Romney can’t move his own numbers up, so he has to try to knock Obama’s numbers down.

Republicans have this idea that Carter was the worst President ever, so it seems obvious to them that linking them would lower Obama’s numbers.

Carter is a good man whose Presidency was a Watergate-induced fluke (otherwise it would probably have been Reagan in 76). Overall he had a pretty good record in office, while dealing with a poor economy and a very visible failed hostage rescue mission. Possibly the most reality-based President we’ve ever had (and AFAIK the only engineer we’ve had). I think he is by far the greatest ex-President America has had. The Carter Center continues to do good work.

I’m not so sure that the people Romney needs to convince (vaguely pro-choice moderate Republicans in swing states) share the general Republican distaste for the man who “gave away OUR Panama Canal”. So this probably won’t work. But they’ll just keep throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks.

Ii bet Mitt has no idea how younger people see Carter. JHs probably asks his sons, like he asks his wife how women see the world.

Btw, I think you mean bogeyman or boogyman.
Right?

Okay, I lived through Nixon and Reagan. Both were significantly worse than Carter.

I hope Romney keeps going down this road. He’ll get the young Republicans who buy the “worse President ever” line. But, he’d have those voters anyhow.

My guess is that most young voters think of Carter and Habitat for Humanity, which they admire tremendously.

Carter is a good man

You realize that U.S. militarization of the Middle East is teh Carter Doctrine, and that it was his NSA, Zbig, who got the U.S. into Afghanistan.

Might not be such a bad comparison.

Let’s see….Romney was talking about the “Soviet Union” the other day. His aides were talking about Czechslovakia. Now, comparisons to Jimmy Carter.

Next, he’ll be picking on Woodrow Wilson or Grover Cleveland.

Agreed. Had Jimmy Carter gotten the hostages out of Iran he would have been everyone’s hero irrespective of the sagging economy. He negotiated a Middle East peace and…… well……uh…….was a nice guy. Still is.

Carter presided over the biggest peacetime military buildup in US history, I have read. He gave refuge to crazy Grenada dictator Eric Gairy so that Gairy could rail against the New Jewel Revolution on Radio Free America. He created the US enemies list, and began the encirclement of Nicaragua. His Carter Center pushes countries toward free market capitalist outcomes, not necessarily what the people in concerned countries actually desire. Ego-maniac, according to people who work for him, although an aging one at this stage. Rehabilitated through the MSM. Quite possibly a creature of the Trilateral Commission–no one had heard of him before he burst forth on the scene, and someone to pose as a reformer was needed after Nixon. Another warrior with a Nobel like Obama though, right? If you believe in that sort of thing anymore. Paid lip service to alternative energy like Obama, too! Just looks good through the retrospective vaseline-smeared lens of US television, really. The Koinonia people who invented Habitat were real heroes (socialists, civil rights activists); the Carters come along some while later, but do help build it up. People who follow Haiti really resent Carter for aiding the right in overthrowing Aristide: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_n4_v59/ai_16687213/

The authors are big hitters in the geopolitics genre. Robert Kagan coined what passes for a catchphrase in the international relations field when he declared a decade ago that “Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus.” At the time, Kagan, a veteran of Ronald Reagan’s State Department, was one of the leading advocates of military action against Iraq. Zbigniew Brzezinski, still best known for his service as national security adviser to Jimmy Carter, has filled the three intervening decades with a throng of books on the same terrain: what America should do in the world.

From NYT review of two books out this year.

Zbig is a neocon. Carter too. Just a piss-poor one in practice.

On the economics front, it was Carter who started deregulation, not Reagan.

Zinn refers to Carter as the “return to normal” prez, i.e., the one who begins to undo all the reforms of the post-Watergate era, in the service of the 1%ers.

In defense of Jimmy Carter

He made the call and I’m not talking about those Marines who died in the deserts of Iran. I was active duty Air Force at the time. Parts of my squadron were sent TDY to a little place called Michael Army Airfield. Sound familiar to anyone? It’s a little airsrtip in the middle of nothing next to Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. When we arrived we were told that we were taking part in a DOD approved joint Air Force/ Army mission to rescue the hostages. It was while we were in Utah that those Marines died. The hostages were moved and everything we had been training for was moot. We went home. To this day I don’t know if any of this has ever been de-classified.

You will never here Carter talk about this. Other than to protect the memories of those who died, I don’t know why.

