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Still Paying for Carter's Mistakes
FrontPageMagazine ^ | 4/20/2006 | Michael Reagan

Posted on 04/20/2006 5:41:33 AM PDT by Dark Skies

Everybody’s playing the blame game these days. The current target is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who seems to be standing in for President Bush – the man who his enemies say is responsible for everything that’s gone wrong since the Biblical flood. (“Bush lied about the need to build an ark.”)

South of our borders we have a nut job running oil-rich Venezuela and threatening to do all kinds of nasty things to us. In North Korea we have another nut job building nukes and rattling sabers, and in Iran there’s still another whacked-out leader threatening to blow Israel off the map, for starters.

Believe me, Rummy had nothing to do with any of that. Nor did George Bush. If you’re looking for someone to point the finger at, look no further than James Earl Carter. Every one of these problems can be laid at the door of the Georgia peanut farmer and self-anointed evangelist for world peace, understanding, goodwill, and promoter of universal love-ins with dictators who hate us.

Let’s begin with Iran, a boiling cauldron of hatred for everything associated with Western civilization. Recall that when Jimmah took office Iran was ruled by a strong ally of the United States, the Shah. Like most Middle Eastern potentates, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ruled with an iron hand. Under him, Iran was not the kind of democracy we’re now promoting for the Middle East.

The Shah, however, was also the staunch friend and ally of the United States. He saw to it that the oil kept flowing in our direction, and kept his military in good-enough shape to protect our interests in the area.

But the Shah somehow offended Brother Carter’s exalted view of the inherent goodness of a mankind freed from the strictures imposed by dictatorial rules. With a wink and a nod, he arranged to have Pahlavi replaced by an exiled mullah - the Ayatollah Khomeini - who in Carter’s view would be a moderate leader who would democratize Iran.

What Carter got for us was a Muslim fanatic seething with hatred for everything Western, who without blinking an eye spat on our national sovereignty when he took over the United States embassy in Tehran and held 52 American hostages for 444 days, until the U.S. came to its senses and elected my dad Ronald Reagan to replace the hapless Jimmy Carter.

Thanks to Carter, Iran today constitutes a grave threat to the United States and to world peace. He allowed the creation of an Islamic Republic bent on imposing the most repressive form of Islam on the entire world.

Then we can turn to Venezuela, now locked in the grip of a Castro-clone and fervent communist Hugo Chavez, who is creating a heavily armed communist dictatorship on our southern doorstep. When Chavez faced a recall election Cater was on hand to monitor the election, which turned out to be rigged to elect Chavez from the very start. Despite overwhelming evidence that the Chavez victory was the result of rampant vote fraud, Mr. Carter put his stamp of approval on it, declaring it to have been fair and honest. Carter kept Chavez in office.

In 1994, when Bill Clinton was facing down North Korea’s Kim Il-Sung, father of current dictator Kim Jong-Il, he sent Carter to strike a deal on his development of nuclear technology. Speaking of the dying murderous dictator, Carter said he found him "vigorous, intelligent, surprisingly well-informed about the technical issues, and in charge of the decisions about this country," and added, “I don’t see the [North Koreans] are an outlaw nation."

The deal Carter made allowed the North Koreans to work behind the scenes to build nuclear weapons which now threaten world peace. When he came back from North Korea he told CNN’s Judy Woodruff, “I think it's all roses now.... “

I agree with Jack Kinsella who once wrote in the Omega Letter Daily Intelligence Digest that “Jimmy Carter holds the hands-down record for being the worst ex-president the United States has ever known. His post-presidential meddling in foreign affairs has cost America dearly, both in terms of international credibility and international prestige.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: carter; carterlegacy; desmondtutu; iran; islam; jimmycarter; lebanon; michaelreagan; presidents; wot
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To: RabidBartender
I read "The Real Jimmy Carter" recently also. What an eye opener! I knew he was bad, but I just didn't realize how totally awful he was.

I voted for him the first time, and have always been ashamed about it. The only comfort I have felt was provided by that book when I was reminded about one of the clueless responses Ford made during the debates that sealed his fate - as far as I was concerned. Have you gotten to the section with transcripts from the presidential debates where Ford actually denied that the Soviet Block countries were dominated by the Soviet Union?

