I Couldn't Resist
Bill McGurn ·
Sep 21, 2010 at 7:02am
Normally I'm one to let bygones be bygones. Jimmy Carter, however, has a way of popping up to irritate me all over again. Anyone catch this quote to NBC News last night?
"I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents."
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Aug '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
I saw that (unfortunately) and immediately thought that it was probably true, but not in the way he thinks it is true. His role as a "former president" is superior to his role as other presidents, including his own tenure as president. If not superior, then at least preferable...
I hope the rest of the country still doesn't judge the rest of us Georgians by the measure of him...
Re: I Couldn't Resist
I think Carter is reacting from understandable excitement over his imminent promotion to second worst president in living memory.
May '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Uh oh. I feel a Carter/Obama smackdown comin' on in 2013. Or it could be like that old show "To Tell the Truth".
"I'm the most important ex pres."
"No, I am!"
"Will the real most important ex president please stand up?"
Aug '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Carter gives new depth and dimension to thel Old English word curmudgeon. He's a curmudgeon in high dudgeon.
I'll never forget how artfully he portrayed himself during his presidential campaign as the youthful, bright, and energetic outsider; just the man to clean house in Washington, as the unseemly and worrying Watergate legacy of Richard Nixon wound down. Once in office, like Obama, he stumbled daily with everything.
In 1976, President Ford threw away his election chances, giving Carter the presidency, when he blundered in a nationally televised debate. TIME Magazine called it, The Blooper Heard 'Round the World': Ford said, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford Administration."
A follow-up question gave Ford a chance to retreat, but Ford lowered his head and charged into a trap of his own making. By his reckoning, Yugoslavia, Rumania and even Poland were not under the Soviet thumb. "Each of these countries is independent, autonomous; it has its own territorial integrity." (TIME Magazine).
People began to think Ford was some sort of Manchurian Candidate. Vietnam had been lost, and he had pardoned Nixon for his involvement with the Watergate break-in.
May '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
You guys are harsh. As we have come to learn from other Democrat Presidents, definitions are important. In Clinton's case it was "is," with Obama it is "tax increase," with ex President Carter it is "superior."
Alternate Universe anyone?
Jul '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Ah, but Y'all misunderstand:
"I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other [note the missing "former"] presidents."
Noting not having passed any legislation as a former President, unlike Presidents, meaning more superior.
Re: I Couldn't Resist
This may be fuel to the fire, but here's what he told Matt Lauer this morning, when Lauer asked him whether he'd be remembered as a success or failure:
Re: I Couldn't Resist
It took a great deal of skill for Mr. Carter to become even more shameful as an ex-president than he was as a president. Is it my imagination, or have Republican ex-presidents been better about shutting up after their terms have ended?
Jun '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
No mistake!
Aug '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Perhaps with Nixon and with Carter, their post-presidency lives have been efforts to make up for Presidential mistakes. Nixon redeemed himself to some extent, Carter just makes himself look worse every chance he gets. He should have just stuck to woodworking.
Aug '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Duh !
Obama will be remembered as a betterer president than Jimmah.
Sep '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Agreed.
Republicans believe in the rule of law and of citizen legislators (with some notable exceptions) who serve temporarily. Democrats are much more susceptible to the cult of personality, mostly because they believe humans can control more than they actually do. They actually believe that one smart man can change things. Case in point,Obama,. And they believe one dumb/misguided man can ruin everything (hence the Bush vitriol).
This is just the result of their overall worldview which is fundamentally personality/emotionally driven and enamored of the central planning model. You just need the right person in charge you see....
Re: I Couldn't Resist
I look forward to the day where we refer to "former President Obama."
But I digress. I'd like to hear Bill Clinton's view on his Democratic predecessor. I was stationed in Asia when President Clinton looked over the DMZ into North Korea in 1993. At the time, he was taking a pretty hard line. Enter Jimmy Carter, who used his own diplomacy to arrange his own deal with NK that the Clinton Administration was pressured to embrace. Ultimately it took the form of the 1994 agreement under which NK got help with nuclear reactors, an agreement it subsequently broke.
So methinks that unfond memories of Mr. Carter may be very bipartisan.
Aug '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Franco
Agreed.
Republicans believe in the rule of law and of citizen legislators (with some notable exceptions) who serve temporarily. Democrats are much more susceptible to the cult of personality, mostly because they believe humans can control more than they actually do. They actually believe that one smart man can change things. Case in point,Obama,. And they believe one dumb/misguided man can ruin everything (hence the Bush vitriol).
This is just the result of their overall worldview which is fundamentally personality/emotionally driven and enamored of the central planning model. You just need the right person in charge you see.... · Sep 21 at 8:36am
Very well said, Franco.
May '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
I second that, Franco. It's an excellent explanation that I hadn't seen before but makes perfect sense. And it's a difference that the Republican Party might want to highlight during presidential campaigns as I think it's something that would resonate with the populace. "Vote Republican & Avoid the Relentless Yammering When the Term is Over" or something to that effect.
May '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
So long as he remains a former president, I can take anything Jimmy Carter can dish out.
Jun '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
First, Carter is a delusional busybody.
However, on a less ad hominem basis, let's goback into history and look at three ex-presidents. First, Ulysses S. Grant (probably not the greatest president, but a great general), wrote one of history's greatest military memoirs while dying of cancer, so that his widow would have something to live on (no pension back then). We'll still be reading Grant's memoir when Carter is as well-remembered as John Tyler. William Howard Taft, after his presidency, became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. And, last and best, Calvin Coolidge retired to private life and kept his mouth shut (something all ex-presidents should emulate).
Edited on Sep 21, 2010 at 11:39amMay '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Gag.
However, I will state that Carter is better than any ex-president regarding the theology of lusting in one's heart. Actually pretty Scripturally sound, though Hefner doesn't seem to have benefited from the counsel a whole lot.
Jun '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
I feel that I'm a better basketball player than Michael Jordan and better-looking than Pat Sajak, but "feeling" it doesn't make it so.
Aug '10
Re: I Couldn't Resist
Hey now, you're all being unfair. Carter is right: no President in living memory has wrought so much improvement on the country simply by turning into an ex-President.
In fact, right now we're exactly in kind of situation where we need to kick Jimmy Carter out of office again to get the country back on track.
Please, someone, hire the man to do something, so he can be fired and unleash another 20 years of prosperity!