Who’s the worst Biden or Carter?

Question

nightdrot · Accepted Answer

Overall, I would have to agree with the large majority of the respondents to this poll that President Biden is "the worst." Certainly, the worst President in my lifetime - and I was born toward the tail end of the Kennedy Administration. Yet, ironically, based on the raw stats, President Carter - who until Mr. Biden I would have rated the worst - actually fares worse.

For example, the rate of inflation under President Biden has peaked, thus far, at 9.1%. Yet under President Carter, in 1979 inflation hit an eye bulging 14.5% - the highest to this day since statistics began to be kept, in the nation's history in peacetime. Worse still, in 1980 - the year Ronald Reagan is elected in a landslide - inflation hit 13.1%, the first time the USA experienced back-to-back years of double digit inflation in peacetime.

As with the Biden administration, the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates to tamp down demand and thus inflation. Yet, the prime rate hit about 10% under Mr. Biden. By contrast, under President Carter, the prime rate hit a record breaking 21.5%.

Further, in foreign policy, President Biden's record has been less than sterling, though the book is still to be written on that one. However, under Mr. Carter, he spoke of the nation's "inordinate fear of communism" - this at the height of the Cold War - the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to follow, with all that has entailed both then and since.

To which can be added the fall of the Shah of Iran - at that time arguably the USA's main ally in the Middle East outside of Israel. This then followed by the Iran hostage crisis and the disastrously failed rescue attempt.

Put it all together - and there is much more that could be added - and the Carter Administration put an exclamation point on what were arguably two of the worst decades of the post Civil War era in American history. The 1960s and 1970s.

Yet why then does President Biden deserve a lower rating? Quite frankly, he is governing in an era not unlike the 1960s and 70s. Cultural tumult, race riots, soaring crime rates, the decline of the USA's international position, engagement in prolonged and failed wars to no seeming purpose, a faltering and uneven economy. The parallels between the current era and the 60s' and 70s' are striking.

Yet, for all his failings as a national leader, Carter comes out ahead because - perhaps because of the Christian ethic to which he adhered - he did not compound the soci-political-economic tumult of his era with the vituperative politics of populism. He identified his opponents as merely mistaken and not, as President Biden has done, turned politics into the theater of vituperation and bitterness.

President Biden regularly attacks former President Trump - his once and likely future electoral opponent - and Mr. Trump's supporters, on a personal level. This makes for a politics that does not deal so much in competing ideas as in insults and calumny. This is, to say no more, not only adding to the bitterness of American politics - and American culture more generally - but making reconciliation and compromise that much harder to attain.

(Just to add, this is a symptom of the populist politics of the era. The irony is that, in the politics of personal vituperation, President Biden and former President Trump are almost identical twins. Indeed, their policies are far less different than meets the eye and are designed not so much to solve policy issues as to inflict punishment of the people that each side believes are its' opponents - be that "Maga Republicans" or the evil awful "elites.")

For all his many failings, even in the hotly fought 1980 presidential election, President Carter did not resort to mere vituperation and bitterness. To be sure, President Carter often came off as dour and sanctimonious, this allowing Mr. Reagan to triumph in part through his easy going nature and good humor. Yet at the end, President Carter steered clear of the merely personal and thus kept politics more or less civil.

Biden, by contrast, as noted, is little different from Mr. Trump. They have different targets for their vituperation, but in the end, both substitute envy and resentment for a positive policy agenda. Thus, Mr. Carter, for all his failings - and they were many - deserves to be rated more highly than Mr. Biden.

exitseven · Accepted Answer

Jimmy Carter was a victim of the times he served during. He had to deal with an oil embargo , double digit inflation and the Iran Hostage crisis. Things did not work out too well but President Carter had the best interest of the US.

Joe Biden is the most corrupt, divisive president in history. He is also the most incompetent. He had lurched from one disaster to the next, totally crashing the economy, embarrassing the US on the world stage and eroding the civil liberties of every American citizen. His cabinet is made up of all affirmative action rejects that are just as incompetent.

Biden had taken in millions of dollars from foreign countries like Ukraine and China. s a result the US has financed Ukraine's war with Russia and China bought most of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserves.

ManOnFire · Answer

Was tough to choose, but I had to go with Carter. It was under his administration that the credit score system really got booming. The issues with Iran were also during his term, which affected oil prices in the U. S. to the point where people had to get in gas lines. He also was the one who enforced the draft and if boys didn't sign up they could be denied federal aid for school, federal jobs, and in some states a driver's license. At that rate, the U. S. might as well have just required all young men to automatically enlist in the military like other nations do.

lightbulb27 · Answer

numerically, Biden.. whether it's dollars or lives, or whales. Carter was a funny peanut farmer, a good guy doing his best. He botched it... Reagan proved that by pulling hostages back so fast.

But it's not just him, it's his cabinet... and his voters. But realize when they smell their poo, it smells like spring flowers. They still can't figure out they caused their immigration crisis.. their words, not mine. Good luck trying to convince them of anything they've done wrong. When will Biden dysphoria show up in the psych manual of mental dysfunction?

What we need to do is "de program them". Oh... wait, that's soo offensive... oops that's what H. Clinton said about Trump MAGA people... and she was serious. But that's before the video of Jan 6 was released, maybe she's confused...

KostasKouvalis · Answer

I wasn't around for Carter, I heard Carter was pretty bad, but at least he was good with foreign policy and still had a functioning brain. And I don't see Biden negotiating for the release of any U. S. prisoners or hostages. I have to say, Biden is worst!

Avicenna · Answer

Both have been incompetent as President. Biden has also been a corrupt traitor and a political persecutor and totalitarian.

Lliam · Answer

There is no comparison. Biden is worst by far.

Anonymous · Answer

Biden. Carter didn't let millions of immigrants into America.

worldscolide · Answer

Not old enough to have known Carter. So I don't really know.

msc545 · Answer

Neither. Carter is a decent man who did his best. Biden is doing his best right now after inheriting a mess and being subjected to continuous attacks from the right.

AngryCarl · Answer

Carter wasn't senile, just incompetent.

milyjohn · Answer

Biden.

jaskin777 · Answer

Biden

Iron_Man · Answer

Biden now

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