It was an interesting decade to grow up in.

People should be reminded of just what a real President can accomplish. He is a master negotiator, not some small-time con man like we have now. America deserves better, like we had.

What he accomplished at Camp David was remarkable for any president and he was as prepared as possible - and yet both Sadat and Begin decided to walk away during different times in the negotiations. It was only because Carter knew as much as possible about both men, had done his homework and went the extra mile, personally, that he was able to separately persuade each of them to stay.

Thanks for the thread Rhiannon.

of a comprehensive Mideast peace, which would have included the Palestinians.

Remember, this was before the construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.

Reagan, of course, scrapped the whole process, and twelve years later the situation on the ground was exponentially more intractable.

Just another what might have been--what we lost when a great president was replaced by a Hollywood lightweight.

By those who never read it. He got volumes of letters from those who had, many of them Jewish, supporting his efforts. His signature issue, always, was the advancement of human rights - and he believed the key to peace in the Middle East was securing peace for Israel. And this was his initial effort. If only he had four more years, there's no telling what he could have accomplished. He put his heart and soul into this effort - I have his memoir "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety," in which he goes into detail, and the story is fascinating.