Why did Jimmy Carter accomplish so little during his 4 years as president?

[namvet]

Actually...Carter brokered a lasting peace accord between Egypt and Israel ( w Began and Sadat at Camp David) ...something no prez was able to do before... Also was the first to establish a National Energy Policy, established the Panama Canal Treaties, Boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow after the USSR invaded Afghanistan, bailed out Chrysler, signed the Airline deregulation Act, removing gov control of that industry, deregulated the American Beer Industry and had the balls to try rescue U.S.hostages from Iran, although that particular effort didn't work out...
All in all..not to shabby for a 1 term prez, although he seems to be remembered just for that failure and a sucky economy...not his many accomplishments.
He was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and started the Habitat for Humanity Project, which he continues to be involved in...but that was after his presidency.




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!. Carter forced the Israelis to accept the peace deal with Egypt by threatening to cut U.S. aid, forcing Israel to give up oil producing land they had honorably won in a defensive war.

2. His National Energy Policy hindered oil production in the U.S. and diverted billions of dollars to the fantasy that is 'Green Energy'.

3. Jimmy Carter's abandonment of the Shah of Iran led to the islamic revolution against the government.Carter let the World know he was against the Shah and would not support him, called him a murdering tyrant.

4. The attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was an act of war that Carter did not respond to. He had no military options at the time because he had cut the military to 'bare bones' strength.

5. The failure of the ill planned rescue attempt failed in part because the military was not capable due to the carter cuts.

6. He gave away the Panama Canal, he didn't negotiate anything. He said Panama was the rightful owner before negotiations ever began. That's the Canal thousands of Americans died digging, and Panama is the Country that owes it's very existence to the Unite States. U.S ownership of the Canal should never have been on the negotiating table.

7. The only people hurt by his Olympic Boycott was U.S.athletes.

8. The Chrysler bailout was an act of Congress that bailed out the UAW as much as the Company If Chrysler was non-union it never would have happened.

9. And what are the results of the deregulation of the Airline Industry? High prices, long lines, less competition. And BTW, it wasn't totally deregulated, the regulations were just 'reformed'.

10. Same as above, alcoholic beverage production is still regulated by the U.S. Government. If you don't believe it, try to produce your own brand and sell it.

I actually voted for Jimmy Carter, thought he could actually do the things he promised in his campaign speeches. I was working long hours and had very little time to to learn about the candidates. After the political crucifixion of Nixon by the Democrats they could have ran a rock and won.
Jimmy Carter's biggest enemy was Ted (the swimmer) Kennedy. Ted hated Carter with a passion rarely seen since the Andrew Jackson era, and Kennedy controlled the Senate.
The Carter debacle turned me against the Democrats, (I had always voted Democrat), I have never voted Democrat since, and never will again. Ronald Reagan turned me into an independent Republican voter. Barack Obama has turned me into a registered Republican.

Politics stinks and the Democrats represent the very worst of politics.

booted from office with prime rate at 21%. whatta a man

 

[Pogo]

Carter took on the establishment and lost. He pardoned war protester(which pissed of chickenhawks) He killed the B-1 Bomber project(which pissed off the Military Industrial Complex) He opposed "pork barrel" spending(which pissed off Congress) He was a proponent of alternative energy(which pissed off oil companies) He pushed consumer and environment protection(which pissed off big/ international corporations)

All of which pissed off the US corporate media. Carter underestimated how shortsighted and sheepish Americans can be....

He also pardoned a few terrorists who opened fire on the U.S. Congress in 1954.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_shooting_incident_(1954)

Actually that (the amnesty for draft dodgers) was started by Jerry Ford in 1974. IIRC it wasn't real effective in the first version.

 

[Pogo]

Gotta love the ethical vacuum that leads to ignorance like this:

6. He gave away the Panama Canal, he didn't negotiate anything. He said Panama was the rightful owner before negotiations ever began. That's the Canal thousands of Americans died digging, and Panama is the Country that owes it's very existence to the Unite States. U.S ownership of the Canal should never have been on the negotiating table.

"owes it's [sic] very existence to the United States" of course is a euphemism for the gunboat diplomacy that took Panama away from Colombia (1903) because Colombia wouldn't (and never did) ratify the treaty that put the Canal Zone in U.S. hands. And "didn't negotiate anything" disregards thirteen years of negotiations and work on this treaty since rioting and fighting over the dispute erupted in early 1964.

So this whine about "giving away" something set up with a puppet government rings as hollow as the same one about the US-sponsored coup in Iran fifty years later that deposed democraticaly elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and installed the Shah in the first place.

Interesting moral comp-ass some people have, whining about somebody doing the right thing to correct historical imperialist dickdom. Says a lot about the standards one expects from a President. It's always useful to know who the imperialists are.

 

[Clementine]

Sorry, but Carter was one of the weakest and most ineffective presidents in U.S. history. Obama, however, will go down as the worst.

