Was Jimmy Carter a good or bad president, or neither good nor bad?

[Julie4]

[nightdrot]

President Carter was, by far, the worst President of my lifetime - I was born in 1963. Suffice to say this explaining why he only served one term and was defeated by Mr. Reagan. The end of the Carter presidency marking the end of the "New Deal-Fair Deal-Great Society" era of American politics.

The record speaks for itself. Under Mr. Carter, the rate of inflation hit 14.5% in 1979 - the highest ever in the USA in peacetime. Then in 1980 - the year Mr. Carter was defeated - the rate of inflation hit 13.1%. The only time the USA experienced back-to-back years of double digit inflation in peacetime.

This then driving interest rates to record highs, with the prime rate - the rate banks charge to their best customers - hitting 21.5%. Thus driving mortgage interest rates as high as 34% in some areas of the country. Throw in that, at the time, the US tax code was not indexed to inflation and thus tax rates soared without producing any corresponding reduction in the budget deficit and thus the national debt.

Suffice to say, this would induce, in due course, the deepest recession of the post-Great Depression era. The rate of unemployment hitting 10.8% - higher than even the 10.1% of the recent so-called "Great Recession" - in 1982. (This last point, to be sure, was during the early Reagan years, but was a lagging effect of Mr. Carter's economic policies.)

In foreign policy, Mr. Carter purported to be an advocate of human rights and spoke of the nation's "inordinate fear of communism." Thus in due course the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This as Mr. Carter cut defense spending and signed the SALT II treaty - the only arms control treaty in the history that was so bad that it could not get through Congress. A Congress, be it noted, controlled by Mr. Carter's own Democratic party.

The net effect of this marked the end of the "New Deal-Fair Deal-Great Society" agenda. This had been the dominant perspective of American politics since President Franklin Roosevelt and was based on the presumption that through the manipulation of fiscal and monetary policy, policymakers could achieve predetermined economic outcomes.

The election of Mr. Reagan, note, NOT representing the end of the welfare state, but the recognition that policymakers had only a crude and limited control over the economic environment. Thus, until the election of the populist Mr. Trump, becoming the dominant ethos of American political and cultural life.

(Just to add, Mr. Reagan brought the rate of inflation from 13.1% to 1.1% by 1986. The rate of unemployment from its' peak of 10.8% to 5.4% - which at that time economists believed to be statistical full employment. Though in fact it would continue to fall later. The prime rate would fall from 21.5% to 4%. On the foreign policy front Mr. Reagan would sign - and get ratified - the first nuclear arms REDUCTION treaty in history and, of course, ultimately win the Cold War.)

Suffice to say, particularly contrasted with his successor, Mr. Carter was an abysmal President. (This also adding the utter collapse of national morale and self-confidence under Mr. Carter.) Whatever his personal virtues - and on the whole he seemed a moral and decent man - as a national leader, he was an utter failure.

Indeed, it has been said of the current President Biden that he is Mr. Carter absent the moral conviction. The main difference being that Mr. Biden, whatever his failures - and they are considerable - has presided over an era of American dominance. With no Cold War, the existential dangers facing the USA, though not non-existent, are not as immediate and as consequential as Mr. Carter's failures.

It is always risky to say that things could not get worse. However, in terms of political and policy failures, President Carter's term of office set the bar pretty high. As I say, speaking personally, he was and remains the worst President in my lifetime - again, I was born in 1963 just before President Kennedy's assassination.

[Hannajenky]

Reagan sucks donkey dick.

[nightdrot]

@Hannajenky Well, if you consider winning t he Cold War, bringing inflation down from 14.5% to 1.1%, bringing interest rates from 21.5% to 4.5% and the unemployment rate from 10.8% to 5.1%, just for starters, "sucking donkey dick," I submit that more than most would be willing to suck same.

Suffice to say, your analysis lacks rigor not to mention being crude.

[Hannajenky]

Your analysis is full of shit, quite frankly. I may be crude but at least my analysis is more accurate and honest

[nightdrot]

@Hannajenky No, my analysis is derived from over 30 years experience in Washington as well as a degree/double major in Communications and Political Science.

