There is a lot of reminiscing going on these days. Not only of Reagan at 100 years but also of Jimmy Carter’s failure in Iran as it compares to his brother from another mother, Barack Obama.
Jimmy Carter’s weakness as a President is legendary. But many people think he is a good man. I do not. Let me do a little reminiscing of my own.
Back in 1988, as Reagan was leaving office, former President Jimmy Carter appeared on Larry King Live to talk of Reagan’s legacy. Imagine.
I was watching and became increasingly frustrated by his knocking of Reagan. It smacked of jealousy of Reagan’s success and bitterness over his own failures. So I decided to call into the show and to my surprise I got on the air to ask the former President a question.
My desire was to elicit from the former President some acknowledgment of the good accomplished by Reagan.
I said “Mr. President, you have been critical of President Reagan. Looking back on his eight years in office, what is his greatest achievement?”
Larry King nodded in approval “Great question! Mr. President?”
With a sour grin on his face like he just bit into a lemon while expecting a Georgia peach, Carter answered.
“He remained popular.”
That always struck me as the answer of a very small man unable to acknowledge the greatness of another man.
They say that great men stand on the shoulders of those who came before them. In Reagan’s case, he was standing in a hole.
February 6, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Great point. You are right. Reagan stood in a hole. But, what are your memories about the Gipper?
And Obama? For me, Obama is so similar to Carter, that I am afraid of being wrong and Obama be worse.
February 6, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Jimmy Carter had an ego the size of the state of Texas. I've read reports of his time in the White House, and he did not treat his subordinates well. It is often said of him that he was a nice man who was a failed president, but I submit that from what I can gather of his personality, he is also a failed human being.
February 6, 2011 at 7:43 pm
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. You were watching Larry King?
I actually voted for Carter in my first election when I was still the wild-eyed liberal. Jimmy Carter made me a conservative or at least made me seriously doubt liberalism. I didn't vote in the following election since I was not ready to vote for the hated Reagan – growing up in Portland, Ore that would have be heresy. Though I happily voted for Reagan in his second term as I had ditched those prejudices. My respect for Carter as a good but naive man has plummeted over the years and I agree that he is a small man.
February 6, 2011 at 8:54 pm
We elected the wrong Carter, Billy would have been much better.
February 6, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Jeff,
It was 1988! Larry King seemed relevant. I swear, I didn't know!
February 6, 2011 at 10:33 pm
Paul– had?
Of course, I don't remember Reagan– I was born in '83– but I know that at one point, he campaigned in or near Modoc county, and my grandma (a… difficult woman, but she'd walk through glass drenched in vinegar if anyone asked) helped with the food for the stop.
Well, he did his usual leaving-by-the-kitchen thing, and winked at my grandma. Utterly charmed her. The only other person I've EVER heard of charming her… well, she married him….
(on a side note, anyone else amused that the notably liberal Ron Jr. is getting all kinds of air time, more than his father?)
February 6, 2011 at 11:44 pm
A damn deep hole. It took nearly the first half of his first term to dig us out of it. How Carter, that mean, little grinning bumpkin got such an enormous ego is just beyond me.
February 7, 2011 at 3:37 am
Stay classy Jimmy!
February 7, 2011 at 6:45 am
Blackrep:
He's a peanut farmer who was elected to the highest office in the land. If that is not stroking to the ego, I don't know what is.
February 7, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Basically, he was the wrong person at the right time, much like the O. His election, like the O's, was due more to anger/frustration over his predecessor (or predecessor's party) and weak opponents than to his own merits (if he had any).
February 7, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Jimmy Carter was a nobody who was picked out of nowhere, and when he became POTUS, went nowhere.(Except back home to Plains, Thanks Be To God!)
February 8, 2011 at 8:21 pm
It was often said by those who knew him that Harry Truman could be small, petty man. Yet, as Sam Rayburn noted, "He got the big things right."
Carter was even smaller – a man actually shrunk by his office rather than magnified by it – and he most infamously did not get "the big things right." Unfortunately, Patrick's anecdote is of a piece with everything we know of Carter and his lack of grace in talking about his successor.
February 9, 2011 at 12:12 am
It was 1988! Larry King seemed relevant. I swear, I didn't know!
What a generation gap! My brother was born that year, and he and I lovingly refer to Larry King as the "crypt keeper".