Bush just said goodbye!

[Kryton]

I seem to remember both energy and inflation crises at the crux of the latter part of Nixon's administration and throughout Gerald "Whip Inflation Now" Ford's. While Carter was massively ineffectual in a lot of ways, the economic crisis of his day was NOT of his making. He admittedly made it no BETTER, but to saddle him with it entirely? Mallory, I KNOW you're better than that.

 

[Mallory]

Oh, I'm not tagging him with the whole thing. The point I'm making is that things got worse for four years instead of better. In addition to energy and inflation issues, unemployment and interest rates rocketed during his time in office.

All I'm really saying is that I and a lot of friends and family suffered far more personally during those four years than we did under virtually any other administration.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Jimmy Carter: Great man, bad President.

 

[Mallory]

^ That, I agree with completely.

 

[Noname Given]

Carter <snip> America's worst presidents.

What is the justification for Carter on that list? I can maybe see lowering his ranking a bit for lack of effectiveness, but it seems to me that if we had gone along with more of what he wanted us to do - energy independence and expanded nuclear power, especially, but also, more diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern countries and a little more distance from Israel - we'd be in a lot better shape than we are now.

Regardless of that, though, I think it would be hard to argue that he hasn't been one of the very best of the ex-Presidents. Possibly, he's even been more effective in that capactiy than he was as Prez.

I'm a Domocrat, and lived through the Jimmy Carter administration; and he's definitely the 3rd worst U.S. President in history:

Worst - George W. Bush 2001 - 2008 (Yes, he did 1 month in 2009)

Second Worst - Andrew Johnson 1865 - 1869 (He was actually a lot like George W. Bush if historical accounts are correct - listened to no one; was extremley stubborn, etc.)

 

[Dayton3]

Carter <snip> America's worst presidents.

What is the justification for Carter on that list? I can maybe see lowering his ranking a bit for lack of effectiveness, but it seems to me that if we had gone along with more of what he wanted us to do - energy independence and expanded nuclear power, especially, but also, more diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern countries and a little more distance from Israel - we'd be in a lot better shape than we are now.

Regardless of that, though, I think it would be hard to argue that he hasn't been one of the very best of the ex-Presidents. Possibly, he's even been more effective in that capactiy than he was as Prez.

Being a great ex president means nothing to performance as president.

And Carter did nothing for nuclear power. He allowed public distrust after Three Mile Island to grow for one thing.

Carters idea of energy independence was making synthetic fuel for 100 dollars a barrel when oil was at 35 dollars a barrel.

That isn't the road to energy independence. It is the road to national bankruptcy.

Something no one seems to understand. Alternative fuels have to be competitive with fossil fuels in order to ever become economically viable.

It has been nearly 30 years since the double digit inflation of the late 1970s, so virtually no one posting here remembers what it was like when prices were skyrocketing month after month.

IIRC, the inflation rate was a whopping 13% in 1979 alone. It reached 19% in one month.

For a modern industrialized nation, double digit inflation is simply a staggering blow because no amount of economic growth can make up for that.

Even if the U.S. had a 3% GNP growth in 1979 for example, 13% inflation mean that peoples standards of livings were in effect plummeting.

And Carters bungling in foreign policy was legendary. He signed the SALT II Treaty with the Soviet Union which was a joke by any standard.

He basically allowed U.S. friendly regimes in Nicaragua and Iran to be overthrown by saying publicly the U.S. didn't care who ran those countries.

During the Carter admin., half a dozen countries had communist regimes installed into power.

During the Reagan admin., communists didn't take control of a single govt. around the world and even lost ground.

 

[Dayton3]

Carter <snip> America's worst presidents.

What is the justification for Carter on that list? I can maybe see lowering his ranking a bit for lack of effectiveness, but it seems to me that if we had gone along with more of what he wanted us to do - energy independence and expanded nuclear power, especially, but also, more diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern countries and a little more distance from Israel - we'd be in a lot better shape than we are now.

Regardless of that, though, I think it would be hard to argue that he hasn't been one of the very best of the ex-Presidents. Possibly, he's even been more effective in that capactiy than he was as Prez.

I'm a Domocrat, and lived through the Jimmy Carter administration; and he's definitely the 3rd worst U.S. President in history:

Worst - George W. Bush 2001 - 2008 (Yes, he did 1 month in 2009)

Second Worst - Andrew Johnson 1865 - 1869 (He was actually a lot like George W. Bush if historical accounts are correct - listened to no one; was extremley stubborn, etc.)

I wouldn't even put Carter as the third worst ever.

And you know my feelings about President Bush.

And Andrew Johnson was a train wreck. But all he did was mess up reconstruction.

Pierce and Buchanan were the ones who basically laid the groundwork for the Civil War. The greatest tragedy in American history.

Pierce, Buchanan, and Nixon did the worst damage to the United States of any presidents.

Lyndon Johnson (in my opinion), Coolidge, and Andrew Johnson caused the next greatest damage.

By the way, LBJ was the president most responsible for the Vietnam War. Sure, Kennedy and to a far lesser extent Eisenhower began U.S. actions there, but it was LBJ who turned it from "U.S. advisors dying occasionally in Vietnam to 500,000 U.S. troops fighting in Vietnam with 12,000 a year getting killed"

On numbers of U.S. troops killed alone, I don't see how anyone who can claim President Bush was worse for the U.S. than LBJ.

 

[Thrall]

What is the justification for Carter on that list? I can maybe see lowering his ranking a bit for lack of effectiveness, but it seems to me that if we had gone along with more of what he wanted us to do - energy independence and expanded nuclear power, especially, but also, more diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern countries and a little more distance from Israel - we'd be in a lot better shape than we are now.

Regardless of that, though, I think it would be hard to argue that he hasn't been one of the very best of the ex-Presidents. Possibly, he's even been more effective in that capactiy than he was as Prez.

I'm a Domocrat, and lived through the Jimmy Carter administration; and he's definitely the 3rd worst U.S. President in history:

Worst - George W. Bush 2001 - 2008 (Yes, he did 1 month in 2009)

Second Worst - Andrew Johnson 1865 - 1869 (He was actually a lot like George W. Bush if historical accounts are correct - listened to no one; was extremley stubborn, etc.)

I wouldn't even put Carter as the third worst ever.

And you know my feelings about President Bush.

And Andrew Johnson was a train wreck. But all he did was mess up reconstruction.

Pierce and Buchanan were the ones who basically laid the groundwork for the Civil War. The greatest tragedy in American history.

Pierce, Buchanan, and Nixon did the worst damage to the United States of any presidents.

Lyndon Johnson (in my opinion), Coolidge, and Andrew Johnson caused the next greatest damage.

By the way, LBJ was the president most responsible for the Vietnam War. Sure, Kennedy and to a far lesser extent Eisenhower began U.S. actions there, but it was LBJ who turned it from "U.S. advisors dying occasionally in Vietnam to 500,000 U.S. troops fighting in Vietnam with 12,000 a year getting killed"

On numbers of U.S. troops killed alone, I don't see how anyone who can claim President Bush was worse for the U.S. than LBJ.

Nixon wasn't that bad in hindsight. Watergate is shoplifting compared to Iran-Contra, The Clinton Scandals, and The Bush screw ups. He got us out of Vietnam, created The EPA, and started engaging The Soviets in talks.

People are divided on Johnson. If you're a neo-conservative, you like is foreign policy and strong anti-communism. If you're a liberal, you love his domestic policy such as The Voting Rights Act and The Great Society. But, yeah Iraq is nothing compared to Vietnam. They started in similar manners, were run in similar manners, but Iraq eventually got better when they got Gates and Patraeus in charge.