Remember Jimmy Carter & the Killer Rabbit?

[Jackpine Radical]

[zorahopkins]

1. Sort Of

I sort of remember something like this.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. Here's the story:

http://www.rabbitworldview.com/jimmycarterandtheswamprabbit.php

Jimmy Carter & The Swamp Rabbit


On April 20, 1979 President Jimmy Carter was fishing from a canoe alone in a pond on his farm in Plains, Georgia. All was quiet and routine until a swamp rabbit came swimming towards him making hissing sounds with its teeth gnashing and nostrils flaring intent upon boarding the boat. Jimmy Carter took his canoe paddle and splashed water at the aggressive swamp rabbit which caused it to change directions and swim away. The President thought maybe the swamp rabbit was fleeing from a predator. A White House reporter who was at the scene snapped a picture of this encounter. When back in Washington DC Jimmy Carter told his staff the swamp rabbit story but they didn’t believed it, so a print of the photograph was ordered up to convince them.

Jimmy Carter and the Swamp Rabbit story would have died that Spring but in the Summer Jody Powell the Press Secretary told Associated Press reporter Brooks Jackson about it over tea. The “Washington Post” immediately ran the Jimmy Carter and the Swamp Rabbit story the next day on the front page with the title “President Attacked By Rabbit” complete with a cartoon of the movie poster “Jaws” but now titled “Paws”. Other newspapers followed suit and so did the three major TV News shows calling it the “Killer Rabbit”. Jody Powell tried to calm down the hysteria by naming it a swamp rabbit. The story lasted for over a week, and Jimmy Carter was questioned about it wherever he went. This was at a time when President Carter was having to deal with Iran’s Ayatollah and our 44 American held hostages, the Energy Crisis, and also a foe named the Soviet Union.

I was in my early 30’s when I heard about the Jimmy Carter and the Swamp Rabbit story, and I thought it was a hoax because I didn’t even know rabbits could swim, let alone be aggressive. I now know the swamp rabbit is a variety of cotton tail of the genus “S. aquaticus”. They are generally brown and weigh about six pounds. The swamp rabbit is a skilled swimmer able to cross large sections of water, and will even hide from predators by standing in shallow water with only its nose above the surface. On the ground it is capable of reaching speeds of 45 MPH in a zigzag pattern when being pursued.

President Carter never would release the photograph of the swamp rabbit while in office, but it is now available from the Jimmy Carter Library. A 8X10 color print costs under $30.00. So if you want to own a piece of American Rabbit History use your credit card, or make out a check to the National Archives Trust Fund. The contact information is:
Jimmy Carter Library & Museum
441 Freedom Parkway
Atlanta, Georgia 30307-1498
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

[virgogal]

2. Of course-----great fodder for the comedians.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Yes. And? n/t

[damntexdem]

5. Yeah, did Carter ever get his basket of candy and eggs?

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Everybody was posting "killer Easter bunny" threads. They brought this to mind.

Poor Jimmy--I don't think any President in the last century, except for his immediate (and unelected) predecessor had so much fun poked at him, and certainly none so less deservedly. He may have been the first to be taken down by the right-wing M$M/Corporate cabal.

[pundaint]

12. Taken down with the help of traitorous actions on the part of the next two presidents, as well.

Hey Iran, keep the hostages until after the elections and we'll give you a better deal.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. The original October Surprise.

October Surprise (Paperback)
~ Gary Sick

From Library Journal (via Amazon)
Piercing the shadowy netherworld of international espionage, Sick has written one of the most controversial and disturbing accounts of political intrigue to appear in recent years. In 1980, William Casey, then campaign manager of the Reagan-Bush ticket, without the knowledge or approval of the legitimate government, arranged a deal with the Iranian government that in return for military equipment, the Iranians would not release the 52 American hostages until Ronald Reagan was safely inaugurated. Sick offers no proof, nor does he try to, that George Bush took part in these talks, or that Reagan was aware of this international scam. What is critical and potentially devastating is that a party out of power subverted the democratic process for gain. Sick, with impeccable credentials as one of America's leading authorities on Iran, presents a thoroughly documented, convincing appraisal of what he describes as nothing less than a political coup.

[EFerrari]

4. I hope the president's security is beefed up this weekend.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. What a moo-ving picture.

[RavensChick]

7. I remember,

and even then I knew he was one and done! Let's all hope and pray history doesn't repeat itself.

[Octafish]

10. Carter made enemies right away. He said he was cutting the Defense budget.

He ended up jack rabbiting it up. Ironic, the same turds, including Mr. Establishment John McCloy, friend of Hitler and the Shah, now give credit to the warmonger Ronald Reagan for the build-up that broke the CCCP and won the Cold ar.

[Moondog]

11. Sure do. And this was right around the same time that Ted Kennedy

was challenging Carter for the Democratic nomination even though Carter was a sitting POTUS. And Carter was in so much trouble domestically that Kennedy was making a real fight of it. To such a degree that I remember seeing a political cartoon in the Washington Post of a pathetic looking Carter sitting in a boat, wielding a paddle like a club, and the rabbit, with a Teddy Kennedy face, smiling as he swam up at the boat. Funny stuff, for the day.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. Yes, I remember that cartoon too.

[eShirl]

15. That story was Carter's "Dean Scream."

media, comedians and Republicans would not let him live it down

If I had seen a swimming hissing rabbit coming at me, my first thought would have been "rabies."

[WolverineDG]

20. My dad said the same thing at the time

and he was a Republican & couldn't stand Jimmy Carter. Whenever anyone would make fun of Carter over the rabbit incident, he'd simply say he would do the same thing because obviously, the rabbit had rabies.

dg

[MajorChode]

16. Almost as good as "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"

[etherealtruth]

18. Nothing is as good :-)

[latebloomer]

17. here's Arlo Guthrie singing a Tom Paxton song about it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlO6OwSXbrE&feature=related

[KittyWampus]

19. My Dad & his best friend were fishing in the middle of a lake when a squirrel came swimming up,

hopped onto the bow of the boat and stayed there they whole time they fished. It jumped off when they got back to shore.

[depakid]

21. All too well

Demonstrates the power of ridicule in politics.

Also shows that administration officials need to be very careful about what they glibly disclose. Now more than ever.