You cannot get away from using crude language let alone going much farther in making in-depth analysis. Be specific, what are your objections to Mr. Reagan - other than that you don't like him.

[abc3643]

Since pretty much everyone here has no memory of the Carter Administration such as the pink anonymous who is speaking out of her ass, it's what we'd say in legal circles is "hearsay".

Thus, it's up to me who well remembers the 1970s and the Carter Administration to tell you about it and to answer your question.

In short, President Carter was not a strong leader in terms of speeches and such. He was also a fantastically unlucky president. However, he actually was a decent president who made important sacrifices for us all and set an excellent example for us all - in particular, in his post-presidency.

==========

OK, this is the "Power Point version" of the Carter Administration...

In short, Carter was elected President in 1976 for several reasons:
1. The Energy Crisis. This began with the Arab Oil Embargo in the aftermath of the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. This would lead to high fuel prices and fuel shortages. Long gas lines in 1974 and rationing. THIS ISSUE IS STILL WITH US.
2. Stagflation
3. The distasteful ending of the Vietnam War which all saw on TV at the end of April 1975.
4. Ford and the GOP
- Nixon, the GOP president who resigned in disgrace in August 1974 because of Watergate.
- One month after the resignation, Ford, the former vice president (and unelected no less) pardoned Nixon. Ford was the only President never elected to either Vice President or President...
- Ford was ineffective with the economic crises ("energy crisis" but particularly "stagflation"). From Wikipedia:
Ford had taken office in August 1974 amidst one of the worst economic crises in US history, marked by high unemployment and inflation rising to 12.3% that year following the 1973 oil crisis (AKA the Energy Crisis).
But Ford also came across as indifferent about the struggles cities - in particular New York City - were having. Google "Ford to City: Drop Dead" and "Whip Inflation Now".

Overall, people were suffering and, other than the Bicentennial, morale in the US was not good. Many craved the optimism that we had in the 1960s with the space program and civil rights. Of course, some people resist change (such as the Equal Rights Amendment and bussing), so those were some of the confrontation of the day leading to a malaise.

Ironically, Carter was like Trump. Yes, that's true. He was the outsider. The difference between Carter and Trump is that Carter was a good man and he practiced his Southern Christian ethics. People may not have liked the Carter Administration, but no one thought badly of President Carter, the man.

So, in 1976, Carter was the Governor of Georgia. Yes, he was a Democrat, but he was not part of the Washington establishment aka "The Swamp" as Trump would say. Carter projected honesty and hope. In short, he was a fresh start from all the shit over the previous 8 years. So, he was elected. Ford was a decent man, don't get me wrong, and the 1976 election was not a landslide; for one reason, Carter was a Southerner and, at the time, that was a bit problematic since the Civil War and the recent struggles for civil rights among Blacks since Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. But, Carter was not a racist and that was evident, so he sort of represented "the New South".

OK, all of that is why Carter got elected...

Now, I'll discuss his administration.

Carter was focused on energy. This is because the Energy Crisis was perhaps the dominant issue (even more than inflation) since 1973. Carter, himself, had been in the US Navy and had considerable experience with nuclear reactors. One of the early things Carter did was create the Department of Energy and lots of money was poured into research on non-fossil fuel energy. Climate change was not the issue then; it was supply and this was actually a national security issue AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN EVER SINCE.

Of course, one method of generating electricity was with nuclear power, something Carter was very familiar with. So, what happens? The disaster at Three Mile Island in 1979. That was the beginning of the end for nuclear reactors in the US.

And Carter wasn't that effective with stagflation either. Ironically, he is the one who, indirectly, ended it. Carter selected Paul Volcker to be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Carter admitted that, by selecting Volcker, he'd lose the 1980 election. And that was the case because Volcker slaughtered inflation by raising the prime interest rate to a very high level. That adversely affected the economy initially, but it ended inflation. Carter was gone by the time Reagan took over who started with the bad economic times, but without inflation, didn't have that stigma attached to his presidency. Then, Reagan deficit-spent like a drunken Democratic sailor on defense and that was a cash injection into the economy to get it going again. That's why, comparatively, the 1980s were better than the 1970s and Reagan is hailed as a saint; Carter took the necessary step to kill inflation and Reagan reaped the benefits of it.

