This morning, the nation is mourning the loss of one of the most genuinely decent men ever to sit in the Oval Office. Even for his critics, Jimmy Carter was a model of empathy and integrity as an American president. After his presidency, he proved an even greater role model, working tirelessly to help those without homes or hope. He gave us 100 years of a life committed to helping others and a lasting lesson on what it means to be truly a public servant.
Both President Joe Biden and Donald Trump offered moving tributes to Carter.
President Biden noted that Carter showed “what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose, a life of principle, faith and humility.”
He added “Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era with honesty and character. Faith and humility mattered, but I don’t believe it’s a bygone era,” Biden said. “We’d all do well to try to be more like Jimmy Carter.”
President Trump declared “The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Many were surprised when Biden took a jab at Trump after his comments.
The media immediately saw the testimonial comments as an opportunity to get a dig on Trump and Biden seemed eager to oblige them. When a reporter asked Biden after his formal remarks what President-elect Trump should take from Carter’s legacy, Biden replied:
“Decency, decency, decency. … Can you imagine Jimmy Carter walking by someone who needed something and just keep walking? Can you imagine Jimmy Carter referring to someone by the way they look or the way they talk?”
It was a jarring disconnect from the moment of unity by both presidents.
It was also a curious choice of presidents for Biden to make the comparison. There is another thing that Carter would not do: pardon a family member in an influence-peddling scandal.
Throughout his presidency, Carter was faced with allegations that Billy Carter took $200,000 from a Libyan dictator as a “loan” and only paid back $1000. There were also allegations of even more money derived from open influence peddling from foreign sources. Sound familiar?
Indeed, Biden defenders immediately tried to use Carter to deflect criticism from the President by falsely claiming that he pardoned Billy. Grant Stern, an editor for the advocacy group Occupy Democrats, wrote: “Jimmy Carter pardoned his brother Billy Carter who took over $200,000 from Libya as its foreign agent. George H.W. Bush pardoned his son Neil Bush for his role in the S&L scandals of the 1980s. Nobody thinks those pardons defined either presidency. Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden won’t either.”
Neither of those pardons “defined either presidency” because neither pardons existed.
(ABC The View co-host Ana Navarro even claimed various family pardons as including another president to defend the Hunter Biden pardon: “Woodrow Wilson pardoned his brother-in-law, Hunter deButts…But tell me again how Joe Biden ‘is setting precedent’?” Many immediately told her instead how Wilson did not have a brother-in-law named “Hunter deButts,” let alone pardon him).
In reality, despite lingering questions and investigations, Carter refused to pardon his brother. Instead, he told the American people the truth:
“I am deeply concerned that Billy has received funds from Libya and that he may be under obligation to Libya. These facts will govern my relationship with Billy as long as I am president. Billy has had no influence on U.S. policy or actions concerning Libya in the past, and he will have no influence in the future.”
Unlike Carter, President Biden lied repeatedly to the voters in denying that (1) Hunter had any dealings with the Chinese, (2) he ever met his son’s clients, (3) he knew of any of these dealings, and (4) he would ever pardon his son. He then pardoned Hunter for any and all crimes committed over the last decade, including potential crimes that many believe implicate the President himself in a multimillion dollar influence-peddling scheme.
Notably, in seeking a comparative dig at Trump, the reporters did not seek to ask about this point of comparison with Biden. We all knew that, no matter how one felt about Carter’s performance, there were some things that he would not do in office.
Perhaps that is why “Some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era with honesty and character.” They look at Biden himself and say “We’d all do well to try to be more like Jimmy Carter.”
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
With respect, that’s pure drivel … while I’d like every President to be purer than the driven snow, what I really want is a President that is going to wake up every morning and ask “How can I make life better for Americans”, not some nice doofuss who is so caught up in setting the White House’s tennis court schedule (yes, Jimmy Carter did that) he can’t avoid embarrassment after embarrassment.
Jonathan: There is a certain irony in the passing of Jimmy Carter. Pres. Biden has announced Jan. 9 to be a national day of morning for Carter and has ordered that flags at every government building across the country to be flown at half-staff for the next 30 days–through January 28th., just two days before a “convicted felon” and adjudicated “insurrectionist” becomes the President for the second time. If it were me I would order the flags to be flown at half-staff for the next 4 years!
