Nobel Peace Prize for Jimmy Carter

Don't misunderstand me Dan - I think Carter is probably a pretty good guy on the whole. And it is impossible for any leader to measure up to any standards of morality (ordinary people too, of course). But if he isn't haunted by the (perhaps necessary, though in the case of SA I don't think so) lives of the people his decisions affected he's no kind of leader. And I think we owe it to ourselves and the rest of humanity not to forget about them either. But the fact that I think that when we talk about the good things Carter did we should remember the bad in no way rules out discourse about power/morality/leadership; I think it's vital to it.

HOLLA AT ME MAUREEN DOWD

We have done virtually everything we can with respect to carrots, if you will. It’s time for squash. Not to mention mushrooms, clouds of them.

I have no idea who that is, btw /scottish

I have Google Alert set for "ILXor changes world"

I'd be curious to know how Carter views his presidency; my suspicion would be that he thinks he did the best he could and that much of the popular assessment of his legacy is unfair. And as much as I view his presidency in a negative light, and as much as his sanctimonious ego annoys me, and as much as sometimes he seemed to be crusading for a Nobel, Jimmy has worked very hard trying to good things in the past 30 years.

I'm with Abbot on this one

Yeah, I like him!

whenever go-nowhere idealists like morbz start talking about how important shit like "honesty" & "integrity" (usually in opposition to "playing politics" or "polling") in in a president i always point to carter's presidency, the most honest liberal in the 20th c was also the one who got the least done as president

I'd be curious to know how Carter views his presidency; my suspicion would be that he thinks he did the best he could and that much of the popular assessment of his legacy is unfair. And as much as I view his presidency in a negative light, and as much as his sanctimonious ego annoys me, and as much as sometimes he seemed to be crusading for a Nobel, Jimmy has worked very hard trying to good things in the past 30 years.

I think this is completely OTM.

inasmuch as all presidents are bloodstained in one way or another, I wish all the ex-presidents devoted their spare time the way Carter has.

also: let Willie Nelson smoke weed on the roof of the White House + Playboy interview + sweaters = love

x-post

GWB has a lot of work ahead of him if you are allowed to undo murder/war by being cuddly afterwards.

forgiving this type of behaviour in ex-presidents can only encourage incumbents.

to forgive is divine

You have to ask for forgiveness...

leadership is for assholes

backstreet's back alright

hahaha Tombot OTM (see also "people who want to become cops should not be allowed to be cops" argument)

well it really is all the same, people who strongly desire positions of authority for any reasons other than a seemingly crazy sense of civic duty and self-sacrifice are completely suspect

catch-22 all over again

yep yep

^THAT ARGUMENT, YES^

Carter was not a liberal. The last liberal prez was LBJ.

(andwhat rong again, bigshit zurprize)

hahaha El BJ

(sorry)

is there anything wrong with people who distrust anyone who is in a position of authority?

Trust but verify.

hahaha El BJ

-- HI DERE, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:45 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

(sorry)

-- HI DERE, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:45 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

totally in character, but also funny

morbs you make a pretty big deal about having given up on this country of idiots 15 years ago, a lot.

it really never stops being interesting

yeah yeah we all hate each other on the politics threads because we keep coming back to them so much that we've all become totally predictable

familiarity & contempt together at last

my politics are from Sleeper: Six months from now,we're going to be stealing Erno's nose.

that's not EMO'S

finally I can go back to my diet of chocolate cake and steak

taking politics as they are and getting involved = back-to-the world compassion (to lift from pop-buddhism, if you like). it's a grubby world, and it's bravery to NOT hold it at arms length, not the other way around.

constant above-it-all kvetching = self-aggrandizing uselessness, a fear response plain and simple. fake politics designed entirely to hog the spotlight rather than say anything about anything.

xp funny i love sleeper and i have no idea wtf you're on about

morbz if you followed the chronicles of and what you would know my props for lbj are x1000000000000000000 of that for carter (20 hour road trip this summer just to hit up the library in austin) but johnson represents everything you would hate on if he were actually running, withholding shit from the public and polling and shameless pandering and triangulating himself and working across party lines and etc etc etc - hey its kinda like voting for ppl who actually will get shit done is better than sitting around whining and waiting for a liberal fantasy candidate (or right wing fantasy candidate in the case of your now-forgotten ron paul dick-riding - what happened in the last 3 months that made you not wanna crew with white nationalists & militia dudes?)

oh, tee 'em

I can't recall Morbz ever complaining about polling

I'm well aware of LBJ's political style. If any of the current batch of slop dwellers could get his results, I'd excuse em.

I never rode Ron Paul's dick, but thx for homophobic slur.

voting for ppl who actually will get shit done

and that's exactly what Dem Hero Clinton got done, lots n lots of Reaganite SHIT

and what, i'm with you for the most part (and agree re: uselessness of idea of "purity" in politics), but i can't really let LBJ off with just a "he was a brilliantly corrupt politician who got things done" considering he launched a huge and unnecessary war in vietnam which probably fucked the country up worse than anything post-1960.

morbius gave up on america after three terms of republican preznits came to an end huh.

When the Democrat who was elected was an even worse Republican, yep.

Eisenhower and Kennedy launched or at least pre-launched the war, but obv it was part of the Cold War proxy bullshit LBJ believed in, yet people are so willing to forgive Carter for same upthread (I guess because no Americans were dying).

I have no aspirations to "purity"; I voted for Walter Mondale, and Bill Bradley vs Gore.

can't we just argue over which president had the worst siblings?

Clinton I

Anybody who says Billy Carter hates fun (and Billy Beer)

Carter's sister also entertaining

All I'll say about Carter is that he's the perfect example of the cult of survivalhood. A shitty president still carries a patina of respect because he writes a couple of books a year and is an irritant to every sitting president.

Somewhere in CNN's archives from 1998 there's a brief video of me standing next to Jimmy at the Carter family reunion in Plains.

Could someone recommend me a good book on the Carter presidency?

Neighbour kid mentioned in initial post turned out not to fall too far from the branch - either of parents or, it seems, of James Earl Carter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomkin_Coleman

Walter Karp's Liberty Under Siege discusses both the Carter and Reagan presidency. It does a smashing job of destroying stereotypes.

https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2023/statement-on-president-carters-health.html

Sad news.

The source here is a spook (is that ok to say?) but it was an interesting context on Carter’s continuing historic role after leaving the White House.

Thread on Jimmy Carter and 1994 North Korea nuclear crisis.
In August, 1994, I was one of a small team of intelligence officers asked to brief the former President prior to his mission to Pyongyang. Carter had essentially volunteered for the task…much to Clinton’s consternation.

— Frank Jannuzi ☮️ (@FrankJannuzi) February 19, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/us/politics/jimmy-carter-october-surprise-iran-hostages.html

happy 99th

Rosalynn Carter dead.

RIP