It’s Hard For Jimmy Carter To Be Humble
Jimmy Carter’s favorite former President?
Former President Jimmy Carter isn’t letting modesty stand in the way of his assessment of his post-presidential life.
“I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents,” Mr. Carter said in an interview with NBC News.
Carter released a statement afterwards saying that what he meant is that he had “superior opportunities to do good.” Yea, Jimmy, sure that’s what you meant.
In all honesty, I’ve got to agree that one of the two worst Presidents of my lifetime has a rather spotty record as a former President:
Carter actually started off his post-presidential era well, working with Habitat for Humanity to build homes for the poor. Unfortunately, he rapidly became one of the most destructive former presidents this country has ever had by interfering with American foreign policy long after the voters of this country explicitly told him they didn’t want him conducting it any more. His interference stopped Bill Clinton from dealing more decisively with North Korea, which gave Kim Jong-Il the time he needed to construct nuclear weapons. He has muddied up the Israeli-Palestinian peace process by cheering Hamas, a group that has earned its place on the US list of terrorist organizations. He’s given Republican and Democratic Presidents alike reason enough to pray that someone builds Carter a Habitat for Humanity home that locks from the outside.
As does much of America.
So, Jimmy, this one’s for you:
Wow. Hotair, the home of foreign policy experts as brilliant as Jay Tea, doesn’t like Jimmy Carter. Well, no wonder you’re convinced.
I’m not a Jimmy Carter fan, but if the best post-presidential criticisms of Carter that Hot Air could come up with are screwing up some mythical “decisive” solution to the the North Korean problem and somehow muddying up the Israeli-Palestinian dispute by “cheering” (whatever that means) Hamas, that seems like pretty weak tea.
Yeah, that’s hardly a fair summary of Carter’s post-presidential life. For one thing, the North Korea portion is heavily slanted — one can make the argument that Carter’s work postponed their nuclear program, and might have forestalled it if the agreement had been held up by the Bush administration.
I’d also like to see when he “cheered” Hamas’ terrorist activities. (Let’s not forget that he is responsible for the Camp David Accords, perhaps the only lasting positive contribution any president has made in that region.)
And there’s tons of stuff that just got left out.
But if you think Carter isn’t the greatest post-president, it is incumbent upon you to say who is better. Given that the last 4 (at least) Republican ex-presidents have done very little public service in their post-presidential years, I’d say his only contemporary competition is Clinton.
I actually had a good deal of respect for President Carter after he left office – until he decided the incumbents were doing it all wrong and he had some kind of moral duty to tell the world about it.
Oh, come on, you know that Carter meant in his role after office, although I do honestly believe that he fancied the people of America lost and selfish and undeserving of what we very well could have done for us if we were more enlightened.
I can only assume that you are in full agreement with that HotAir tripe that you post. Is that true? Is this the extent of your understanding? Or is this yet another example of your laziness, just mindlessly passing on some crap you found on the web?
Even if you leave aside all the controversial stands that Carter has taken, he has done enormously more good in the world than any other exPresident. And the controversial stuff is mostly for the good as well, from my perspective. The Malkinites might disagree, but what is their reputation?
Also notable: in the Related Posts section, there’s yet another Carter achievement that the scholars at HotAir (and Doug) seemed to forget.
Jimmy Carter Frees Hostage
But why make an honest appraisal of Carter when you can just take lazy cheap shots?
wr associates me with Hot Air? I’m flattered.
It’s debatable whether or not Carter was the worst president.
I don’t think it’s debatable whether or not he was the worst ex-president.
Two words: Logan Act.
J.
Sorry, Jay Tea — I mixed up Hot Air with Wizbang.
wr, I took it as a comparison, and as a compliment. Did you not mean it as such?
I don’t know. Has either site ever published anything true, interesting, or worthwhile? Without digging through the archives, I’d guess the answer is no for both… so you may take the comparison as a compliment if you choose.