By Ross Balano, Midwest Voices Columnist 2008
Jimmy Carter is in the Middle East making nice with Hamas despite requests from the State Department and his own Democratic Party not to. He reminds me once again why he is considered by many as the worst president of the 20th century.
Let’s take a little trip down memory lane with Jimmy who was president from 1977 to 1981. Some memories from those years include:
1) Lines at the gas pump.
2) Interest rates approaching 17%.
3) Boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games.
4) General depression of the American People that was so bad Carter himself acknowledged it in his “malaise speech.”
5) Unemployment reaching 7.8% in August of 1980.
6) The Iranians took 52 American Diplomats hostage and held them for 444 days.
7) Under Carter, the American military had become so impotent that a rescue mission failed when helicopters crashed in the desert.
Citing human rights abuses, Carter withdrew American support for the Shah of Iran and in fact demanded that he step down.
Carter ordered the Pentagon to advise the Shah’s military not to oppose Ayatollah Khomeini who was returning from exile. Khomeini’s Islamic revolution was the result, and most of the top military people were executed as one of the first acts of the new government.
Carter’s refusal to send our military into Iran when they took the embassy and our people hostage was his worst mistake in my opinion. Had Carter acted then he would have stopped Khomeini and his radicals in their tracks. By not doing so Carter allowed militant Islam and terrorism to become the threat it is today.
Once again, now, Carter again seems to be siding with terrorists. By placing a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, Carter is paying homage to one of history’s worst terrorists.
I think we should buy Jimmy Carter a new pair of overalls and a new hammer and send him permanently back to Habitat for Humanity. Let him try to build houses instead of tear down America.
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We should all strive to be as moral as Jimmy Carter
Denise Tiller, Midwest Voices 2008
Jimmy Carter wasn't a great president because he wasn't a good manager and he was probably too moral.
I believe Mr. Carter sincerely tries to live his Christian faith. Instead of condemning people, he takes action to make this a better world. If more people around here acted out of compassion and understanding, we'd could solve poverty and abortion and we wouldn't have started an endless expensive war.
And we know who the worst president of the 21st century is.
Denise Tiller, Midwest Voices 2008
Utter claptrap.
Given the opportunity to examine what our policies are (and should be) towards Palestine and Israel, and to put the conflict in historical perspective, Balano instead uses his column to launch an attack on President Carter for his ongoing efforts to engage the various parties in the conflicts over there. He even conveniently omits the Camp David accords, to date one of the most significant steps towards achieving peace in the region -- and in which Carter was a prime mover.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords
Seriously, KC Star -- how low are your standards for these Midwest Voices columnists? This guy is a joke.
Eww Grimace you cut me to the core!
With your rapier like wit. "Jimma" is the way it is pronounced down there on the peanut farm don't you know? And no one, absolutely NO ONE needs any gimmick or help to poke fun at this total loser.
Sorry nimrod, I didn't know he was one of your heroes, but then I could have probalby guessed after reading your comment.
Elementary Recess
Rogue: Wow...nice play on names. I believe that I have heard my 6 year old nephew do this, except that it was to the effect of Smelly Ellie, or something very similar. Good tactic though, as adults debating political affiliation and views on platform, to make fun of someones name is genius!
Absolutley Perfect
http://townhall.com/funnies/2008/04/17/1
Don't forget folks "Jimma" got nukes for North Korea
What an absolute loser. The absolute worst President in the history of America. Only Osama Obamba has a chance to be worse.....
"...the worst president of the 20th century."
at least he doesn't have that to worry about anymore...or maybe he does since it's now the 21st Century??? we've now seen the worst in our 232 year history.
Why not open yourself up?
If you stand for being clue less where does that mean you sit? Since when did betraying your countries ally, "like the shah" become idealism? Since when did betraying a military pact we had with the Iranian people come from "a sense of general malaise" as opposed to Carter. No President is allowed to swear an oath to the constitution of the USA and then betray our agreements made to friends, because it's illegal, please read the constitution it is what carter was supposed to uphold. Since when did making agreements, publicly stating you support a person "like the shah" and then stabbing him in the back make you a decent human being??? Lets talk frankly, since millions of innocent human beings have been killed in cold blood as a result of Carters lack of respect for human rights, it does not take a genius to realize ROSS IS RIGHT.
I'll give you this Carter did very well at pretending to be for human rights , for poor peoples welfare, for womens rights, for democratic ideals.
Based solely on results, he undermined the Shah who had brought his people stability and security, as well as from 9% literacy to over 85% literacy, from $130 a year income to over $2800 in 1975, the 9th wealthiest economy in the world at the time and soon to be the 5th, creating a middle class, providing health care for all and moving towards a democratic system.
He Portrayed him as a dictator, a murderer and a crook which it is obvious he was not. (They had in their jails less than 3000 people) Carter then brought Khomeini as a man of peace, even though he had read his book written in 1972 and knew this guy was a cold blooded murderer and terrorist and wanted to destroy, the great satan, America as he says in his book. All this, even though most (around 70%) of the people in IRAN hate the idea of an islamic state and have lost their freedom in their own country. What a Democrat!! What a freedom lover!! Almost 30 years has gone by and Carter has yet to answer for his sick crimes against human rights and freedom.
And what did Carter deliver? An Islamic republic that stones women to death, around 100 women a year get killed and the same number of children, has taken away human rights previously there, has taken its people to being the 103 wealthiest people from the 9th (even though they are receiving 12 times as much money from oil than the shah's team received)/massive corruption. And when students or women come to fight the system they get killed or jailed.
I think that it was absolutely correct for the head of the US military represented in NATO, General Alexander Haig to have resigned in response to Carter going against his recommendation and sending officers under his command to Iran with orders to prevent the Iranian military from protecting the constitution of Iran. Got that? Carter directly interferred.
Do you Get that we would not be fighting in IRAQ and that 9/11 or the millons of innocent non combattants would not have been killed in Afganistan had JIMMY CARTER not betrayed the SHAH??? Remember that.
Carter is a low-life
That's former Democrat NYC mayor Ed Koch's opinion, not just mine ... the following is an excerpt from Ed Koch's April 15th article at the link below ... so if Ross has it wrong (he hasn't), so does Mr. Ed :-)
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/looking_back_at_life.html
Ford lost to Jimmy Carter. I came to know Carter well.
When he ran for reelection, he asked me to campaign for him in 1980 - I was by then Mayor of New York City -- and I said that I would vote for him, but not campaign for him because he was then engaging in hostile acts towards Israel. I was popular with the Jewish community and when I would not campaign for him unless he changed his position, he called me to his hotel in New York when attending a fundraiser and said, "You have done me more damage than any man in America." I felt proud then, and even more today, since we now know what a miserable president he was then and the miserable human being he is now as he prepares to meet with Hamas.
Mmmhmmm
Oh geez, Carter wasnt that great. Regan wasnt that bad. The selection of presidents gets worse with every election. Still too tightly controlled.