And, of course, Three Mile Island and long gas lines/rationing in 1979 didn't help either.

And neither did Carter's embarrassing brother Billy. (Google "Billy Beer").

Carter was also President when Iran was still governed by the Shah, Reza Pahlavi. Before the Iranian Revolution occurred in 1979 (which led to a theocracy there), Iran was a US ally. The Shah, who was ill, took refuge in the US. This didn't sit well with the new Iranian government and this led to the 444-day Iranian Hostage Crisis in which people in the American Embassy were taken hostage. Carter tried to mount a rescue, but the rescue attempt failed and that made things worse.

And, with America wasting time with the Iranians, the Soviets Carter was weak and did what they needed to do in Afghanistan in December 1979. That didn't turn out well for them, but that's another topic. So, Carter had the US boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Most allies did as well. This proved to be very unpopular.

Oh, and Carter signed a treaty with Panama surrendering US control of the Panama Canal. That was unpopular - especially with Conservatives.

However, one bright spot was the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt although that would lead to Egypt's Anwar Sadat being assassinated in 1981.

So, besides the bad luck, the Carter Administration not only didn't really solve the major problems of the day festering since Nixon's time, but it seemed that America was just getting more disrespected.

Thus, Reagan came along and also was a bit like Trump. In short, Reagan would take America back to the 1950s before the turmoil of the 1960s and malaise and disrespect in the 1970s... He never said that, of course, but a lot of Baby Boomer voters wanted a return to their happy childhood of the 1950s than dealing with the shitstorm of America in the 1970s.

Reagan wasn't so much of a genius - he benefited from Carter's bad luck and from the results of Carter's important decisions like appointing Paul Volcker. And, of course, Reagan spent like a Democrat. But, I must admit, that did precipitate the end of the Cold War. Carter, like most politicians before him, was more of a diplomat. Reagan exuded leadership and, because of his luck, he was easily re-elected in 1984.

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[abc3643]

One final example of that luck Reagan had because of Carter...

In 1980, President Carter was very focused on bringing the American hostages back from Iran. He ultimately negotiated a deal for their release. And they were released... BUT, the Iranians, as insult to injury, did this: On 20 JAN 1981 which was Reagan's Inauguration Day, the plane containing the American hostages was not allowed to leave Iran until the moment after Reagan was sworn in as President. In this way, the hostages were released during the Reagan Administration, not the Carter Administration. In fact, there's something of a conspiracy about this: that the GOP illegally negotiated with Iran to delay the release of the hostages until after the election and, likely, until Reagan became President. I don't know how true that is.

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[abc3643]

So, there you have it.

President Carter was actually a decent President, but not a strong leader. Ethically, he was iconically good and there is no debate about that. But he suffered from some bad luck and policies that, like with previous Presidents, were mildly effective at best concerning the domestic problems of stagflation, unemployment, and the Energy Crisis. However, many actions he took benefited America and even the world including ones that he knew would not pay off until long after his presidency such as appointing Paul Volcker and establishing the Department of Education and Department of Energy basically launching the green energy movement.

And, of course, Carter's post-presidency is the ultimate model to be followed which is why he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002:

The Nobel Peace Prize 2002 was awarded to Jimmy Carter "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development".

Yes, he was unpopular at the end of his administration because when people are suffering or "have had it up to here", they vote for change - any change. But, a lot of good came out of his administration.

[abc3643]

A lot of the older people here, myself included are going to say all sorts of things about President Carter. As much as we may "know" or remember, perhaps a better judge of him and his administration is a poll of presidential scholars.

There often are such polls, but perhaps the most prestigious one comes from Siena College Research Institute near Albany NY.

Since 1982, one year after a new President was inaugurated, Siena College has conducted a poll of many presidential scholars. The poll uses a survey form that asks these presidential scholars to evaluate the presidents in 20 different categories. These categories are weighted equally and then Siena computes the overall rank based on the feedback from those survey forms.

