FLASHBACK:Jimmy Carter Attacked by Killer Rabbit (April 20, 1979

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[NC Conservative]

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.

[Howie]

Swamp rabbits

Other Comments
To avoid predation, these rabbits flee in a zig-zag pattern. They can reach speeds of up to 48 mph. They also are good swimmers, and they are known to hide from enemies by lying motionless underwater with only their nose clearing the surface of the water.

(from a University of Michigan website)

[ElkGroveDan]

Go to your library and pull up Time Magazine from June 29, 1981, U.S. Edition.

[tame]

(It's time for Arnold to stop splitting the Republican vote and step aside for the good of the party)

I Love tht tagline :o)

[microgood]

It might have been a Jackalope. They are ferocious.

[thoughtomator]

Actually, lost in the translation from Peanutfarmer to English was the fact that it was actually Lorena Bobbit, not a rabbit.

[Squat830]

Leave it to carter to get his ass beat by the easter bunny. No wonder they waited for the Gipper's inoguration to release the hostages

[wideminded]

I once heard an interview with Carter in which he was asked if it was true that he had been attacked by a rabbit. He said that it wasn't true but he couldn't very well have a press conference and say: "I wasn't attacked by a rabbit". It seems like this story might have just been something that fit in with Carter's weak image during his term. As I recall this interview was in connection with a book Carter had written about his experiences outdoors. So it appears that he is not someone who is unfamiliar with or afraid of wildlife in general.

I notice that there is no source or author listed on this article. If you post the picture (undoctored) that is claimed to exist of the rabbit attacking Carter, it might make the story more believable.

[Porterville]

manfromlamancha and an abreviation of my name... I left God's valley for the coast, to many corrupt everything in the valley, it has a corrupting force that brings out the worst in me... that being women of low character and beer... always a bad combo.

[Mat_Helm]

Look at the BONES........!

[Porterville]

Besides, summer gets way too hot for me after knowing what summer by the coast is like... 115 degrees in the shade??? No way, not after living near Pismo. I'd rather be a poor man on the Central Coast, than a rich man in Montana.

[tame]

The valley has sooooo many women of beautiful character...beautiful everything for that matter :o)

[LibWhacker]

Is this it?

Got it here from an old PhilDragoo post.

[vrwconspiracist]

Wasn't there a killer rabbit scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"?

[LibKill]

And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'

[Porterville]

1. That is true, very many women of beautiful character too, but their seems to be a dark force in Porterville like a cosmic black hole that just pulls myself and everyone I ever grew up with into a infinitely crushing force that stretches our souls beyond measure to a thin chord of lifeless roofing pitch.... like a puddle of Budweiser on that spills onto the rocks on the way to a jet ski financed at 15% towed to the lake in a large jacked up F-150 financed at 12%, rising from a rusty, broken lawn chair over looking highway 190 and Lake Success, Porterville will leave you, muddied, soiled, and fizzless, begging to get to Visalia (of all places) on the weekend...

[Reverend Bob]

Ah, my favorite Easter movie!

[Old Sarge]

[LibKill]

Kill the wabbit?

[Old Sarge]

How's this, for a more rememberable scene?

[LibKill]

The funniest thing Bugs and Elmer ever did was that hillarious send-up of "The Barber of Seville".

I wish I had it on disc.