Youngsters, pull up a chair, I've a story to tell you

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

A long, long, time ago, Nixon had resigned in disgrace and Ford had taken over as president and his first act was pardoning Nixon.

As the presidential campaigns started up for the 1976 election, a man, a governor, a peanut farmer, decided to make a run for it. We listened as he talked about not being a part of the Washington insider corruption. We listened as he talked about energy, and economics, and conservation. We listened as he talked about amnesty for the draft dodgers of the Viet Nam war.

And we fought for him, and we campaigned for him, and we got involved in politics. And he won. And the draft dodgers were granted amnesty and allowed to come home. How many of you now turn off lights when you leave the room? We used to not do that. We kept our thermostats set at 68 in the summer and 75 in the winter. We don't do that now. Know what else? I don't think that President Carter EVER lied to the American people.

I was twenty years old when I got involved in the campaign to elect Jimmy Carter as president. I remember the pride I felt when Jimmy and his lovely wife got out of the car during the inaugural procession and proceeded to walk, smiling and waving to the podium to take the oath of office. I think it probably felt to me like what so many of you are feeling now.

So please stop thinking this has NEVER EVER happened before.

[Tatiana]

1. Great reminder.

This is all cyclical. If only we could LEARN from our past. History is a great teacher.

[babylonsister]

2. Be prepared for some Carter bashers, but thanks for the post.

A president who can speak coherently and tell the truth will be so refreshing!

[NanceGreggs]

10. At this point ...

... a president who can put two words together and not mispronounce both of them will seem like some sort of miracle!

:hi:

[babylonsister]

24. I can't wait to watch a speech and not be repulsed! Shiver me timbers!

:hi:

[SharonRB]

25. Amen to that, Nance! n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. It'll be a great day when literacy once again returns to the White House

:)

[NanceGreggs]

3. So happy to have been REC #1 on this ...

And you're so right. People have been down so long, too many have given up hope that the right thing can happen ...

[underpants]

7. #2

:hi:

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

8. Honestly

Getting a rec from you brought a tear to my eye, it really did.

[NanceGreggs]

15. So now we're even ...

... because your wonderful post brought a tear to mine!

[underpants]

4. Indeed

and then the angry old men came swooping back in and crushed all the progress and the media soon followed suit and we have been struggling to get back on the right path ever since.

Well said old timer.

[Sequoia]

5. I try to cut off my lights when I'm not there.

Wear sweaters too. But as for my Christmas tree...I want many lights, not just one single one on top. Remember that?! People were peeved about the Christmas Tree but can't remember if it was a DC tree or the one in NY. And, yes, I still like to drive 55mph 'cause that's about as fast as my old clunker can go without falling apart on the freeway. Everyone honks at me to go faster but hey, I'm in the slow lane so just pass me up Speedy.

[K Gardner]

6. My late father loved Carter. He was the first Democrat my daddy ever voted for.

[Beregond2]

9. Carter

I guarantee you, within the next few minutes someone will post that the Carter administration was a disaster precisely because of his "outsider status," and we would be making the same mistake again by supporting Obama.

Carter was a fine president. What did him in was an illegal secret deal between the Republicans and Iraq, to not release the hostages until after the election. Don't buy into the anti-Carter rhetoric.

[gaspee]

17. Iran

Not Iraq.

[no name no slogan]

21. Bill Clinton was a D.C. "outsider" too, and he did alright.

Hell, he was downright inspired compared to what came after.

[depakid]

27. Welp, the FACT is that the "Georgia mafia" was a problem

and the administration was remarkably ineffectual in getting its legislation through, despite having a substantial majority in a Democratic Congress.

That rift was part of the reason why Ted Kennedy challenged him in the 1980 primaries- which in turn was part of the reason why he lost a 3 way race that November.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

11. true that, my friend... thank you for bringing back the memory I was there too

:loveya:

[izzybeans]

12. Let's not let is slip away this time.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

19. Amen.

[Iktomiwicasa]

13. rec #4

Carter may not have been the most effective President, but he he was, and is, an honest man.

[Thepricebreaker]

14. We don't see eye to eye on Jimmy...

Jimmy and me don't get a long.. ;)

[Shine]

16. Nice.

:kick: K & R

[cd3dem]

18. the difference is Carter was honest... we already know Obama has lied...