These are the 20 categories that appear on the survey form:

Background (Family, Education, Experience)
Party Leadership
Communication Ability (Speak, Write)
Relationship with Congress
Court Appointments
Handling of U. S. Economy
Luck
Ability to Compromise
Willing to take Risks
Executive Appointments
Overall Ability
Imagination
Domestic Accomplishments
Integrity
Executive Ability
Foreign Policy Accomplishments
Leadership Ability
Intelligence
Avoid Crucial Mistakes
Your Present Overall View

Since Biden is the current US president and was inaugurated in 2021, Siena College conducted its most recent Presidential Expert Poll in 2022, its 7th such poll. Siena received responses from 141 presidential scholars.

scri.siena.edu/.../

Note: There have been 46 presidents, but only 45 men who have been President. Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President; the only President elected in non-consecutive terms. Trump is trying to repeat that feat. The poll ranks the 45 men, not the 46 presidents, so Cleveland is judged collectively by his two distinct administrations.

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[abc3643]

In the 2022 poll, Carter overall ranked 24th, so he is just below the middle.

In Integrity, Carter is ranked 2nd just below Lincoln. By comparison, Trump is ranked last just below Nixon.

Below is an image of a spreadsheet I made based on the data given by Siena.



Some things to note:

1. In the upper chart, Carter is compared against the 6 highest-ranked and 6 lowest-ranked Presidents.

A) Of the 6 highest-ranked, Numbers 2 through 5 are on Mount Rushmore. The Number 1 president, FDR, authorized the creation of Mount Rushmore during The Great Depression.

B) Of the bottom 6 presidents, besides Trump, the two presidents before Lincoln (Pierce and Buchanan) and the one after Lincoln are included. Warren Harding was a corrupt bastard which is why his Integrity is 43rd, just above Nixon at 44th and Trump at 45th. The 6th lowest-ranked president is William Henry Harrison and you will see he was 45th in Luck because he got sick on Inauguration Day and died one month later. He's a good benchmark for bad presidents because Harrison is pretty low in large part because he didn't have a chance to do anything. So, that means the other 5 really were pretty bad. In defense of Trump, I think he got some low ratings in some of these categories, so I expect his ranking will improve slightly in coming polls.

2. The lower chart lists all the Presidents since World War II starting with Harry Truman, the 33rd President. Of those 14 presidents, 4 of them ranked worse than Carter: Nixon, Ford, George W. Bush, and lastly Trump. However, the 4 presidents before Nixon are all in the Top 10 overall; Obama is 11th overall.

[abc3643]

Since that G@G version of the image may be blurry, go to this URL to see what I uploaded.
(You need to remove the line feeds to get the whole URL.)

http
s://i. i
bb. co/TKFSv
4b/Siena-2022. p
ng

[DeeDeeDeVour]

The main reason why he wasn't re-elected is because he was significantly ineffective back then.

However, Mr. Carter is a very good man, in general.

After his Presidency, he helped out a lot of people.

[KatherineJ]

He was before my time. But he is a great humanitarian.

[Red_Arrow]

Most of the voices on here are from people who were basically kids when Carter took the helm. He took office after the Nixon crime era and the Ford pardoning of the bad guy. Neither Nixon nor Ford were good presidents. When Carter took office he inherited the problems created by Nixon and Ford. There were plenty of other things going on which also contributed to a bad situation for America. Carter appointed some people who accomplished things that many people did not like, yet it has been shown that they improved our financial situation in the long run.

Carter had a much higher appreciation for the military than those immediately before him and promoted a much needed raise for our military men and women, even though he was a man of peace.

Those who came immediately after him actually inherited an America that was finally set up to improve, so they won much of the praise for things Carter had put in place.

I have to say that I agree with pretty much all @abc3643 had to say. Carter would have been more appreciated if times were not so bad when he took over.

[Avicenna]

He was a bad President (and it's comical to see the usual leftist idiots making excuses for him).

I largely give him a pass for the economic problems during his presidency (the Fed and the energy shortages of the late 1970s were more at fault), but his foreign policy was beyond disastrous, and the hostage crisis falls squarely upon him because he didn't evacuate embassy personnel in Teheran despite being warned to leave only a skeleton crew there. 444 days of captivity, including a failed rescue attempt, resulted.

