In military fitness reports, that was called "damning with faint praise".
I never liked Carter. Ever. I had the choice between Carter and Ford in my first opportunity to vote, and it wasn't difficult to make that choice.
I viewed Carter as petty, vindictive, smarmy, and incompetent.
I viewed his actions leading up to The Iran Hostage affair as contributory to that, particularly in his treatment of the Shah. For that same reason, I blame much of the turmoil we see to this day on Carter's actions as President. He helped set the stage.
I give him credit for serving in the military, and the only other thing I give him credit for is one of his greatest failures, Operation Eagle Claw. But that was too little too late, and I am still not convinced he wanted to do the right thing as opposed to being painted as a bumbling incompetent during an election year in which he fervently wished to be re-elected. But it did have long-reaching positive effects in that failure, in that our military fully and finally understood that we needed to improve interoperability in inter-service military operations and communications.
As someone who served in the Navy all during his tenure, I saw firsthand the effects of his Presidential oversight. We didn't have enough money to steam or fly as much as we should have. Every aviation squadron had one hangar queen, and there were times some of us nearly had two. One was bad enough.
On my first deployment in 1976, they sent us to the North Atlantic above the Arctic Circle, and our only cold weather gear consisted of foul weather jackets that were rated to only as low as 40 degrees. We resorted to stuffing our shirts with clean rags that we got in bales that were intended to be used for cleaning airplanes with. Even now, I recall the when we got a new bale of rags delivered to us, we would tear it apart with a fervency that rivaled women trying on clothes in Filene's Basement in order to find the rags best suited to provide warmth. It was on that cruise that I experimented in earnest to determine just how much I could immerse myself in the jet exhaust of a plane before it became wholly too hot or I was in imminent danger of being blown off my feet.
That mismanagement of the military (even though I know much is attributed to a post-Vietnam mindset) stuck in my craw then, even as it does now.
I have always viewed Jimmy Carter and his ilk as virtue signalers before there was even a name for it.
Before Jimmy Carter, nearly every President who left the office steadfastly remained silent on the actions of any current President. It was thought they fully understood the strain of the office, and recognized any intrusion on their part would simply make the job of the current President harder.
As far as I am concerned, he was the pioneer in breaking that well-considered unspoken rule, and as a result, all other living Presidents freely insert themselves into current affairs.
But he was not, as far as I could tell, a corrupt man, a grifter in the mold of what we often see now, first out in the open in the Clinton Presidency, but weaponized and epitomized in the Presidency of Joseph Robinette Biden.
And I do believe he had genuine Christian beliefs.
So, it is in this light, I will pray for a quick and comfortable hospice, and that he is judged fairly by God when he passes. In my own life, I am trying to be a better Christian, and I can start with this.
Was not a fan of Carter as president and my first vote was for Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Carter was many unflattering things, but corrupt to the core wasn’t one of them.
Biden has been a vile, corrupt, and disgusting human being going back to his days in Law School at Syracuse. which should have expelled him for plagiarism.
I’m probably a little younger than you, but not by much. I haven’t served in the military, so thank you for your service. I didn’t vote for Carter the first time, or the second. Actually, I voted for John B. Anderson, as he was my congressman.
But at the time, I didn’t know liberal from conservative from a hole in the ground. Anderson would’ve been a big disaster.
Carter was better than Clinton, Obama, and definitely better than Biden, but not by much.
They’ve ALL been big disasters. I’ve voted Republican, even when I had to hold my nose to do it.
I hope the republicans can get their act together, because I’m ready to declare as an independent- they’ve become the RINO party, it seems.
Well said, my brother…
Well said.
Need I say more?
God is the fairest judge of all. That is why he is feared so much.
Carter? — what you said!