And did you see that DJT is still celebrating his election victory. He just hosted a party for his big donors at Mar-as-Lago on Saturday night. The headline entertainment was furnished by Mike Love–who is still trying to make a buck off the “Beach Boys” legacy. Love is a big MAGA fan. Has been for a long time. He performed at a trophy-hunting event held by Don Jr. in 2020 in Reno and another MAGA even in Newport Beach. Love has been disowned by Brian Wilson and Al Jardine–the real creators of the “Beach Boy” sound. Talk about “bad vibrations”! DJT probably settled for Love because Ted Nugent was unavailable!
Finally, it’s too cold to go out in the snow. So it’s fun to sit here before the fireplace with my popcorn and favorite beverage and watch as the various factions of DJT’s MAGA movement tear each other apart. It’s a circular firing squad with the ultra-right white nationalist wing, led by Steve Bannon, firing salvos at Elon Musk and the Silicon Valley MAGA high tech pros on the other side who support the H1B visa program. And DJT was right in the middle of circle trying to dodge the arrows. After the first round DJT decided to side with Musk–the guy who brought him to the party.
So for those on this blog who bought DJT’s lies about bringing jobs back for ordinary American workers I’ve got a message for you. You were had! DJT will always side with the billionaire class that has, and will always run this country for their benefit! Musk thinks you are all a bunch of “contemptible fools”. Can’t argue with that. As for me, I will sit back in front of my warm fire—and just smile.
Jonathan: There is a certain irony in the passing of Jimmy Carter.
Dennis, why do you find irony in the death of the oldest living anti-Semitic and racist Democrat president?
As a presidential failure he is only slightly better than the current anti-Semitic racist mumbling and bumbling in the the White House. At his death, Carter was more sentient than Biden has been over the last four years.
Is it irony that he’s to be celebrated as a great president and decent human being by the execrable current president who helped save him from being the worst president ever?
The truth is that for racism and anti-Semitism, he is head and shoulders worse than Biden’s Democrat presidential record of those two evils. But you celebrate both of them for proudly weaving those evils into their Democrat presidencies!
Perhaps you would like to argue that neither was as incredibly racist and anti-Semitic as FDR? Or Warren Wilson, perhaps?
Neither wanted any of them filthy picanniny’s or Jew-boys allowed in the White House.
“The truth is that for racism and anti-Semitism, he is head and shoulders worse than Biden’s”
Carter IMO is a theological antisemite. It is hard to see him as anything else.
“Carter IMO is a theological antisemite. It is hard to see him as anything else.”
You could be right – but a theologian would be able to make their argument without basing their argument on nothing but flat out lies. I.e. Carters deliberate misinterpretation of UN resolution 242(?), claiming it meant Israel had to surrender all lands that were outside the 1967 war borders.
When it came to Israel and Jews, Carter was your basic Dixicrat hater.
Now, his racism towards black Americans MIGHT have been theologian (or pragmatic). You could make an argument for that.
Old Airborne Dog.
DM:
” … just two days before a “convicted felon” and adjudicated “insurrectionist” becomes the President for the second time.”
************************
Hey! Wrong and Wrong – as we’ve discussed here many times. That said, you’ve hit the Propaganda Daily Double.!!!! Ding, ding, ding, ding …
Dennis,
Perhaps as the wheels of justice roll forward with that white nationalist beach boy Kash Patel there will be ample opportunities for the flag to fly at half mast over the next four years. Treason still carries the death penalty doesn’t it? I recall the Dems under Obama trying to remove that pesky little thing under a failed bill, I think it was Clyburn.
@Professor Turley: This morning, the nation is mourning the loss of one of the most genuinely decent men ever to sit in the Oval Office.
Nobody should speak ill of those who just died to their audience. They also shouldn’t attempt to do a quick and dirty whitewash of your fellow Democrat, Jimmy Carter. In the balance, despite being a massive failure as president, as a man Jimmy Carter might be judged to be neutral if the good he did outweighing the evils he took part in and propagated. By his record he was both a racist and an obsessive anti-Semitic.