I wish Obama would do even less than Carter. We can't afford anymore help from this bunch. It's killing us.

What's killing U and Ur ilk is Ur own ignorance...


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Higher taxes, higher health care premiums and deductibles are not figments of ignorant minds. They are real problems created by the left.

Oh, the blissful ignorance of the subsidized who just don't get it.

 

[The T]

That's a crock of shit. Reagan held no office during the hostage crisis. No one knew if he would be elected or not, and the notion that he could have influenced Iran to hold the hostages is utterly ridiculous. That ludicrous scenario was dreamed up by the liberals in an effort to slander Reagan and make Jimmy Carter look less incompetent. Ted Koppel did a series on his "Nightline" show called "Closing in on the October Surprise". He claimed he was going to expose a conspiracy by Reagan to steal the presidency from Carter. He was gonna find the truth, and each week he gave an update on his investigation. Every one of his "leads" ended in a dead end. Finally he gave up but do you think he came on air and said "I found nothing"??? No, he said NOTHING. He just dropped the subject. Koppel wasn't man enough to admit he was wrong. Neither are you.

It's been a while since I read this but as I recall George Bush still can't account for his whereabouts in Paris (?) sometime in October '80. Just as he can't account for his whereabouts in Dallas on November 22nd of 1963.

But hey, I'm sure it's just a lapse of memory, it's not like he was CIA or something.

Oh wait...

AHA! So THAT'S who was on the grassy knoll, eh??? The mystery is solved, folks. George Bush killed JFK! Thank you so much, Poco.

 

[francoHFW]

In the real world, a good president- Camp David, jobs, human rights, many good policies, wrecked by Teddy and Dems who wouldn't support tax and spending cuts, our Pub policy in Iran and the Shah, Raygun's bs (wrecked the country and the world , in the long run too...)....Teddy and John Andersen...

 

[jillian]

I always assumed he had to deal with a congress of the other party but i just checked and that is false. Democrats had huge majorities in both houses!

During his first two years dems held the senate 61-38 ( 1 indy} and the House 292-143

His next two years it was 58-41 ( 1 indy) and 277-158.

He prolly could have made a lot of changes if he wanted to, but chose not to. I like that. In particular, he didn't start any wars though the bankers and news media tried to push him into a war with the staged Iran hostage crisis of 1979. He was NOT a weak president. He stood up to the war profiteers.

i'm not a carter fan... but he isn't what you rightwingnuts say he was...

and you not agreeing with what he did (or me for that matter) doesn't make it not an accomplishment.

maybe someday you'll say something that's true.

1. Created the Department of Energy. The DOE provided the administration with the bureaucratic chops to formulate and implement what could have been a comprehensive, long-term national energy strategy. Had Carter's aggressive gas mileage standards continued to be pursued by subsequent administrations, we would today -- 30-odd years later -- be dramatically less dependent on Saudi oil.

2. Created the Department of Education. Despite howls from anti-government groups who opposed yet another federal agency, the decision to carve out Education from the already over-burdened Department. of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services) was a bold and necessary one.

3. Supported SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitations Talks). It sounds trivial today, but in the 1970s a nuclear non-proliferation pact, even a flawed one, was seen as an important step in forging a lasting peace with the USSR. A generation ago, people were genuinely frightened of a nuclear holocaust. Although Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the agreement, the U.S. Congress, in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, refused to ratify it.

4. Brokered the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. By initiating the Camp David Accords between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (which led directly to the landmark treaty), Carter laid the groundwork for improved Israeli-Arab relations. That good relations in the region never materialized wasn't Carter's fault.

5. Installed solar panels in the White House. This was not only a practical gesture, but a symbolic one as well, demonstrating to the world that America was serious about conserving energy, and that conservation does, indeed, begin at home. Alas, Ronald Reagan believed solar panels made the United States look pathetic and needy, and had them removed.

6. Boycotted the 1980 Olympics. In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Carter boycotted the Moscow games, a decision that earned him ridicule and scorn, even though Japan, West Germany, China, Canada, et al, supported his decision. Boycotts are unpredictable. Some work, most don't. Still, who knows what would have happened if the world had boycotted the 2004 Olympics to protest of the U.S. invasion of Iraq? It might have made a difference.

7. Granted amnesty to Vietnam draft-dodgers. Even though Carter issued these unconditional pardons on January 21, 1977 (his first day in office), the political fallout was severe enough to cost him votes in the 1980 election. Controversial as it was, this gutsy call helped move the country forward, providing closure to one of the most divisive issues in American history.

8. Established diplomatic relations with China. Officially transferring U.S. diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to mainland China seems like a no-brainer today, but in the year 1979 it was a singularly progressive move.

9. Pushed for comprehensive health care reform. Carter's plan was bigger, better, cheaper and -- right out of the blocks -- had a greater chance of passing in its original form than either Clinton's or Obama's plan, but inertia, timidity, and old-fashioned politics (both Democratic and Republican) ultimately killed it.