I love Jimmy Carter but we were not a strong party afterward... the republicans want Obama to run b/c he is the weakest candidate... if Obama is able to win... IF... by getting young people out to vote for him... he will be weak... our economy will be a mess... and our foreign policy will be non-existent... in two years... the congress will turn-over and become republican and in four years Obama will be back done and touring the country making millions on his speeches...

and us? we will be poorer... bigger deficits... many without jobs... and no "change"

republicans are not going to change!!!! never have, never will....

[grace0418]

55. Good grief. I don't think Obama walks on water but lighten up a bit, Eeyore.

"our foreign policy will be non-existent"? Really? Do you honestly think Obama could do WORSE than BushCo? You may not agree with him but at least the man can string a coherent sentence together AND he can resist the urge to give heads of state shoulder rubs and noogies. Our foreign policy will improve on that basis alone.

I think he'll do fine. He'll make mistakes, but he'll do fine, possibly even better than fine.

[David Zephyr]

20. I remember Carter getting out of the car and walking, too.

And I hate how he was betrayed by members of his own staff, the NSC and the petroleum companies.

I was in Houston when Carter campaigned there in the primaries. I went downtown to see him. All of that pent up hurt and frustration from losing Bobby and Martin in 1968, losing to Nixon in 1968 and 1972, after Vietnam, after Watergate...it was one of the most hopeful times.

Carter never did lie to the American people.

[babylonsister]

26. Yes! He wasn't afraid of the American people, unlike the current pResident. nt

[David Zephyr]

45. How true is that?!

One had an open government and the other is a paranoid. Sometimes it takes someone to remind us.

[AzDar]

Carter was RIGHT.

About just about all of it.

[grantcart]

22. We slept on the floor of somebody's distant relative and then

froze our asses waiting in the back. We couldn't hardly see anything but we were proud.

[Blarch]

23. Carter is a good man.

But....as an Atheist, I didn't like the way he brought the evangelicals into politics in mass.

[The_Casual_Observer]

28. It was the worse 4 years I can remember. Gas lines, double digit

inflation, wage & price freeze, Iran hostages, Olympic Boycott, "malaise". If you are waxing
nostalgic for those times, god help you.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

30. And the solution was to vote in Reagan and avoid all problems

Pretend that oil dependency wasn't a problem. Pretend that the good times were just a-rolling while the stuff Jimmy talked about - you know, finding actual solutions, were ignored. Yeah, that worked. At least for a while.

How much trickled down on you?

[The_Casual_Observer]

31. At least there was some relief for a while. You would have preferred

that shit go on forever, are you a masochist or something? That was a sour period, life is too short for shit like that.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

35. I see things broader I guess

It's like a bunion on your foot. You can get it fixed, which REALLY REALY hurts for a while, but then it's fixed. Or you can wear a bigger shoe, limp on it for YEARS, and finally have to get it fixed anyway.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

36. Oh no, I'm turning so HOKEY

bunions? I am an old fart.

[The_Casual_Observer]

37. Carter was on track to fix nothing.

He was driven out by a total boob. Nobody could take it anymore, so they voted in the biggest boob of all time just for some relief.

[ldf]

46. why don't you go back and read the history

of what was going on at the time.

and if you were there, you OBVIOUSLY weren't paying attention.

sure, carter was unable to accomplish anything, but it was because of the republicans AND the democrats AND the arabs.

opec
gas lines
hostages
a military rescue disaster because the service branches involved REFUSED to share with one another, to busy worrying about their own turf
republicans who hounded him from hour one
democrats who were too selfish to even try to cooperate
ronnie "there you go again" reagan, opeining the door to the hatefilled wing of the christian religion.

(i'll admit i wasn't comfortable with carter's relgion. but i REALLY missed the boat on supporting him. he was the best, most honest, and sincerest president we have had in modern times.)

the democrats biggest failing is that we are so damn nit pickey that we REFUSE to cooperate with one another. herding cats is a piece of cake compared to getting democrats to cooperate with one another.

and we are watching it happen right now, again. we will slash each other's throats rather than promote an air of cooperation. no insult is too vile to scream at our opponent, and their supporters.

if we lose this election it will be BECAUSE of us democrats.

on track to fix nothing???

relatively speaking, carter was a SAINT! and we just couldn't wait to piss on him.

edited to add, do you even REMEMBER that carter stopped campaigning for reelection because he was too busy working on the hostage crisis? do you think ANY republican would make that kind of sacrifice?

i thought not.