It’s been a long time since I read about the aborted rescue in any detail, so feel free to correct my memory. What I remember was abysmal planning, in the send that resources devoted were minimal and there was no plan b if anything went wrong. I personally wondered wtf were they thinking at the time. Did they really think they could get into Tehran, rescue 44 (is that the right #?), get them all out to helicopters in the dessert? Sounded nuts to me. They didn’t even know what kind of physical conditions the hostages were in.

But it shows what happens to your presidential ambitions when you fail that sort of thing. Obama coulda been there too. Maybe we should cut carter a little slack here. It takes some courage to launch that kind of thing. I wonder how much of his loss to Reagan was the result of that,failed effort.

Strikes me it might also be a smart move on tactical grounds too. Carter is a loser. 2 big losses: hostage rescue, reelection.

And Mitt knows that the only modern prez O admires is Reagan, so O will have no defense against being painted with a loser image.

With all the resources of the U.S. military and CIA at his beck & call, I see no reason to cut Carter any slack.

I guess that means the same if Obama failed to get bin laden

Did you cut W any slack bc he failed to get OBL? That was also bone headed beyond my slack jawed view of why they let him get away.

Besides, you changed the framing. If O hadn’t gotten OBL we would not have known about it bc it was secret.

O will prolly get reelected, just as W did, despite his lack of competence & following both foreign & domestic policies that the U.S. voter doesn’t want.

I’ve forgotten most of the carter years. I do know I voted for him twice. I never blamed him for the failed attempt other than,at the time, I would have likely started something.it bothered me that he was not forceful. No way, even the could I vote for the hero of the right.i

Your point? Every President has negatives (say LBJ in Vietnam), the question is whether they have any positives.

Carter also deregulated the beer industry paving the way for micro-breweries and let us brew our own at home. What other President has done that much for me?

Here is the retort when Obama gives that canard about, “if you think I appease, ask Osama Bin Laden, or the others we’ve droned.”

Mr. Obama, you do well against single people hiding in caves, but what about someone your own size, like the leader of Iran or the leader of Syria, or China or Russia? Or, even the leader of Israel? Show us where ANYTHING you have done resulted in the change in behavior of the leader. Iran is still pursuing nukes. China still rubbing our face in it. Russia considers us a joke. Assad has not changed any aspect of his crackdown. Israel is still building settlements.

When we need someone to deal with a guy hiding in a cave, we’ll call you. When we need someone to stand up to other leaders who have real power, don’t call us, we’ll call you.

Mitt Romney and his unrelenting stupidity are Barack Obama’s great white hope.

If it were possible, his campaign strategy ought to be no talking and no advertising. Just smile; have some family shots taken, and hope that the bushCo chickens that Obama has been feeding and nurturing so lovingly will come in for a white house landing in late October.

I didn’t blame bush, since I figured he was in deep cover. But I suppose I blamed him for not following through in Afghanistan when he had the chance. Would never vote for him in any case. There were too many people involved I’m the bin laden thing and if it failed the failure would be on the ground in Pakistan. Tough to hide it. Besides obama would say so on air rather than face the accusation of cover up. Oops reply to 16

I would have cut him slack there also, but he would be in the same box as carter, but likely worse.

Talking points, I know, but.really effective ? I doubt it.

My point is that just about every U.S. prez is a bad guy. It’s the “my team” vs “their team” that is most discouraging in U.S. politics, i.e. the inability to look at leaders of your team objectively.

Glad you’re happy with microbeers. I think Carter’s beginning of the slippery neocon slope might have had larger consequences for the 99ers in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Personally, if I were mittens, I would stay on the economy and maybe the ACA. . I think he is vulnerable there.

It’s hard to imagine some one as stupid and out of touch as Romney, isn’t it. He can’t open his mouth without a frog coming out (apologies to frogs).

You are a tough one, eCAH. Actually, I think Obama should have thrown out the bi partisan bull shit three years ago. This political scene is blood sport,

The bipartisan thingy is just a cover to allow O to be really rightwing.

On edit: Why shouldn’t one be tough? We’re talking about POTUS for crying out loud. He thinks he’s god, or at least the emperor of the earth. Deserves every objective criticism one can heap on him.

Jimmy was grew up as a peanut farmer in Georgia in dirt poor surroundings and went on to become governor, president and a nobel laureate.

Willard has a lot gall criticizing anyone from his background.

Q. Why is Romney trying to turn Obama into Carter?

A. In hope that doing so will turn him into Reagan.

Q. So will it work, will it turn him into Reagan?

A. No more likely it will turn him into Ford.

Carter? Really? Obama:Bush43 as Ford:Nixon.