10. Returned the Panama Canal to Panama. Another gutsy move that surely cost him votes. By ceding the canal to tiny Panama, the mighty U.S. looked confident and magnanimous.... instead of paranoid and petty. Although Carter was able to secure bipartisan support, of the 20 senators who voted in favor of the treaty, and were up for re-election, only 7 were re-elected.

David Macaray: 10 Good Things President Carter Did

 

[Flopper]

Carter took on the establishment and lost. He pardoned war protester(which pissed of chickenhawks) He killed the B-1 Bomber project(which pissed off the Military Industrial Complex) He opposed "pork barrel" spending(which pissed off Congress) He was a proponent of alternative energy(which pissed off oil companies) He pushed consumer and environment protection(which pissed off big/ international corporations)

All of which pissed off the US corporate media. Carter underestimated how shortsighted and sheepish Americans can be....

Which I think is one of the main reasons he didn't accomplish more. He was a man of principle, something you don't see much in presidents any more.

 

[S.J.]

Obama's ineptness - Blame Bush

Carter's ineptness - Blame Reagan

Do you lefties ever accept responsibility for anything?

 

[HenryBHough]

Do you lefties ever accept responsibility for anything?

They DO!

But only for the accomplishments of others.

 

[Pogo]

Do you lefties ever accept responsibility for anything?

They DO!

But only for the accomplishments of others.

- from the same loser who posits "Kenyan pauses"... and then demands that *I* prove they exist.

 

[Moxie2]

Volcker raised interest rates sky high and introduced a deliberate recession to cool inflation (or stagflation).

It was a very bold move and not popular politically.

But it's why the economy took off shortly after Reagan took office.

However unemployment was high as a result. So what did Reagan do? Cut taxes.

That didn't work.

So Reagan raised taxes and started spending like crazy. The government started hiring. And lo and behold, unemployment went down.

It was a "miracle".

Yes, because we all know high taxes make the economy take off like a rocket!

More "facts" from a liberal...

The economy was great in the 1950s and 1960s, when taxes were higher on the elites.

This bit of insight coming from the person still blaming Bush...

 

[HenryBHough]

Do you lefties ever accept responsibility for anything?

They DO!

But only for the accomplishments of others.

- from the same loser who posits "Kenyan pauses"... and then demands that *I* prove they exist.

​

Rather a blatant falsehood. I ask nothing of one of such obviously limited computer literacy. I merely respond to his/her/its demands that I do research for that person by telling them if they'd like to see proof it is their job, not mine, to do it.

But alas, typical liberal, expecting others to do their work repaying fools who do so with naught but scorn.

We get used to it.

Unfortunately.

 

[MisterBeale]

You know you are a good president when the puppet masters only allow you to have one term as President. You know you are a great president when the puppet masters have you assassinated while in office.

To the folks that swallow the B.S. the government run schools and the media shovel down their throats, maybe you should read more and believe less of what they tell you.

 

[Pogo]

They DO!

But only for the accomplishments of others.

- from the same loser who posits "Kenyan pauses"... and then demands that *I* prove they exist.

​

Rather a blatant falsehood. I ask nothing of one of such obviously limited computer literacy. I merely respond to his/her/its demands that I do research for that person by telling them if they'd like to see proof it is their job, not mine, to do it.

But alas, typical liberal, expecting others to do their work repaying fools who do so with naught but scorn.

We get used to it.

Unfortunately.

Hot steamingly wet pile of bullshit. The fuck it is. Cram it up yer bunghole, troll.

 

[Pogo]

You know you are a good president when the puppet masters only allow you to have one term as President. You know you are a great president when the puppet masters have you assassinated while in office.

To the folks that swallow the B.S. the government run schools and the media shovel down their throats, maybe you should read more and believe less of what they tell you.

^that^ Everybody should memorize that.

 

[MisterBeale]

Hell, even Reagan wasn't half bad. . . . That is, until "they" took a shot at him and let him know who was in charge.

They just need to keep them uppity POTUS's in line.

Then he did a fine job. They let him into the SMOM after that they did.

"You step out of line, the man come and take you away. . . "
For What It's Worth
~ by Buffalo Springfield

 

[Unkotare]

- from the same loser who posits "Kenyan pauses"... and then demands that *I* prove they exist.

Are you still confused about this?

 

[Synthaholic]

Yes, because we all know high taxes make the economy take off like a rocket!

More "facts" from a liberal...

The economy was great in the 1950s and 1960s, when taxes were higher on the elites.

This bit of insight coming from the person still blaming Bush...

^^^ Nonsensical post is nonsensical.

 

[Moxie2]

The economy was great in the 1950s and 1960s, when taxes were higher on the elites.

This bit of insight coming from the person still blaming Bush...

^^^ Nonsensical post is nonsensical.

Trust me, it makes sense to the right people.