[The_Casual_Observer]

50. I lived it. The whole cha cha. I don't need to read some of your

history. Carter couldn't do shit. You don't know what you are talking about. You live in a dream world where, if it doesn't go your way it's somebody else's fault. Carter was in charge & didn't get jack done. It was a miserable 4 years, thank you.

[Hissyspit]

40. The past eight years didn't include the worst four years you can remember?

????

I was alive during the Carter administration. Things were not great, but in 1983 Reagan almost got the whole fucking planet blown up. Jeez.

[The_Casual_Observer]

42. Were you old enough to be working for a living?

The last 8 years were nothing compared to those days. Those days were shit.

[Myrina]

47. I don't think Carter was the cause of those problems ...

... economic cycles continue despite who's living at 1600 ...

... and the Iran hostages -- well that's a whole 'nother story in itself. Try doing a little research.

The one thing that bothered me about Carter was that he carried the whole 'outsider' yoke but was in fact a member of the Tri-Lateral Commission. Much more of an insider than voters at the time (and probably even still now) knew.

[Lochloosa]

51. Wage and Price controls started under Nixon.

And everyone forgets Ford's campaign slogan

"WIN" short for Whip Inflation Now.

I could go on....

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

53. That's right

and Nixon dropped the gold standard - which is what made our money actually worth something. Without gold to back it, our money is just a bad check.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

29. History shows what a good man and a great president Carter was

The scare tactics devised by Ronnie and his co-conspirators were then perfected by Bush and friends to win elections, and Carter was the first victim of those tactics. The American people have been the victims ever since.

[Blarch]

32. agreed.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

33. You're darned tootin' they were

Then we went on to Willie Horton - Dukakis in the tank - and then 8 solid years of Republicans investigating every carpet fiber to bring down Clinton.

We need to face something - fixing things that are BROKEN is going to hurt. Whoever is really brave enough to try to fix it is in for being blamed when we are feeling the hurt. Let's try to remember that and stop letting politicians just throw up another coat of varnish.

[mdmc]

38. Jimmy Carter was the best President in my lifetime

He was the anti-Raygun

[loyalsister]

39. I have thought about that election a lot lately

I was six years old. It is the only election in my memory in which none of the presidential races carried Clintons or Bushes.
I only want to offer that comment for reflection as opposed to argument. No accussations. I find it to be quite interesting and worthy of reflection... also wonder if a more qualified historian will someday analyze that fact in it's full context.

[VolcanoJen]

41. Nice.

:thumbsup:

It's not that it hasn't happened before... it's that it's happening again. After a war. After a hurricane. After swiftboating. After the Gonzales Justice Department. After waterboarding. After 9/11.

It feels... well, amazing.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

43. Thanks, and please forgive...

I had just read that the phenomonon surrounding Barack Obama has never happened before. It kind of stung, because I have lived it.

[VolcanoJen]

44. Well, remember our new, youthful voters.

The only Democratic President they remember is Bill Clinton. And that's a good thing, but still.

It's still shocking to me that 18 year olds who are now eligible to vote, and are turning out in record numbers and enthusiasm, were in SIXTH GRADE when the Iraq War started.

It's new to them, because this heinous administration is all they've known of leadership. But we should always remind them of our proud progressive history.

:hug:

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

54. Oh, I do

And I'm very jealous of the passion.

[Laelth]

48. k&r

Great story. I am both proud of and humbled by my state's native son, James Earl Carter, Jr.

I don't think that President Carter EVER lied to the American people.

I don't, either.

:patriot:

-Laelth

[surfermaw]

49. I remember also, had and inv.to his I. guess what I broke my leg

I was so proud that a southern boy made it to the White House, you see I was born and raised about 100 miles from Plaines, my dad had helped Carter get to the State L..and told me he was going places, my father would have been so happy to see him make the White House, however he haed passed away earlier.

But my pride in seeing a southern boy make the W.H., came from the fact that we hadn't put a man in the W. H. for many many years and actually thought we would never get one in the WH. I remember how upset Gerogia was when FDR changed his V.P. from Wallace of Georgia to Harry Truman, well some will say you had Lyndon Johnson but he was out of the West. So you see Obama supporters even though I am a Hillary person after Edwards left, I can understand your joy in thinking you are going to have your first black man in the W.H. and if you make it, I will vote for him and if Hill makes it you should vote for her, heck, we might wind up up with Obama , Hillar , Edwards and Richardson..and even Joe.

[Imalittleteapot]

52. Thanks for the reminder.

Jimmy Carter is one of the finest President's ever.