Whether Habitat For Humanity outweighs 45+ years of being a voice of anti-Semitism and defending and justifying worldwide Muslim terrorism will be decided in Carter’s favor by the God he worshiped in his Baptist church is an interesting question.
You weren’t even close to voting age during the Carter presidency and the stories about his life as a private citizen while governor and preparing to run for president. Perhaps that’s why you seem to be unaware of the record of racism as well as the record of anti-Semitism.
Those older than you will remember when the old New York Times took Carter to task when, as a deacon of his Baptist Church and running for president, he refused to allow his church to desegregate and admit black Americans. He had a lengthy record at that period of supporting the racist Governor Wallace and his racist policies.
Carter the politician was a complex figure that alternately pandered to the Klan and then to the black votes he needed throughout the USA to win elections.
Carter’s Church Upholds Its Policy by Refusing to Admit Four Blacks
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/01/archives/carters-church-upholds-its-policy-by-refusing-to-admit-four-blacks.html
Democrats back then were good with that Dixicrate racism – the eastern half of the USA voted him into the presidency.
And as numerous people here have pointed out already, from his first day in the White House to the day of his death, Jimmy Carter was a virulent anti-Semitic who never met a genocidal Arab terrorist or Mullah he didn’t want to help destroy Israel and the Jewish people.
I suppose one could say that, with his history of racism and obsessive anti-Semitism, Jimmy Carter’s biggest failure was running for president before his time. He would have been the perfect Democrat candidate for the last election. Looking at the racism and anti-Semitism that predominates in the Democrat party today, thata President Carter who lost to Reagan could easily get elected if he had been healthy enough to be running for reelection in this year’s election.
Carter’s last conscious thoughts were quit possibly along two trains of thought:
1. He no longer had to worry about even being the second worst president in history: Joe Biden ensured that he and Obama would fight over who got top two spots leaving third place to Carter.
2. He was going to be able to avoid having to attend the inauguration of President Trump in three weeks, despite all the vitriol that he had hurled at his former fellow president.
Old Airborne Dog
“Nobody should speak ill of those who just died to their audience. They also shouldn’t attempt to do a quick and dirty whitewash…”
Bull$h1t, hor$e$h1t, and more$h1t. One should feel at liberty to speak the unvarnished truth always, particularly of public figures. Anything else is nothing but a base lie, and the speaker a vile liar.
@Dennis McIntyre: Jonathan: Compared to the Kushner pardon, Hunter’s crimes are small potatoes.
Compared? If Dennis McIntyre wasn’t a body of lies, he’d have all the presence of one of Gigi’s discarded used condoms. Now that he’s ‘Spoken His Truths’, here are the facts:
1. Hunter Biden was blanket pardoned BEFORE even being sentenced on ANY of his crimes while his daddy was president – never mind never serving a second of any sentence he would have gotten from that (very pissed off) judge.
2. Kushner was pardoned a decade AFTER SERVING HIS SENTENCE FOR ALL HIS CRIMES while Obama was president, not just the tax evasion.
3. The DoJ says Kushner defrauded the IRS of between $200,000 and $325,000.
4. The DoJ says Hunter Biden defrauded the IRS of $1.6 MILLION. And THAT DOESN’T INCLUDE THE MOST SERIOUS tax fraud charges he avoided by Biden ordering his DoJ to allow to expire.
Oh yeah – Kushner’s crimes were far worse than the junior partner in Biden White House Crime LLC who was pardoned by the senior partner, his father! Dennis has proven that!
Robert Hunter Biden Convicted on Three Felony Tax Offenses and Six Misdemeanor Tax Offenses
https://www.justice.gov/sco-weiss/pr/robert-hunter-biden-convicted-three-felony-tax-offenses-and-six-misdemeanor-tax-offenses
Hunter Biden engaged in a four-year scheme in which he chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019 and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns. As alleged in the indictment, to further this scheme, Hunter Biden:
– subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company by withdrawing millions outside of the payroll and tax withholding process;
– spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills;
– in 2018, stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015;
– willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes;
– willfully failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns, on time; and
– when he did finally file his 2018 returns, included false business deductions in order to reduce the very substantial tax liability he faced as of February 2020.