Here it is from the 1976 debates:
MAX FRANKEL, New York Times: Mr. President, I'd like to explore a little more deeply our relationship with the Russians… Our allies in France and Italy are now flirting with Communism. We've recognized the permanent Communist regime in East Germany. We've virtually signed, in Helsinki, an agreement that the Russians have dominance in Eastern Europe…

PRESIDENT FORD: I'm glad you raised it, Mr. - Frankel. In the case of Helsinki, 35 nations signed an agreement, including the secretary of state for the Vatican - I can't under any circumstances believe that the - His Holiness, the Pope would agree by signing that agreement that the thirty-five nations have turned over to the Warsaw Pact nations the domination of the - Eastern Europe. It just isn't true… There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration

MR. FRANKEL: I'm sorry, I - could I just follow - did I understand you to say, sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence in occupying most of the countries there and making sure with their troops that it's a Communist zone?

PRESIDENT FORD: I don't believe, - Mr. Frankel that - the Yugoslavians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don't believe that the Romanians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don't believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union.
21 posted on 04/20/2006 6:40:12 AM PDT by Nevadan
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To: Alberta's Child

install the Shah as a puppet government""

Say what you want about the Shah of Iran, but:

He kept numerous tribes in line, for better or worse.

He was building schools and educating Iran--both boys and girls- and realized they needed education to deal with the whole world, not just their tribal areas.

Iran was on track to have a modern, educated work force until Carter stepped in and destroyed the Shah's chances to bring this to fruition.

Today, Iran is years behind the rest of the world, and instead of just isolating themselves and living in the 7th century, they are trying to force the rest of us into the same century.

I will NEVER be able to say anything kind about Carter. I would slap him silly if he ever showed up near my property.
It is beyond my comprehension that a man who could barely be successful growing peanuts could be voted President. He was beyond naive. I don't know a proper word for it, but he is now well into the territory of treasonous, IMO.


22 posted on 04/20/2006 6:42:28 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles

How ironic -- you could pretty much say the same things about Saddam Hussein, too.


23 posted on 04/20/2006 6:48:19 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (Can money pay for all the days I lived awake but half asleep?)
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To: RabidBartender
Four more years of "Malaise Man" would have been catastrophic.

Jimmah must have been shocked to his core in seeing the outpouring of respect and love for Reagan at his funeral.

24 posted on 04/20/2006 6:54:03 AM PDT by Starboard (Liberal superiorists hate the system that allows average people to make more money than they do.)
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To: Starboard
Jimmah must have been shocked to his core in seeing the outpouring of respect and love for Reagan at his funeral.

Nah- they usually don't see things that they don't want to see.

25 posted on 04/20/2006 7:15:01 AM PDT by Riley ("What color is the boathouse at Hereford?")
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To: Alberta's Child
The situation with Mossadegh was more complicated than you present. Mossadegh went off on the deep end and deserved what happened to him.

Agreed, the Shah's excesses brought about much of the backlash. However, what ticked off the religious nuts was that he was trying to westernize the country. He may have gone a bit too fast for many Iranians. However, the Shah's regime was not beyond repair.

I disagree that we deserve what we got from Iran. It was during the Cold War and the Soviets had occupied part of Iran after WWII. The left loves to bash the CIA for overturning Allende in Chile and putting Pinochet in power. Pinochet also had excesses, but in retrospect, Allende was a milder form of Hugo Chavez and Pinochet led the country into a free market economy that is the best in Latin America.
26 posted on 04/20/2006 7:18:40 AM PDT by GeorgefromGeorgia
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To: dfwgator
LBJ was even worse.

Yeah, but most of us won't live long enough to see the records that have been sealed regarding the exploits of LBJ, which, I believe, will show just exactly how corrupt he really was.....until then, Carter is worst in my book.

27 posted on 04/20/2006 7:19:07 AM PDT by Thermalseeker
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To: ErnBatavia

Someone said that Mis' Lillian really wanted son Billy to run for president, but she wasn't sure Jimma was smart enough to run the gas station.


28 posted on 04/20/2006 7:20:42 AM PDT by newcthem (Thought I was an American.......now I find I'm just a racist.)
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To: Dark Skies

And don't forget that it was Jimmah who gave the Panama canal away.

