I voted for Carter.

[BJW]

44. A Truly Decent Man and a Fine President

I watched his interview with Larry King last night. Got me to thinking again about everything that's happened since he was last in office, and how so much has gone so wrong in our country.

About Christians and war, Carter said that "We don't worship the Prince of Pre-Emptive War, we worship the Prince of Peace."

To me, Carter's loss is where the real origin of the current Iraq War debacle lays.

Looking back at just some of what's gone on:

Reagan and Bush--conspired with Iranian fundamentalists to sabotage Carter's negotiations by holding off on hostage releases to affect outcome of our national elections in their favor. Gave GOP opportunity to paint Carter and Democrats as "weak."

Reagan and Bush--conspired to illegally provide arms to the Iranians for release of those same hostages with monies for purchase coming via Afghani heroin and Columbian cocaine drug trades. (Iran-Contra)

Reagan and Bush--These arms were used against Iraq in the border/oil wars with Iran. At the same time we were secretly arming Iraq. Idea was to play out "cold war" games and maintain "stability" by creating never-ending, but fairly low-level warfare.

Reagan and Bush--secretly armed and trained Afghanis and pan-nationalist fundamentalist Arabs in warfare/guerilla/terrorist tactics to give Soviet's a "Vietnam". This is the genesis of Al Quaeda.

Bush--After Soviet withdrawal primary concern was with creating transportation infrastructure, pipelines and improving ports for shipments of natural resouces. (Led to Taliban govt.) Maintained friendly diplomatic relations with Taliban govt.

Bush 41--Continued arming Iraq despite reports of use of chem weapons by Iraq against Kurdish insurgents during civil war seeking to establish independent Kurdish republic. Also ignored Turkish military strikes against Kurds and Iranian military strikes against Kurds occuring during same time period resulting in approx. 30K deaths. Also armed Kurds.

(Pet Peeve alert--the Kurds were not, are not and have never thought of themselves as "Saddam's own people" and it seriously annoys me to no end that this phrase is repeated over and over and over again as some sort of moral justification for American overt military intervention occurring years after the fact of Iraqi use of mustard gas on Kurdish civilians.)

Bush 41--Gave false, back-door assurances to Iraq that it would support military action againt Kuwait in response to Kuwait's theft of oil from Iraq after Iraq's protests via UN channels were given short shrift. Got Saudi Arabian friends to allow US military bases and troops to be stationed in country, infuriating Wahabbaist fundamentalists (Al Quaeda supporters).

And so on....

I just can't help concluding that if Carter hadn't been subjected to dirty election tricks (Karl Rove and Lee Atwater were operatives, even back then), how different America would be today.

[Pendrench]

46. A couple of book suggestions....

You may want to check out "The Unfinished Presidency" by Douglas Brinkley (which talks about his life after leaving office)...I think it was originally published in 1999.

I've also read a book called "The Carpenter's Apprentice", which is a short "spiritual" biography about President Carter.

Hope this helps.

Tim

[panichol]

47. Now I see

In reading the posts in this forum, it occurs to me that the repugs saw what Nixon did wrong in the dirty tricks fields. They perfected them, used them during the Carter administration, saw what they were able to do to Carter with them, and said "Hey, we've got something here". And they've used them every since, up until they were actually able to steal a presidential election with them.

[happyslug]

49. Jimmy Carter like Harry Truman has to solve a lot of problems

Now, HST's problems were caused by the effects of WWII, the US Mobilization and than demobilization of 1946 (Which is the only time in US History that we demobilized without a major recession). Once the demobilization had worked its way through the economy the Cold War started. HST also had to deal with the start and height of the Red Scare of the late 1940s and early 1950s. All told a very difficult assignment that he was attacked over and over again by the GOP for either being pro-communist or worse.

Jimmy Carter had to face an even worse situation than HST. Vietnam had been fought on borrowed money. Nixon had destroyed the post-WWII international monetary agreement when he had agreed to float the dollar in 1971 rather than increase taxes or pull out of Vietnam. Nixon faced inflation but did not want to end deficient spending for it meant he had to make a decision to either raise taxes (Like LBJ did in 1969) or cut spending (and the biggest thing to cut was defense spending including the war in Vietnam). Notice this inflation was BEFORE the Arab oil Embargo of 1973 where oil double in price and you had an acute shortages when the US was importing less then 10% of its oil needs (Unlike the 55% we are importing today). The effect of the increase in oil prices just radiated throughout the economy compounding the already high inflation rate.

Furthermore during the mid 1970s you had a persistently high high unemployment rate. This unemployment was caused by the baby boomers entering the work force (The baby boom is generally considered from 1947-1964 with its peak in 1957, add 18 and you get 1965 to 1982 with a peak of 1975). One way was to delay them them entering the work force by sending them to collage, thus increase spending on Collage aid but this increased the deficit and thus inflation. Congress had also finally increase educational assistance to local schools provided no money went to segregated schools (This statute and funding did more than anything else to end segregation in the Public Schools in the US). but at the cost of increase expenditures which increased the deficient.

