To the GOP base, this is all you have to say:
"There's a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you’d be in a different situation," Richard Williamson, a top Romney foreign policy adviser, said in an interview. "For the first time since Jimmy Carter, we've had an American ambassador assassinated."Jimmy Carter! The most hated president in American history!
Except he's not. According to a CNN poll conducted in June, Carter is seen favorably by 54% of Americans, and unfavorably by only 30%. In an Angus Reid poll from 2011, 47% of Americans thought Carter was a good president and only 28% thought he was a bad president. (The numbers for George W. Bush were 30% and 55%, respectively.) Carter got a 52% approval rate from Gallup in 2010. In other polls, the public has been more ambivalent toward Carter -- but he's not hated.
And remember that actual vivid memories of 1979 and 1980 are pretty much limited to those of us who are over 50. I remember those days, and, yeah, it was jarring that the mighty America was being pushed around in the Middle East -- but now, after Iran-contra, two World Trade Center attacks, Lockerbie, the Cole, the African embassy bombings, and a decade of humiliation in Iraq and Afghanistan (and that's a partial list), Carter doesn't really stand out anymore.
But Team Romney will keep uttering his name as a curse word. There's going to be one foreign policy debate this fall; if you have "Drain your glass every time Mitt Romney says 'Jimmy Carter' with a sneer" in your debate drinking game, do yourself a favor and call a cab in advance, because you'll need one.
Carter gave it a half-hearted try but, as I recall, a helicopter crashed in the desert and the mission equipment didn't have enough redundancy.
ReplyDeleteA little too Bay of Pigs.
As I understand it, Obama was at pains to ensure the mission to kill Osama would not be stopped in that way.
Just a little more evidence that No Drama Obama is the smartest and most deliberate of presidents we've had in a long time.
Republicans, I'll see your Carter, and raise you a George W. Bush.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember us having a President in our history who was as big an economic AND foreign policy disaster as W.
Yes, Carter got caught in the post-Vietnam War economic downturn (a natural downturn after any war, since the war is, itself, a stimulus), which actually started under Nixon and Ford, and the rise of oil prices due to OPEC and Middle East problems.
And yes, the military attempt to free the hostages in Iran was tragic - BUT NO EPIC, LIKE AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ!!!
Or anywhere near as costly in blood and treasure.
Unlike Bush, Carter didn't directly get us involved in two incompetently planned and managed wars and occupations, or cause the near complete collapse of America's, and the world's, ecnomies. with tax cuts and deregulation.
Bush did.
'Nuff said!
Do I remember correctly?
ReplyDeleteDidn't Reagan illegally and secretly give the Ayatollah's weapons in exchange for the hostages?
Or am I confusing this with some other Reagan scandal?
Victor,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right.
I honestly think GW will be remembered as one of the worst, if not the unique worst, of the presidents.
Isn't that something?
In our lifetime.
Something to tell the grandchildren.
Yes, Carter definitely inherited a host of conflicting economic problems, including the various components stagflation and the beginning of the restructuring of the nation's industrial base.
ReplyDeleteFunny how people who love to mention Carter's solar panels never mention Jerry Ford's "WIN" buttons.
"Whip Inflation Now"
ReplyDeleteI don't recall how wearing a button was supposed to do that.