[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('clv101', 'W')ow - just listened to that MP3. Incredible... that was pretty much the answer. What went wrong? Why didn't it pan out like that?

[jato]

Thanks MQ. This is good stuff. I was just a little kid in 1979. Going to listen to the MP3 now.

[Cool Hand Linc]

Its funny how many thought Carter to be weak but he actually showed great strength to tell the people what they needed to hear.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MissingLink', 'I')ts funny how many thought Carter to be weak but he actually showed great strength to tell the people what they needed to hear.

[0mar]

It seems to me that economists will be regarded as the nazis in the future. They are primarily the ones who encouraged exploitation and competition all in the name of a theory. We had sensible people telling us to diversify our energy portfolio for nearly 50 years now. Even back in the fifties, there was a sizable number of people who knew there were limits to growth and more importantly now, natural resources are finite.

[Cool Hand Linc]

Pull your head out MQ. I'm part of the 51% you refer too. Most Conservatives? I don't think so. Maybe the conservatives who are most vocal. Oh ya that doesn’t follow along with your agenda.

Omar, to have the luxury of history on your side and criticize people of the past is rather hypocritical. Nazi’s! Come on. You show your stupidity when you make such a comparison. If the Nazi’s were in control. This web site would not exist. The “Nazi’sâ€

[0mar]

Economists are the same as Ingsoc. They look at the objective facts and objective reality and twist it so it suits their purposes. And when they bring us so close to the edge (I do believe that most of the ill economic policies will be repealed a few years after the peak, once it is shown that captalism is running its wheels in the mud) willingly and against all the facts, I think that is as close to Nazism as the modern world can get.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MissingLink', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')ull your head out MQ. I'm part of the 51% you refer too. Most Conservatives? I don't think so. Maybe the conservatives who are most vocal. Oh ya that doesn’t follow along with your agenda.

[Cool Hand Linc]

Sorry MQ

I got started reading you book. You really seem to have it all figured out.

I guess I wrote here what I was thinking while I’ve been reading your book. Conspiracy nut, Anti-establishment, anti-republican, etc.

I should have kept this to myself until I post the review. I apologize.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MissingLink', 'S')orry MQ

I got started reading you book. You really seem to have it all figured out.

I guess I wrote here what I was thinking while I’ve been reading your book. Conspiracy nut, Anti-establishment, anti-republican, etc.

I should have kept this to myself until I post the review. I apologize.

[jato]

Too bad Carter's speech was political suicide.

I was going to write about how Carter could have transformed the USA into being more self sufficient. It was wishful thinking on my part. Unfortunately, Carter showed future presidents what not to say.

[BabyPeanut]

Adding insult to injury http://www.kcautv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2972533
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]USS Jimmy Carter commissioned
GROTON, Conn. The U-S-S "Jimmy Carter" has entered the Navy's fleet. The most heavily armed submarine ever built also is the first named after a living ex-president. The attack sub is the last of the Seawolf class that the Pentagon ordered during the Cold War.

Intelligence experts say the 453-foot, 12-thousand-ton submarine can tap undersea cables and eavesdrop on the communications passing through them. The sub also has a payload of 50 torpedoes, eight torpedo tubes and can reach speeds of 45 knots. Carter, who served on a submarine in the Navy, was on hand for today's ceremony in Connecticut.

[gg3]

Keep in mind that submarines are not first-strike weapons, they do not have the accuracy or the C&C capabilities for that. They are deterrence, pure & simple. And a sub with SIGINT capabilities is also a war-preventer: SIGINT can and does make that much of a difference.

Okay, so that marks me as a conservative -an oldschool one not a neocon- who also thinks Carter was one of our greatest Presidents ever. When he was in the Navy he was a nuclear engineer. When Three Mile Island had a partial core-melt, he was on hand, on site, in the control room, talking tech with the plant crew. He had the brains and the technical knowledge to set up an energy policy that was practical and would have been effective.

And how much foreign oil are we importing today....?

But here's what cost him the re-election:

You may remember the Iranian hostage crisis. Coming out of the Vietnam war era we were reluctant to make use of military force, and the armed forces in general were in something of a demoralized condition. What Carter *could have* done but didn't, was tell the Iranian government that it was responsible for getting those hostages out safely, and if it failed to act, it would be considered complicit and therefore at war against the US. Set a deadline, move the aircraft carriers into position, and get ready to rumble.

USA at war against Iran would have produced a rally-round-the-flag effect that would have gotten Carter his second term. Cynical but true.

