‘Hanging Out With Jimmy Carter,’ Biden Faces the Echoes of History

The New York Times ^ | Dec. 30, 2024, 7:12 p.m. ET | Peter Baker

[E. Pluribus Unum]

When President Biden appeared on camera to pay tribute to former President Jimmy Carter, he sounded almost as if he were thinking of himself in these final days in office.

“In today’s world, some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era — with honesty and character, faith and humility,” Mr. Biden said in breaking away from his Caribbean vacation on Sunday after the former president’s death. “It mattered. But I don’t believe it’s a bygone era.”

Mr. Biden, too, has been dismissed as a man of a bygone era, an old-school politician in a new-school world, an octogenarian president playing by rules he learned in the 1970s when he served in the Senate and Mr. Carter was in the White House, rules that did not help him in today’s fast-paced, smash-mouth political arena. He is, in this view, a man out of time — Mr. Carter’s time.

As he said, Mr. Biden does not accept that and believes that “the fundamental human values” his generation brought to the table still apply. Yet when he spoke of Mr. Carter’s “honesty and character,” he left no doubt that he meant that in contrast to his predecessor and soon-to-be successor, Donald J. Trump, the first former president ever convicted of felony crimes and found liable for sexual abuse and business fraud.

That Mr. Carter would depart the scene at this particular stage of Mr. Biden’s presidency, however, evokes a certain sense of déjà vu: another one-term Democratic president whose aspirations for another term were damaged by inflation and struggles to win the release of hostages held in the Middle East before he leaves office.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

[Responsibility2nd]

Just think. A year ago the Times would have been praising and honoring both President Carter and President Biden.

[redfreedom]

I read several lines and when it appeared to be nothing more than a puke-fest I quit.

The New York Slimes is just that. You can’t take two pieces of bowel excrement and paint them to look and smell good.

[mikey_hates_everything]

Right, Biden “lost” because of inflation and hostages, just like Jimmy. They’re all so delusional.

[No name given]

Very.

[Carriage Hill]

“... some look at Jimmy Carter and see a man of a bygone era — with honesty and character, faith and humility,”...

Not hardly.

[ealgeone]

Well, compared to the big guy…..

[11th_VA]

I keep hearing Carter didn’t make money while in office - who paid for his Hospice for over a year ?

[x]

If you live long enough you will be thought a survival from and older and a better world, no matter how much of a bastard you were.

[Liz]

Then sen Biden puts on one of his infamous "look at me" acts,
showing off his "supposed" intimacy with a president.

[x]

40 years of presidential pensions can go a long way in SW Georgia.

[alternatives?]

Amy Carter isn’t rich, nor took showers with her dad.