At sentencing, Hunter Biden faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison.
And this is why Dennis McIntyre appears just long enough to post his litany of lies and then swiftly runs away to cower in hiding until he sneaks in to drop his next load of Bull Schiff.
Old Airborne Dog
Nothing like dying after living so long that your defects are forgotten. Remember “malaise”? That’s judgmental Jimmy Carter. The man who called himself a nuclear physicist? With no degree in physics? Egotistical? So anti-Israel that it’s hard not to suspect that a genteel – or not so genteel – antisemitism lurked behind his Sunday School teacher facade. What did he teach those children?
Assessing Jimmy Carter’s legacy is complex. On the one hand he had a real interest in making the Federal government more efficient. He drove airline deregulation which gave us low ticket prices and international flights to/from many US airports. We, that is those of us who enjoy drinking craft beers, should toast Mr. Carter’s deregulation effort for the proliferation of micro-brews. He followed his conscience, perhaps against national interests, by accommodating the ousted Iranian Shah’s medical needs. And unlike Joe Biden, he daily acknowledged the fact that Americans were held hostage and attempted to rescue them albeit unsuccessfully. He personally staked his presidential reputation and time to work very hard to achieve a, so far, durable peace between Israel and Egypt.
On the other hand his “malaise” speech showed that he was unwilling to accept blame for the country’s economic situation as well as for many other of his administration’s failures some of which are pointed out in other commentary of these pages. Furthermore, his stubbornness and self-righteousness sometimes got the better of his decency. In his post presidency he crossed the decency and integrity line by writing to a number of Security Council members in an ultimately failed attempt to build up opposition to the George H. W. Bush’s administration’s multi-national coalition and plan to evict Saddam Hussein’s army after his brutal invasion of Kuwait. He also violated an understanding with the Clinton administration that during his trip to North Korea, he would not engage in any negotiation on behalf of America. Both Bush and Clinton did not trust him afterwards. Finally Carter, free from diplomatic constraints, wrote a poorly researched book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” where he has severely misled readers with half truths where normal people would assume that he wrote with authority.
Yes, he was a gentle man of faith and good person but his other legacy is that he was presented to America as sort of a biden-everyman’s friend as a means of defeating Gerald Ford but he was not anymore suited to the job of commander in chief as was biden, harris, dukakis, humphrey et al. The dems shove anyone they think can get votes with no regard to the end results should such hapless men actually get the job. I like Jimmy Carter as a good Christian but as a president – his disaster was the result of democrat shenanigans for their own power and, once again, they failed the American people at a significant price and who is left to pay for these errors or be held responsible for these awful times in our history?
whimsicalmama says Yes, he was a gentle man of faith and good person
40+ years of vicious anti-Semitism and support for genocidal Arab terrorists murdering Israelis (and Americans), presented in his persona as a former American president does not fit that description.
If he had been a little more mobile the last year or so, he could easily have been the leader of the Democrats’ New Hitler Youth wing that arose after the Oct. 7th butchery – accusing Israel of apartheid, even after Israel forcibly removed every single Israeli from Gaza and turned the land and everything they had built there over to the Gaza Arabs (i.e. “the Palestinians”).
Carter wrote a really cool book claiming Israel was guilty of apartheid in Gaza. He wrote the book AFTER Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Apartheid in Gaza – despite the only race present in Gaza were Muslim Arabs. Weird apartheid that Carter claimed to his dying day.
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
https://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Peace-Apartheid-Jimmy-Carter/dp/0743285026
Jimmy Carter: Israel’s Apartheid Policies Worse Than South Africa’s
https://www.haaretz.com/2006-12-11/ty-article/jimmy-carter-israels-apartheid-policies-worse-than-south-africas/0000017f-db7c-d3a5-af7f-fbfea0530000
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said in remarks broadcast Monday that Israeli policy represented instances of apartheid worse even that those that once held sway in South Africa.
To my view, between his racism that included being the deacon of his church that refused to allow black members and his decades of anti-Semitism, Jimmy Carter was about as good a Christian Baptist as his soul mate Joe Biden lives his life as a devout Catholic.
Old Airborne Dog
Item 4) in the list of Biden’s failures has a bad typo. ‘ever’ should be ‘never’. !!