Instead, a team of advance-men for the Reagan campaign made a secret deal with Iran: Release the hostages at a "convenient" time, and we will supply you with arms, and by the way please divert some of that hardware to the Contras in Nicaragua. It worked: the hostage crisis strung along day after relentless day, with Carter's numbers dropping in the polls, made all the worse by a rescue attempt that failed due to our lack of experience (at the time) with desert warfare. Finally the hostages were released on the very day of Reagan's inauguration.

This is not a conspiracy theory, it is well documented, and I even heard none other than Edwin Meese (Reagan's attorney general) break the news, in detail, in his own words, his own voice, on the radio during Reagan's first term. He broke the news as a form of "damage control" because it was about to come out in the press, and had it come out on its own, the scandal would have been that much bigger.

Now what do you call it when one or more private citizens secretly entreats with a hostile foreign power in a manner that is clearly inimical to the national defense...? The word for that is TREASON.

The ugly fact is that Reagan's advance team committed treason, and in doing so, interfered with the foreign policy capabilities of the United States government at the time, and affected the outcome of the Presidential election. And the second ugly fact is that they got away with it. The whole idea of stealing an election by treason, was so hugely outrageous that the mainstream media didn't even touch it. And yet, the facts were there and are undisputed: a secret arms-for-hostages deal negotiated with a hostile foreign power while Carter was still in office. Twist it or spin it any way you like, it's still treason.

To this add Reagan's popularity, based primarily on his affable personality, but also to a large degree on the fact that he promised us a future without effort, without sacrifices; an endless national spending spree without reservation. In effect, a credit card with no limit. Just like telling children they don't have to eat their vegetables, and can have all the ice cream and lolly-pops they want. Of couse the voters -enough of them anyway- went for it. What child do you know of who will choose spinach over lolly-pops...? What grownup do you know of who will voluntarily choose to turn down the offer of an all-expenses-paid shopping and spending spree?

What surprises me most of all is that Carter has not been more vocal about energy in the past couple of years. All of his forecasts have basically come true with a vengeance, though on a slightly longer timescale due to subsequent oil shocks and recessions. Why the silence? Why doesn't he speak out about this now?

[ararboin]

I wonder if anyone's talked to him for the record? Might be interesting if only to get an "I told you so" out of him.

Anyone live in Michigan interested in interviewing him about it? He's going to be at a Habitat for Humanity Build from June 19-24 in Benton Harbor and Detroit. Show up with a tool belt and scruffy work clothes and he might talk to you. Report back, please.

[madison]

What is he doing these days?

[Frank]

http://www.cartercenter.org/default.asp?bFlash=True

Jimmy Carter also supports (actively) Habitat for Humanity projects. There is an annual Jimmy Carter build-day where both he and Rosalynn put on their jeans and work side-by-side with future homeowners.

I think that history will treat him kindly. Two generations from now, our grandchildren will look back and realize how foolish their "ancestors" were.

[DomusAlbion]

To be fair to Carter he was right in his desire to wean America from oil imports. I listened to him and acted on his advice. I usually vote Republican now but at that time I voted for Carter.

But don't glorify him just because he was right on the energy issue; that is not what lost him the 1980 election. In truth, he was an ineffective and weak president and man and projected that publicly. An intelligent man; a good man but a poor leader and left no lasting legacy, nor made any lasting changes. It was his bungling of the Iran hostage crisis that cost him the job of president; that and a poor economic showing throughout his first term.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DomusAlbion', 'T')o be fair to Carter he was right in his desire to wean America from oil imports. I listened to him and acted on his advice. I usually vote Republican now but at that time I voted for Carter.

But don't glorify him just because he was right on the energy issue; that is not what lost him the 1980 election. In truth, he was an ineffective and weak president and man and projected that publicly. An intelligent man; a good man but a poor leader and left no lasting legacy, nor made any lasting changes. It was his bungling of the Iran hostage crisis that cost him the job of president; that and a poor economic showing throughout his first term.

[DomusAlbion]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', 'I') guess it depends on what you add up and what you think is important.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DomusAlbion', 'T')hat statement I can agree with. I assume you worked in the National Park Administration during his administration. He was very Green and I'm thankful for that, but I still believe on a broader scale of presidential measurements that he was mediocre at best and I voted accordingly. But that's all history. He did and still does touch a lot of people's lives for the good. As I said earlier, I believe he is a good man and of all our recent presidents the one I would like most to meet.