And I will never forget the Christmas when there were no outdoor lights thanks to Carter.

And, he was NOT a nuclear scientist as the Dems claimed.


29 posted on 04/20/2006 7:22:19 AM PDT by kitkat (The first step down to hell is to deny the existence of evil.)
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To: kitkat
Re: And, he was NOT a nuclear scientist as the Dems claimed.

The truth is that Carter was NOT a nuclear scientist as HE claimed.
30 posted on 04/20/2006 7:26:05 AM PDT by Nevadan
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To: Dark Skies

"“Jimmy Carter holds the hands-down record for being the worst ex-president the United States has ever known. "

The worst President, Period!


31 posted on 04/20/2006 7:37:02 AM PDT by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: Thermalseeker
"LBJ was even worse."
Yeah, but most of us won't live long enough to see the records that have been sealed regarding the exploits of LBJ, which, I believe, will show just exactly how corrupt he really was.....until then, Carter is worst in my book"

Read Barr McClellan's book "BLOOD, MONEY, AND POWER" for the real picture of LBJ!

32 posted on 04/20/2006 7:37:59 AM PDT by Sen Jack S. Fogbound
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To: RabidBartender
Carter cited as his biggest mistake "allowing Ronald Reagan to become President of the United States."

Proves once again how foolish PeanutMan is.

He didn't "allow" Reagan to become president. The People of the United States fired his incompetent ass.
33 posted on 04/20/2006 7:41:28 AM PDT by Beckwith (The liberal media has picked sides and they've sided with the Jihadists.)
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To: kitkat
And don't forget that it was Jimmah who gave the Panama canal away.

Carter completed this process, but let's not give Gerald Ford a free pass here. During his tenure as President, Ford significantly advanced the negotiations to cede away the Canal Zone, laying the foundation for what ultimately happened under Carter. Ford drew heavy criticism from Ronald Reagan during the 1976 primaries for his role in this.

34 posted on 04/20/2006 7:49:12 AM PDT by BlackRazor
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To: Dark Skies
Here's what I remember;

Government cheese
55 mph speed limit
Thermostat set at 65 degrees in winter
Thermostat set at 85 degrees in summer
Research and development of ethanol gas
Afghanistan's invasion by USSR
Boycott of the Moscow Olympics
Iran, the nightmare
The prisoner of the rose garden
A stagnant economy turning into a recession
Dow Jones Industrial Average below 800 points
35 posted on 04/20/2006 8:11:34 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: GeorgefromGeorgia
Mossadegh went off on the deep end and deserved what happened to him.

I don't dispute that, but that doesn't necessarily mean the U.S. had to be involved. There was a good chance that he would have been toppled by opposition elements in Iran anyway -- which would have allowed the U.S. to operate at arm's length with Iran as far as their internal conflicts were concerned.

If nothing else, the U.S. involvement in Iran over the last 50 years has made it very difficult for us to establish any credibility in the Middle East whenever some moron from Washington stand up and makes silly, utopian statements about "establishing freedom and democracy" as part of U.S. foreign policy.

36 posted on 04/20/2006 8:13:43 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (Can money pay for all the days I lived awake but half asleep?)
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To: Dixie Yooper
Dow Jones Industrial Average below 800 points

Eight hundred? Or eight thousand?

37 posted on 04/20/2006 8:25:52 AM PDT by Christian4Bush (FreeRepublic and Rush Limbaugh: kevlar protection from the Drive-By Media.)
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To: Christian4Bush

The Dow first hit 1000 in 1968, then again in 1972 and not again until 1982.


38 posted on 04/20/2006 8:32:37 AM PDT by waverna
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To: doberville
As much as I despise Clinton, gotta admit: Carter was WORSE.

Yeah. It would have been much better if Carter would have done some lusting in the oval Office instead of just in his heart.

39 posted on 04/20/2006 8:40:07 AM PDT by HIDEK6
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To: Nevadan
PRESIDENT FORD: I don't believe, - Mr. Frankel that - the Yugoslavians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don't believe that the Romanians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don't believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union.

What WAS he thinking?

40 posted on 04/20/2006 8:43:08 AM PDT by HIDEK6
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