I just did an out-of-body trip to January 9, 2025 to Biden’s eulogy for Jimmy Carter. OMG!!! Here it is, before Biden was led off-stage by Jill:
We come here today, to come here to do the, you know the thing, uh uh Jimmy Carter he was a President back when I was in Scranton, and Navy Navy like my son Beau who died on PT 109 when Kennedy ran off the bridge and killed my wife. But on the good side, no American got eaten by cannibals while I was President! Jimmy Carter was all about peanuts and Charlie Brown, and him and Charlie built a whole lot of houses for poor drag addicts, I mean drug queens, oh you know what I mean. I can sum President Carter up in one word – asufutimaehaehfutbw! Now, I would like to ask President Carter to come up here and say a few words – President Carter! President Carter? Are you here today???
As to Carter’s decency, a dissenting voice:
https://allisrael.com/blog/jimmy-carter-made-the-world-un-safe-from-terrorism
An excerpt: Carter wrote, “It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the ‘Roadmap’ for peace are accepted by Israel.” Essentially, as long as Israel doesn’t do what Carter thinks it should do, terrorism against Israel will continue and is legitimate.”
If true, then Carter said that it’s acceptable to murder innocent Jews until Israel complies with international demands. My own observation is that those demands often amount to requiring Israel to commit national suicide (such as return to the pre-1967 borders).
Jimmy Carter’s special trade representative, Robert Strauss, declined to collect the anti-dumping penalties the US consumer electronics industry had fought for a decade to collect. (The cartel sold color TVs at a high price in Japan so they could sell them at a low price here.) Strauss signed a sweetheart deal that basically put the US TV industry out of business. Jimmy Carter: great former president, less than mediocre actual president.
Jonathan: Your right. Presidents Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush did not pardon any of their family members. Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother and DJT, at the very end of his first term, pardoned Ivanka’s father-in-law Charles Kushner. And now Biden has pardoned Hunter.
Compared to the Kushner pardon, Hunter’s crimes are small potatoes. Kushner was pardoned by DJT, at the urging of Jared Kushner, after serving 2 years for tax evasion, retaliating against a federal witness and unlawful campaign donations. Kushner engaged in witness tampering. He went so far as to use a prostitute to try to blackmail his brother-in-law–to try to keep him from testifying against Kushner. The tax evasion involved Kushner assisting in the filing of false tax returns claiming over $1 million in partnership charitable contributions as “office expenses”.
Did Hunter engage in the kind of activity charged against Charles Kushner? Nope. Hunter lied on a gun permit application and failed to pay taxes –and all at a time when Hunter was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol. And Hunter only possessed the gun for a short period of time and never used it to commit any crime. Hunter later paid all his back taxes. The feds don’t normally prosecute these crimes. They are usually settled by probation, drug rehab and community service. Had Hunter not had “Biden” as his last name he never would have been prosecuted. If Kushner deserved a pardon why not Hunter?
What you don’t mention is that DJT says on “day one” he will start pardoning many of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Some of these committed serious crimes and have been convicted or entered guilty pleas and are currently serving prison sentences. But DJT falsely claims his supporters who stormed the Capitol are “patriots” and “political prisoners” and should be set free. As you probably suspect I disagree. And it’s not just me.
In fact, many of the DC judges who presided over the trials of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists have publicly sounded the alarm over DJT’s proposed pardons. It’s unusual for judges to speak out this way. Judge Royce Lamberth has said: “On January 6, 2021 an angry mob of rioters invaded and occupied the United States Capitol, intending to interrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential results. No matter what ultimately becomes of the Capitol Riot cases already concluded or still pending, the true story of what happened on Jan. 6,2012 will never change”. DC Judge Tanya Chutkan endorsed Lamberth’s views: “This is the United States Capitol–the people’s house. They treated it like a motel room after a concert…Engaging in an act of destruction and violence in order to halt the peaceful transfer of power has to be met by consequences”.
DJT will ignore the warnings of DC Judges. He will pardon his supporters who he falsely claims are “patriots” and “political prisoners”. If you call Joe Biden’s pardon of his son a “disgrace” what about the pardons of those who committed grave crimes against our Democracy? Will you condemn those DJT pardons as well? We’re anxious to know!
