THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 222, October 7, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
I NOMINATE JIMMY CARTER
By Alan Caruba
THE U.S. PRESIDENCY OF JAMES EARL CARTER: ANALYSIS & EVALUATION BY ALAN CARUBA -- JIMMY CARTER AS THE
WORST PRESIDENT THE AMERICAN VOTERS EVER ELECTED TO OFFICE -- CARTER BEFORE, DURING, & SINCE HIS SINGLE TERM AS
PRESIDENT -- CARTER AS A NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT
FULL STORY:
No, I do not intend to wait around for another list ranking the various Presidents of the United States for their intelligence, courage,
whatever. I already have my nomination for the dumbest, dopiest, most goofy President we ever elected to office. Ladies and
gentlemen, I give you Jimmy Carter!
For those old enough to remember this simpleton, he was elected after the debacle of President Richard M. Nixon’s famed
Watergate mess. There was such a mass revulsion against the criminality practiced by Nixon and the gang of nitwits around him
that, when Jimmy came along, the Democrats could not believe their luck.
He had been Governor of Georgia, but the Peach State didn’t need a rocket scientist to keep the wheels turning. Jimmy had been a
graduate of Annapolis, but had left the Navy to return to peanut farming. Consider that as a career choice! Anyway, Jimmy was a
bona fide Liberal, opening up government offices to blacks and women. Of course, when Bush43 appoints blacks and women to
office, he’s accused of doing it as a sop to these constituencies, not because, in the case of Dr. Condoleezza Rice, he’s giving the
job to one of the most qualified public servants in the modern era.
Jimmy gets heaps of credit for having negotiated a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. It involved Israel returning the Sinai to
Egypt. This was celebrated with the Islamist assassination of Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian President who signed the deal. These
days, the Egyptians are having conniptions over the likelihood of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza area pouring into Egypt.
It’s not like Egypt hasn’t had decades of problems with the Islamic Brotherhood from well before the pre-Arafat days. The prospect
of crazed, gun-toting Palestinians on their border does not evoke smiles in Cairo.
It was Jimmy Carter who also managed to give the Panama Canal back to the Panamanians. The U.S.A. built it and ran it, paying
Panama a handsome fee, but Jimmy just couldn’t wait to unload it. The Canal is critical to the national security of the United States,
but, these days, if you visit, you will find that Red China has purchased and maintains facilities at both ends of the Canal. As Bugs
Bunny is known to say, “What a maroon!”
Jimmy, though, is best known for his brilliant mismanagement of the Iranian takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, in 1979.
Months before the crazy ayatollahs took over Iran, Carter told the Shah that it was “an island of stability” because of the “love
which your people give to you”! Not long after, the Soviet Union decided to invade Afghanistan, thus leading to the rise of the
Taliban and, later, al-Qa'ida. Jimmy embargoed grain shipments and took our athletes out of the 1980 Olympics to be held in
Moscow. The problems he left behind were later cleaned up by George W. Bush, after 9-11.
People could not wait to get to the election booth to vote for Ronald Reagan; they liked Reagan so much, they reelected him. The
only people who liked Jimmy were unhappy Democrats.
At this point, most ex-Presidents have the good sense to fade from view. Gerald Ford has done such a terrific job of being a former
President, most people don’t even know that, at age 92, he is still alive. Former President George Herbert Walker Bush has done a
wonderful job of keeping out of the spotlight, unless called upon to raise money for flood victims. We shall never be rid of
ex-President Clinton unless he starts eating fatty foods again or the old ticker gives out while being serviced by some new intern.
But not Jimmy Carter! The old peanut farm is just not enough to keep Jimmy busy checking the harvest. He openly opposed the
first Gulf War to liberate Kuwait. He flew to North Korea in 1994 to try to “negotiate” a deal about nuclear weapons, all the time
praising Kim Il Sung.
He’s been gallivanting around the world, monitoring rigged foreign elections, and, as was his preference while in office, never
meeting a dictator he didn’t like. His distaste for Israel and preference for the Palestinians is pure anti-Semitism. He has never
ceased expounding the idiotic notions he held when he was in office from 1977 to 1981.
Jimmy had some advice regarding the cost of energy when he was in office. His answer was to turn down the thermostat and
dress up in heavy sweaters. Were you still cold? Well, tough luck, pal. Drill for some oil or natural gas to put some heat in the
radiators? No way!
That’s why, when Jimmy authored an opinion article that appeared in the Washington Post and was later syndicated to
other newspapers, he was absolutely appalled at the notion of actually drilling for the oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.
A word here to help you get a sense of ANWR. The area is 19 million acres in size -- about the size of South Carolina. Alaska
comprises 378 million acres. The coastal area of ANWR alone is well over a million acres. The total area involved in the extraction
of oil is 1.5 million acres. Of that area, only 2,000 acres would be needed for the oil wells, the pipelines, a couple of roads, and the
necessary structures for personnel. By comparison, Reagan National Airport is five times larger!
Is Jimmy Carter interested in accessing oil needed by Americans and available on American soil? No. What is he concerned
about? “A nursery for caribou, polar bears, walruses, and millions of shorebirds and waterfowl that migrate annually to the Lower
48.” Mind you, none of these creatures will be affected at all by drilling in an ANWR area that is less than one-twentieth the size
of Washington. DC. All those worried about the caribou, please form a line on the Left.
Jimmy Carter is an embarrassment. He didn’t have a clue when he was in the Oval Office and he still doesn’t. Like Clinton, he feels
compelled to advocate Liberal policies long since rejected by the voters.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government & the U.S. Presidency
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
© Alan Caruba 2005
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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