(VIDEO) President Jimmy Carter on the Daily Show

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/celebrity_interviews/index.jhtml

:patriot:

:)

What a contrast with what we are now cursed with.

Why do so many people, not DUers of course, believe Jimmy Carter was a failed president? I was too young at the time to understand politics. Was it simply because of the hostage situation in Iran?

He seems to me to be truly a remarkable man and humanitarian.

In the '70s steel mills and mines shut down all accross the Eastern and Northern Mississippi watershed. Those middle class blue collar jobs put many kids through college in the '60s.

I can't remember off the top of my head if the oil embargo happened on Jimmy's watch or on Gerry's.

-Hoot

so Nixon was in charge, and Ford inherited it. Carter embargoed US grain sales to the former USSR in 1979 in response to their actions in Afghanistan.

It was Eisenhower's decision to give the okay to replacing the democratically-elected Iranian government with the Shah's regime, back in 1953.

I suppose Jimmy could have refused to let the deposed Shah into the US for medical treatment ... but if the wretched man had dropped dead at that moment (instead of later), his oil industry buddies in the States would have blamed the Carter White House for it.

The hostage crisis is really what did him in.

I remember the press and the congress going after him from day one. We had an "energy" crisis (probably initiated by the oil companies.) He proposed and had adopted the last sensible energy policy the US has ever had. The big three auto and the oil companies fought him on this.

He did a lot of good, but the beltway was ever swiftboating him what ever he did, from ME peace talks to energy policy.

There was a speech Carter gave which came to be known as the "Malaise" speech. The theme was of how over-dependency on foreign oil / fossil fuels, was putting America in a hopeless position. He also (reportedly - I don't recall the speech) asked people to rip up their credit cards rather than get over their heads into debt.

This angered certain business interests, you might say, and conservatives took political advantage.

Anyway, if you hunt around for the text of the Malaise speech, you will see how far-sighted Carter was on this issue.

Carter also pissed off some of the more well-informed liberals with his policies towards certain Latin-American countries, specifically El Salvador.

Mt.St. Helens in Oregon erupted just before the election. I remember seeing an editorial cartoon, two old guys in front of the mountain, one saying to the other: "This would never have happened if Reagan was President!" People used him as a scapegoat, but a better world would have resulted if what he said, even at the time, was considered more carefully. I think a lot of people were basically trying to shoot the messenger when they voted for Reagan.

Oh, and Reagan cheated. (See "October Surprise".)

since his presidency.

He mentioned (almost in passing) that he thought the Democratic candidates had won in 2000 and 2004. That comment drew some laughter and some applause, but he wasn't just being cute. He has said it before, and he means it. Now, for those who are upset that the GAO report on election tampering has not gotten any play in the media, Carter's comment gives us an opening. We can flood The Daily Show with letters saying, "Last night on your show President Jimmy Carter said...and the GAO report seems to support his conclusion, but that report has gotten almost no play in the media. Do you have any plans to address the GAO report in the near future?" In other words, we should strike while the iron is hot.

but not in 2004.

He's smart and funny and kind-hearted. This was a great interview. Nominated.

when they created a false shortage by sitting their tankers offshore just before the election...

I remember his focus on human rights, which are totally in conflict with the right wing of this country, who thinks of NOTHING more than how much money they can stuff into their pockets, whatever the means - be it the war on communism, liberalism, islamo-fascism - whatever the 'ism' of the day is - in order to distact the American people while they steal from us...

Carter saw through their bullshit...and does to this day...