Jimmy Carter

Nor do I. He just wasn't the warm and fuzzy kind, either (as I understand it).

 

Because he was "churlish" behind the scenes (as though you were there)? Because many of his good works were publicized? (maybe in service of influencing others to get involved too ...)

Jesus. You're quite the piece of work. But I'll capitulate. Fuck hospice. Lock his ass up for being churlish and quietly having some degree of an ego.

 

Right, because 35 years out of the White House, in his 90s, he was doing it for the PR. Any public event a presidential candidate, POTUS, or ex-POTUS does is eminently fucking newsworthy. If he showed up at a Habitat build for an hour three times a year from 1981-83 and left after an hour or two, I'd indulge your cynicism.

So let's get this straight - Jimmy Carter is an asshole because he raised money for a non-profit that builds homes for the homeless, or because cameras showed up to cover an unarguably newsworthy event when he did?

 

I'm not sure how quiet that ego was, my man.

 

True. It would be hard to describe him as particularly "humble." Nobody who would think they should be president in the first place could be described as humble. But he didn't strike me as an egomaniac.

 

Sorry. We shouldn’t have put words in your mouth. We thought we were responding to market forces.

 

“Mister, you got a lot to learn about people.”

 

I really think you all need to read Kai Bird’s book. It’s neither hagiography or hit piece. He’s somewhere between where his fans and detractors place him.

He foretold many of the things that are now destroying our planet and our country, but he also refused to do any of the things needed to address them. Obama should’ve learned more from his failures than he did.

 

Heating oil costs too high? Put on a sweater. Carter was too honest for his own good.

One of the problems for whatever Carter's legacy might be is our own cynicism. We tend to view him now through the lens of simps and con artists who have occupied the office since.

 

Where Carter failed primarily was he neither liked nor was very good at the Party Leader role that is a most important part of the President's job. It's quite possible someone who combined the political geniuses of Lincoln and FDR wouldn't have been able to unite the Democratic party fractured from, oh, 1967 through his own election (the leading guys he beat were Scoop Jackson and Mo Udall, to illustrate some of the problem), but he really didn't even try. This blind spot hobbled his presidency from the start.