Posted on 04/20/2006 9:06:23 AM PDT by RWR8189
Today in Odd History, President Jimmy Carter was attacked by a rabbit during a fishing trip in Plains, Georgia. The rabbit, which may have been fleeing a predator, swam toward his boat, "hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared." President Carter was forced to swat at the vicious beast with a canoe paddle, which apparently scared it off.
Upon his return to the White House, Carter told his staff about the furry amphibian's assault. Most of them refused to believe him, insisting that rabbits can't swim (although since most mammals can swim, there's no reason to believe that rabbits cannot), and that even if they could, they certainly wouldn't attack humans, and certainly not presidents. Fortunately, a White House photographer had been on the scene, and had recorded the bizarre attack. The photograph showed Carter with his paddle raised, warding off a small creature which might, or might not, have been a rabbit. One staffer was quoted as saying, "You couldn't tell what it was." Undaunted by their skepticism, Carter had the image enlarged, and there it was--a killer bunny rabbit, apparently bent on assassinating the president.
The story might have ended there, except that White House Press Secretary Jody Powell mentioned the incident to Associated Press reporter Brooks Jackson in August. The Washington Post ran it as front page news. The original photograph was not available (until the Reagan administration leaked it in 1981), but the paper filled the gap with a cartoon modeled on the poster for the movie Jaws, starring the rabbit and entitled Paws. Powell made a belated attempt to impress the public with the seriousness of the attack, calling the creature a "swamp rabbit," but since Carter had to appease his rabbit-loving constituents by insisting that he had not actually smacked his buck-toothed opponent with his paddle, but only splashed water at it to drive it away, it seemed unlikely that he had been in danger. The entire episode became a symbol of Carter's floundering presidency. According to Powell, "[I]t shows the extent to which an insignificant incident can snowball and end up in newspapers and news shows across the country. Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley says, It just played up the Carter flake factor.... I mean, he had to deal with Russia and the Ayatollah and here he was supposedly fighting off a rabbit.
Note: While some presidential apologists have suggested that Carter might actually have been attacked by a nutria, a large, aggressive aquatic rodent, others have insisted that the President's assailant was a simple, if unusually vicious, bunny rabbit. Fulk, the 12th century king of Jerusalem, was killed by a rabbit. (Well, really he was killed by a fall from his horse, but the horse had been startled by a rabbit.) And many years ago, I was the owner of a Blue Dutch rabbit named Sequin. One of my friends still bears the scars of an encounter with Sequin--a perfectly matched set of parallel teeth marks, where Sequin's fangs closed on her hand and ripped through the flesh when she pulled her hand away. Bunnies are, indeed, fiercer than anyone but Monty Python has generally given them credit for.
Do you remember where you were when you learned that Jimmy Carter had been attacked and almost assasinated? Most Democrats do!
To see how the Polish people started the downfall of the Iron Curtain years later...I'm wondering if Ford was more right than wrong.
I used to keep a rabbit for protection- it was a flemish giant, about 20lb. Used to beat up the cat.
"I bet most of you oldtimers read his book, got all misty for the navy man and voted dem for president the first time in your voting life. He fooled a lot of conservatives. "
Baloney... Ford received 39,148,634 votes to Carters 40,831,881. I'm guessing Carter didn't sway one conservative voter. Just some of the moderates.
You say that about our guy like it's a good thing. Oh, wait. . . .
No, it's just that by then we had a new "Sheriff" in town....Ronald Reagan.
'Snuff,' dearly departed attack bunny of the radiohead household.
Did he ask his daughter Amy for permission before attacking the rabbit?
One of my does got me good yesterday with her claws, but I'll bet she thought I was attacking her.
Did you ever see your bunny's nostrils "flare" as stated in the article? I've never seen that phenomenon.
We had wild turkeys 40 feet up on the trees this year and I don't think they got there by climbing.
I have lots of wild turkeys on my property, they can fly as well as any pheasant, and they always roost in the trees.
one-term-failed-presidency BUMP
I don't think so. a lot of conservative military took the bait and voted for that guy. They were duped.
This is only the second year I have seen them here, so I'm only starting to get acquainted with their habits. Last year they stripped a few of the blueberry bushes and that WILL stop.
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