Only thing missing was the brushcutting decider’s resignation in the face of impeachment, which would have made Cheney absolute dictator.

Carter’s father was a prominent business owner in the community and his mother was a registered nurse.

From his wiki. Ditto

He is a first cousin of politician Hugh Carter and a half-second cousin of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. on his mother’s side, and a cousin of June Carter Cash

He went to the U.S. naval academy.

And finally ditto

Though Carter’s father, Earl, died a relatively wealthy man, between Earl’s forgiveness of debts owed to him and the division of his wealth among his heirs, Jimmy Carter inherited comparatively little. For a year, due to a limited real estate market, the Carters lived in public housing (Carter is the only U.S. president to have lived in housing subsidized for the poor).[19]

Knowledgeable in scientific and technological subjects and raised on a farm, Carter took over the family peanut farm. Carter took to the county library to read up on agriculture while Rosalynn learned accounting to manage the businesses financials.[19] Though they barely broke even the first year, Carter managed to expand in Plains. His farming business was successful, and during the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, he was considered a wealthy peanut farmer

So while he did spend some time in ‘poverty,’ most of his life was middle-upper middle class, and he himself bc rich.

My point is that Carter is about as good as it gets. If he doesn’t pass your test, who does?

Indeed, some would say Carter was our first neoliberal president.

I suggest you read his biography.

I would say Carter was rich in family and friends but he is by no means ‘Willard’ rich. You don’t see Rosyln in $1000 shirts.

Jimmy made his money in the peanut business and did it with hard work and putting people to work rather than flipping companies and putting people out of work.

I was told at the time that while the discussions of what to do were kicking around the Pentagon a real gung-ho Marine Colonel, left over from the Vietnam era, decided he was going to go get the hostages and be the hero. Now keep in mind this was a different time in the armed services. There were still a lot discipline problems left over from Vietnam and things were pretty loose. He got together some aircraft and some men and off they went.

Trying to re-fuel in the desert in Iran at night they were not using any lights and had no night vision equipment. When they tried to take off they ran into each other and were killed in the explosion. It was tragic and unnecessary.

Romney’s a Monsanto shareholder kinda peanut farmer, where genetically engineered seed is designed to be sterile beyond a single planting, then patented so the farmer becomes Monsanto’s sharecropper.

This gives Romney too much credit. He wouldn’t actually own the stock, just play hedge fund derivative arbitrage against the real economy.

I had friends in the White House at that time, and from what I recall he was a piss poor manager. They would spend hours thrashing out a policy, come to a decision, and the next day he would come in and say he’d changed his mind. The worst case concerned the placing of intermediatve range missiles on german soil, where htis reversal left Schroeder hanging out to dry.

Oh, effective. Especially since the Bin Laden thing is just misdirection to avoid answering the real question people are asking. It just puts the attention back onto the real question.

See Dean’s post on our Treas Sec selling out workers regarding negotiations with China.

If you are looking to find someone hiding in a cave, Obama’s your man. If you want someone to stand up to foreign leaders in China and look out for workers, he ain’t your man.

Agree with you on that, more’s the pity.

You can make a list of prez from least bad to most bad, but you can’t make a list of good prez.

Also, witness them throwing Chen to the dogs.

No, the line would strike pretty well.

Carter had many decent qualities, but I feel he’s been much more effective post presidency.

Also, here is a big black mark: of the four Presidents who have had a 60 seat majority in the Senate–Roosevelt, Johnson, Carter and Obama–only Carter never enacted anything major.

Roos–Social Security
Johnson–Medicare
Obama–HCR (Ok, it might get tossed out, but at least he did it)

William Henry Harrison……you can say NOTHING bad about him.

Though the perception of Carter is that the economy was poor, particularly in his last year in office, the reality is that the largest increase in jobs (as a percentage) per presidential term in the last 40 years occurred during Carter’s Presidency. The number of jobs increased 11% during his term, compared to 10% during Reagan’s second term and 8.5% and 9.5% during Clinton’s two terms.

And the unemployment rate and the inflation rate were both going DOWN by the time Reagan was elected. The Iran mess, particularly the Iran hostage situation, and Reagan’s “charisma” were what doomed Carter. As usual, however, the Republicans were good at PAINTING Carter as presiding over a bad economy, but a look at the statistics shows otherwise:

http://mollysmiddleamerica.blogspot.com/2011/10/job-growth-in-carter-years-better-than.html