Dennis,
Kamala lost, the Democrats policies lost with her. Donald J. Trump is soon to be President Trump, again! Biden’s are corrupt beyond anything ever dragged out of the closet. This is evident to anyone with even an inkling of cognitive critical thinking ability. I want you and your alter identity GiGi to think in anguish about President Trump’s landslide victory every single day for the next four years as he obliterates your WOKE DEI anti-American ideologies. Enjoy!
Dennis: I had a good Christmas this year! My favorite gift was a pair of Hey Dude shoes. My other “real” pair, kind of wore out last year. I have a pair of lace up boots, but I can not use them for everyday use. Another good gift was a bag containing four cans of sardines, a box of big kitchen matches (for my pipe), peppermints, pipe tobacco, and a bottle of Jim Beam Honey Whiskey. The cats are all doing fine, and I think I have discovered the Papa Cat for many of the stray cats in the neighborhood, including several of my own. He is a great big huge yellow and white tom cat, that I have named Big Boy. His head is twice the size of any of my cats. I had a lot of leftovers from Christmas food, so I froze a bunch of it Saturday. I have 3 servings of turkey and dressing, and one of dirty rice. I plan on adding a handful of the rice to each pot of soup or stew that I fix.
Bazinga 🙂
When future Senator Ralph Warnock illegally protested in the Capitol Rotunda, he was detained a few hours, fined $50, and let go. Are there no Republican Capitol protesters whose offenses match Warnock’s?
President Carter set the ball rolling to convert our weights and measures to metric, as all the European nations and UK were doing at the time. It makes economic sense as a superpower and exporter to be compatible with the rest of the world. This move by Carter should have been completed, to the effect of adding $trillions to U.S. GDP and export income.
But just a few days into office, President Reagan closed down the metric conversion effort. I had a chance to email Don Regan, chief of staff to Reagan years afterward with “Why did Reagan kill off metric conversion?” He answered back “I haven’t a clue”.
Could it possibly be that America established its very owns means of measure to be individually unique and independent? Doing so as a measure to ensure our Nation was born free escaping the monarchists tyranny and taxation. The new Nation was free and clearly differentiated from the European empire’s of Kings and Queens. Why would we ever wish to fall back into a globalist ruled world!
@Traveller: Doing so as a measure to ensure our Nation was born free escaping the monarchists tyranny and taxation.
Holding to that populist fiction results in not learning the lesson we should have. No tax was imposed on the Colonists by the monarch. No monarch give the orders for Englishmen to wage war on their fellow countrymen in the Colonies.
Every one of those taxes, regulations, tariffs, and orders to wage war were passed by a freely elected Parliament whose members were the Colonists fellow Englishmen. Voted into power by the Colonists fellow Englishmen. The monarch serves no roll other than the ceremonial Head of State, representative to other governments and signing into law what the parliament passes by majority vote and puts before them for signing.
The English monarch has been nothing other than the ceremonial head of state for the country since the UK parliament put the original King Edward under the headsman’s axe in the public square for daring to attempt to usurp the power of the elected parliament. No English monarch has interfered in the elected parliament governing a Commonwealth country since then, about 350 years ago.
So we bloviate about Evil King George… badly missing the point of history: a freely elected government of your fellow countrymen, elected by majority vote by your countrymen, can oppress you as much or more than any monarch that you thought did that.
Ask Donald Trump & Co. Or before him, Governor Bob McDonnell or Scooter Libby. The interned Americans of Japanese descent.
Whether or not you’re supposedly protected by a Magna Carta/English Bill of Rights or a Constitution/Bill of Rights.
Old Airborne Dog
@pbinca It makes economic sense as a superpower and exporter to be compatible with the rest of the world.
You will not see metric used for speed and distance on road signs and elsewhere in the UK. Ditto for sale of beer. Or precious metals. But maybe the UK isn’t a major trading partner in the rest of the world?
And the part you left out while taking a swipe at Reagan: despite the fact that you voted for the succeeding Democrat presidents Clinton, Clinton again, Obama, Obama again, and now Biden… not a single one of them has carried through on that conversion you criticize Reagan for not following through on.
