From a peanut farmer to President of the United States. Jimmy Carter was a breed of cat that we don’t see a lot of in politics anymore, alas. He cast his first vote for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his last vote for Kamala Harris. President Carter died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, according to his son James E. Carter III, known as Chip. He was 100 and the oldest living U.S. president of all time. Washington Post:
“Stagflation,” connoting both low growth and high inflation, was a description that critics used to attack Mr. Carter’s economic policies. In the summer of 1979, Americans waited in long lines at service stations as gasoline supplies dwindled and prices soared after revolution in Iran disrupted the global oil supply.
Mr. Carter made energy his signature domestic policy initiative, and he had some success, but events outside his control intervened. In March 1979, a unit of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa., suffered a core meltdown. The accident was the worst ever for the U.S. nuclear-energy industry and a severe setback to hopes that nuclear power would provide a safe alternative to oil and other fossil fuels.
Mr. Carter’s fortunes were no better overseas. In November 1979, an Iranian mob seized control of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans as hostages. It was the beginning of a 444-day ordeal that played out daily on television and did not end until Jan. 20, 1981, the day Mr. Carter left office, when the hostages were released.
In the midst of the crisis, in April 1980, Mr. Carter authorized a rescue attempt that ended disastrously in the Iranian desert when two U.S. aircraft collided on the ground, killing eight American servicemen. Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, who had opposed the mission, resigned.
“I may have overemphasized the plight of the hostages when I was in my final year,” Mr. Carter said in a 2018 interview with The Washington Post in Plains. “But I was so obsessed with them personally, and with their families, that I wanted to do anything to get them home safely, which I did.”
A month after the Iranian hostage crisis erupted, an emboldened Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Mr. Carter ordered an embargo of grain sales to the Soviet Union, angering American farmers, and a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, a step that was unpopular with many Americans and was widely seen as weak and ineffectual.
Events got away from Carter and he’s not the first president that has happened to. Lyndon Johnson decided to not run for a second term for the very same reason, that the Vietnam War was so overpowering and overshadowing.
Condolences and commentary are pouring in from everywhere. Crickets from Trump so far. He’s probably out playing golf.
My hopes and prayers are that Joe Biden can arrange the proper commemoration for President Carter before Trump takes office. This was a thought that occurred to me last month, “Carter will probably die during Trump’s reign. Will he treat the man with the respect he is so deserving of or make it into a farce, ala John McCain?” Biden has three weeks and I’m sure he’ll have the complete cooperation of the Carter family.
At least we can do this much for our fallen comrade and leader. I’m sure Biden will take care of business properly and equally sure Trump would mock it up royally. He demonstrated that when Senator McCain died. If there is one tradition in the United States which is inviolate, it is that we honor our dead leaders, both presidents and statesmen and women of note, such as McCain. Trump, as you recall, had to be persuaded to lower the White House flag to half mast.
I’m grateful that Carter passed when he did. At least now America can observe his passing with honor.
A kind, caring President. Rest now, my Favorite President. RIP
The one who kept me out of war during his term. A man of integrity, honesty, and true concern for the less fortunate. No wonder this phucked up country decided on a lying, vacuous, criminal, religious hypocrite to replace him. One that would go about destroying the middle class that blossomed after WW2. What a country…full of chickens always voting to line up at the butchershop. Good job America. You never deserved him in the first place.