I don’t agree with the notion that Carter was uniquely terrible. He instead inherited some terrible circumstances. He’s one of the best human beings to ever be president, a low bar admittedly, and a different one from “greatest president.”
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I totally agree. I think he’s a great guy but probably not the best leader and mostly he just had ridiculous circumstances. But really - if your instincts in that spot is to fire your entire cabinet and give a “great malaise” speech - you probably weren’t born to lead human beings.
Also he got attacked by a rabid swimming rabbit, while he was president. Which is one of my top 5 all time things - along with the drunk executive who took a crap on the first class airline cart and some other things I can’t recall right now.
This might be in the top 5, definitely in the top 10:
I met a guy hiking a few weeks ago who said he went to Plano East. I immediately asked about this. He was surprised I knew about it and I was like dude - your HS is famous.
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That is it? This “1998 backfired on Rs, zomg Trump is DARING you to impeach him” myth has been so strong that I assumed that Ds must have kicked ass in ‘98. Sample size of one w/ completely different facts and GWB won the big prize in 2000, so I was not too worried about it but have to admit this legendary ‘98 asskicking gave me some pause.
Thought I had checked the stats before but guess not, cuz I just did it now and wtf. In 1998, the Rs went from a dominant position of 55 R Senate seats versus 45 for Ds and 227 R House seats to 206 D House seats to 55 R Senate seats versus 45 for Ds and 223 R House seats to 211 D House seats
Seriously? Get the solid argument that Rs missed an opportunity to to run up the score based on historical patterns, but THAT is what is keeping us up at night? It’s what has been making us terrified to even attempt to remove this lunatic savage from the WH?
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Not just that, they chose Joe Fucking Lieberman for VP. I know VP pick doesn’t really matter, but Joe fucking Lieberman. Fuck that dude.
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Lloyd Bentsen GOAT VP candidate. Should have been the P candidate.
I was at the '88 convention. We completely bullshitted our way in and somehow got laminated staff badges - which unlike the lame non-laminated volunteer badges - got us into all the clubs in Buckhead at age 18. Good times.
Got to meet Bentsen’s hot daughters at a party. Many open bars, got into the convention a few times. So much debauchery. On the last day we spent like 1 hour making posters which was the grand total of our actual contribution. To be fair we were very hungover and still showed up. Gen-X FTMFW.
I’d like to think we contributed greatly to Dukakis and it’s his own damn fault he didn’t win.
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Not saying much, but Carter was a top-2 POTUS of my lifetime and I’m old. The “malaise” and “he wore a sweater” and “attacked by a rabbit” was the Obama wore a tan suit attack, but people were too dumb to understand what was going on at the time.
Carter inherited a truly shitty economy and we got through it without a depression because of Carter and Volcker (who Reagan later fired because he wouldn’t deregulate enough) having the courage to raise interest rates. The malaise was in lieu of depression.
The Camp David Accord was a huge accomplishment. It’s not like things have been good around Israel since then, but Israel has had peace with Egypt - it’s biggest adversary before that.
Giving back the Panama Canal was the right thing to do.
And we did ok at staying out of war during that period.
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Whatever Carter did it ushered in the biggest landslide since FDR against him. It can’t have made a good impression on the actual populace. That’s a big part of being president imo.
You can’t just be great but unleash disaster by being so unpopular.
Yeah, he could have cut taxes, lowered interest rates and done everything he could to put a disaster off at least until he ran for re-election. But he was the President we needed, even if we deserved a shithead B-movie actor.
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And TBF the whole country was in a fucking malaise in the late 70s/early 80s. NYC was a hellhole. The Hollywood sign was crumbling. The leading architecture was brutalism. Pro sports were played in multi-use non-descript round stadiums with astro-turf. Popular music was either Styx or Gloria Gaynor. Happy Days was jumping the shark. Interest rates were 18%. Kramer vs. Kramer and Ordinary People won best picture back to back.
It’s like we became the Soviet Bloc for 10 years or so and just gave up on joy and fun.
Since we are talking about him, I am a little embarrassed to admit that I voted for Carter only once. I voted for third party candidate John Anderson in 1980 partly because I had a tangential relationship with Anderson’s running mate (former governor of Wisconsin who I actually had a meeting with regarding higher education in Wisconsin years before). Mostly because Carter was ineffectual and Reagan was the Devil.
Oh man you’re old. I thought I was old, but I never voted for Carter because I was 12 in 1980.
Ok, I did vote for Carter in my 3rd or 4th grade room election in 1976. Ford won though.
I wrote myself in for at least one election, 1992 or 1996.
I voted Papa Bush in 6th grade social studies because I heard that Clinton lied too much, come at me libruhls
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I voted for Republicans once or twice. I think I voted for Ahnold, because he was a pretty decent governator. Million solar roofs. Opposed building walls on the border. Opposed the War in Iraq. And once I voted for an R for the State Assembly because the guy lives across the street from me and I like him and his family and he’s the kind of liberal Republican that can only exist in places like CA (pro-choice, marriage equality…).
you chose Ahnold over the political force that was Cruz Bustamante??
I was thrilled Reagan won in '80 and '84 because it made my teachers and my parents sad.
My mom used to be liberal, then she re-marred a conservative and become conservative. Weird how that works. She has no memory of ever being liberal. Boomers ftw.
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Ahnold would be the best president ever.
And Gray Davis was total scumbag POS.
I bet all of Joe Biden’s favorite movies have Ahnold in them. Seriously, is there a Schwarzenegger movie this guy wouldn’t like?
No. Phil Angelides. I don’t remember anything bad about Phil or good about Cruz in particular, but, although I didn’t especially love (or hate) Gray Davis, I thought the recall was BS. I don’t recall what I did, but it wasn’t vote for Arnold.
I don’t even remember really. My thought is that he was scummy as most politicians, but I don’t remember anything particularly bad.
I was working on something with Arnold in it the day he announced his run (it was done before he announced). There was exactly one positive thing in his platform, bringing movie production back to Hollywood. He didn’t do that at all. I can’t believe you voted for him, and there is no world I ever would have voted for him. He only got the second term because he did the whole VLF offset thing.