Did you or did you not email the chiefs of staff for Clinton, Obama, and Biden (as you did Reagan’s) to ask them “Why do you not complete the metric conversion President Carter started”?
Old Airborne Dog
My point is not to elevate Carter or denigrate Reagan. It’s to point out that Reagan, who is generally thought to have been a forward-looking pragmatist (as in predicting Communism would not survive in the USSR) apparently decided metric conversion based on “oppo-policy” — the idea that if Carter was for it, then I’m against it. This is one of the dangers of a long and brutal campaign where nasty infowarfare games are the rule.
I’m hoping Trump can be pragmatic and thoughtful in charting the policy course, and not view policy through a “revenge lens” — “what makes a policy good is how much the Dems hate it”. He was elected to improve the country, not to vex the opposition. Every President runs the risk of choosing oppo-policies without much thinking. That’s why Biden opened up the border to massive asylum fraud.
It’s to point out that Reagan, who is generally thought to have been a forward-looking pragmatist (as in predicting Communism would not survive in the USSR) apparently decided metric conversion based on “oppo-policy” — the idea that if Carter was for it, then I’m against it.
REALLY! “Apparently”… you just decided you know Reagan well enough to read his mind for us? How about reading the minds of the three Democrat presidents since Reagan?
And assuming you did write the chiefs of staff for the three Democrat presidents who came after Reagan… did they all tell you that they also would not pursue Metrification because they were also doing politics via that “opp-policy”?
Old Airborne Dog
We all make mistakes, it’s more important where we go from there.
Cast the first stone if your prrfect…
Cast the first stone if your prrfect…
Any particular date you would like to propose for when Carter moved past his mistakes and ceased being anti-Semitic and an ally of genocidal Muslim Arab terrorists?
What sticks out in my memory are two items about the Carter years. 1) One of his administrators (Cyrus Vance) famous quote “if ain’t broke don’t fix it”! Having to trim staff to skeleton levels just to survive the malaise of the high interest on 30 year mortgages (above 11%). 2) Proclamation 4483 granting pardons to draft evaders of the Viet Nam War.
Of recent Carter questioned the 2016 results, said without question Russia interfered with election and Trump was illegitimate.
* I recall gas lines and buying gas only on Wednesdays. Gave away the Panama canal. He’d be the worst but for Obama and Joe. Obama gets the prize.
RIP
Carter also commuted the sentences of the four Puerto Rican terrorists who had sneaked guns and a banner into the House Visitors Gallery. They shot 5 Congressmen, one critically, in the worst assault on the Capitol since 1812.
Back in PR, the terrorists received a heroes’ welcome.
I’d forgotten about that. I hope the Presidential Pardon and Commutations is restricted by Congress. It’s a slap in the face of the Juries who sifted through the evidence and reached a unanimous verdict. The pre-emptive pardon is absurd.
Although he was a good man, Carter was in over his head, when it came to being President. Failure at both foreign and domestic policy did him in. Rest in peace, President Carter…..you tried.
Jimmy Carter was a decent, honest and selfless man. At the time Carter was elected, the country needed and wanted a decent and honest leader. And they got him.
Carter was not a particularly good president (perhaps, through no great fault of his own as a decent, honest and perhaps naive leader sitting on top of a corrupt bureaucracy has the deck stacked against him). The country and history tolerate Carter’s presidency because of the very professional hand-holding services and example of honesty he provided. Such a nod is granted to all persons of virtue, even in the face of mediocrity or failure. Doing so not only acknowledges that individual’s contribution, it encourages others imbued with virtue to strive for success.
RIP Jimmy Carter.
Corrupt bureaucracy: Trump first term, dementia Joe now.
“Genuine decently” men do not align themselves with the wicked; they call them out for what they are. I would suggest reading Michael Oren’s column for his take. https://m.jpost.com/opinion/article-835379
Jimmy Carter brought us the First Sovereign Citizen!
Dear Mr. Turley, President Carter was elected while I was in High School. I only remember him as being a weak man. It was during the 1980 election that I decided to become a Republican voter. President Carter looked tired, and it seemed like he wanted out. I am glad that he found something to do and promote with the Habitat for Humanity housing. That was more like him.