[exitseven]

Jimmy Carter was not a very good president. He was not as bad as people say. He was president during a time of a lot of conflict in the middle east which resulted in a gas shortage and double digit inflation. He also had a brother who was an embarrassment who did business with foreign countries. The difference between him and Hunter Biden was that he registered as a foreign agent.

At least he lived long enough to see an American president who was worse than he was. I wonder if he was happy to see the Biden administration create so much damage to America that he looks like master statesman in comparison.

[RavVid]

His presidency was overtaken by the fall of the Shah of Persia and the establishment of a theocracy in Iran. I think the US embassy was overwhelmed and there was a hamfisted attempt to rescue them which damaged American prestige further.

Most of what I know comes from a novel by Clavell. Great book.

It seems to me he was extremely unlucky to be president at a bad time and presided at the nadir of American prestige.

[KostasKouvalis]

Why are you asking? Did he die?

He was before my time, but from what I know about him, he was great with foreign affairs but shit with domestic policy and he did more for the third world then he did for his own country. But politics aside, he seems like a decent man and he at least didn't have any major scandals. But his domestic policies were shit

[RyanEC]

I can’t believe that guy is still Alive.

[KostasKouvalis]

@RyanEC I can't either honestly. Nor that his wife survived that long. I'm rooting for him to make it to 100, even though he's really sick.

[Anonymous]

Bad president, and his refusal to remain quite after leaving office with no intention of running again as not to inhibit his successor. Kind of illustrates he was not a very honorable man either.

He really just interested in his own goals, we can agree some of those goals were themselfs honorable and good. But that doesn't make it ok for him to undermine other people's efforts.

[Pudsmucker]

Jimmy Carter was rated one of the worst presents ever. The economy took a huge nosedive when Jimmy Carter was president. We had the Iran hostage hostage crisis is which Iran had came in and overtook the US embassy. Captured the US embassy staff and held them captive. Jimmy Carter was a nice president and friendly. President Carter had a lot of humanitarian aid packages.

Jimmy Carter yes is a better president than bumbling Joe.

[NamerOfStars]

His abysmal disregard for the 13th Amendment doesn't speak well of him- but then, no one who followed him having reversed it doesn't speak well of THEM, either.

Not that that excuses his actions.

[Jersey2]

He was and is a very, very good man.

He was considered a Technocrat though and he was not liked as President either then or now. He also gave the Panama Canal which made a lot pf people mad.

[Jersey2]

Gave the canal away*

[FunkyMonkee]

He WAS about the worst, although, we spent ALL of the `70's with the shittiest of presidents... until now.
Jimmy was way better than what we have, now!

[RyanEC]

As I understand he wasn’t well liked at the and blamed for the bad economy of the 1970s but I think most of that had to do with things outside his control in the economy.

[slatyb]

He was a fine President undone by circumstances out of his control.

[Andres77]

Clinton, 4th place worst

Carter, 3rd place worst.

obsma, 2nd place worst.

biden wins as the absolute worst.

[Staximus]

He is remembered as one of the weakest and worst, engaged in rampant cronyism but he was better than Biden haha

[Anonymous]

He was the worst president in history, until Biden magically won.

[NamerOfStars]

::Laughs in Fillmore::

[smahala1991]

Good man but a weak president, couldn't even stand up to the Ayatollah

[DryGermanGuy]

Which president got to stand up to the Ayatollah, though?

[Avicenna]

@DryGermanGuy: Your favorite one- Trump.

[msc545]

Good. The one Presidentt who was not a crook.

[Nikki1989]

Way before my time.

[Paris13]

Not like Regan. xxoo

[Anonymous]

A great human being but a bad president.

[Jennz6]

Carter is a Christian but he wasn’t liked

[NamerOfStars]

Every President we've ever had has been a Christian; that doesn't say much about the quality of their leadership.

[gorydetails]

He was a good person but a horrible president.

[Pterodon]

Good man but lousy president

[Anonymous]

Absolutely terrible. Epically terrible.

[ThrillSeeker01]

Good.