One of the effects of the US withdraw from Iran was a perception that the US was weaker than what it had been in the 1960s, thus leading to Soviet invention in Africa and growing popular Resistance to dictators supported by the US.

Thus by the time Carter became President you had both high inflation, high unemployment a stagnant economy and an unstable Iran (The Shah was losing control over his country through his policy of spending his oil money on weapons instead of the country a a whole) and Nicaragua (Somoza had stolen to much aid provided to Nicaragua after the 1973 Earthquake). Carter, like Truman before him had to solve these problems. First he attempted to decrease unemployment by various job programs and increase collage assistance. This increase the deficient and the inflation rate (It went as high at 18% under Carter) but when the unemployment rate kept going down he appointed Vocker as chief od the Federal Reserve with the understanding to increase interest rates to kill the inflation rate (Which Vocker did). While fighting these two remnants from Nixon's administration Nicaragua and Iran decided to have revolutions. This caused the GOP to have a conniption fit over "losing" the Cold War against the Communists (How can Iran be a lost ot the Soviet? but it was portrayed that way by the GOP). To cut the deficient Carter took the hit to cut back the US war fighting capability to a 1 and 1/2 war doctrine instead of the Vietnam era 2 and 1/2 war doctrines (i.e. 1 and 1/2 meant the US had the Capability to fight and win one war, while fighting an holding action in another i.e. the 1/2 war, in a 2 and 1/2 war doctrine, the US could fight and win two wars while fighting a holding action in a third area). Furthermore Carter canceled various military program that had even more advance replacements in the development cycle (for example canceling the B1 Bomber because the B2 was being developed and promised to be more effective than the B1). All of this was to reduce the Deficient, while increasing Domestic Spending to cut unemployment.

In a nutshell the above is what Carter did, now some of the Above was do to the Democratic Congress but Carter took the lead on many of the above items. The GOP attacked Carter for leaving the Shah lose control over Iran (The GOP refused to admit you can NOT always rule by might). Somoza's lost of Control of Nicaragua was portrayed as the start of the Communist land offensive that would sooner or later cross the Rio Grand instead of the overthrow of a well known thief. Inflation was high under Carter but unemployment was going down (and had become "cyclical" i.e. few permanent unemployed, but about a 18 months waiting period to be hired). Even Carter's Christianity was attack by the Right (Mocked, Rejected and call insincere depending on the GOP target). The problem for the GOP was Carter's program was working. By 1980 unemployment was down as was inflation. The Deficient was down. Thus the GOP turned to Reagan to win the election for no other candidate could have beaten Carter that year.

As to Reagan's Treatment of the problems faced by Carter was first, Reagan cared less about the unemployed so Reagan left the unemployment rate go through the roof in the 1982 recession knowing that 1982 was the last year the Baby Boomers would be entering the Work force and the post-1964 baby bust did not produce the same number of new workers as Carter had to face in the late 1970s. The recession caused by Reagan in 1982 cut the inflation rate while leaving the unemployment rate to go higher and higher (But it would drop do to the drop of new people entering the work force in the 1980s). Reagan tried his best to undo the collage aid and school aid but cutting back the aid in the name of reducing the Deficient (and making collage aid loans instead of grants). The biggest thing that helped Reagan was the decreased in the price of oil during his administration (Caused by three huge oil fields being opened up, The north Slope, the North Sea and a third one in Siberia that cut into the oil monopoly of OPEC). This decrease in oil prices, undid the Soviet Union (Lost of Income) and permitted the US Economy to resume its oil burning ways, burning increasing cheap oil during the 1980s).

Thus Carter had to face some of the worse situations this Country has seen since the end of WWII and he did a great job of helping to solve those problems. Do to Carter's cut back and handling of the Unemployment and Inflation efforts, Reagan could coast on both issues during his presidency. In fact most of of the good things that came out of Reagan's administration was in fact the result of long term Carter Planning and the reason he is one of the Great Presidents of the US.

[BiggJawn]

52. I didn't give him a fair shake.

I voted for him the first time, but then let the RW appeal to my 22-y-o sense of thinking with my dick about how "week" we looked in the world.
I voted for John Anderson, too.

In retrospect, Carter was too nice of a man to be President in this era. The ReTHUGs skinned him alive, sold us the packaged "Gipper" and away they went...

At least HE can pronounce "nuclear"!

[hootinholler]

64. My first Presidential vote.

Had to vote for a fellow Submariner. My man got RayGunned in Iran. Sorry, Prez.

-Hoot