To think that TIME and NEWSWEEK were my main sources of news at one time. No Internet. No talk radio. Just lame news magazines and having to wait until 6:30PM to get the news on TV. I can remember those days. Damn, I'm old.
Posted on 05/20/2008 8:42:58 PM PDT by John W
ATLANTA -Hamilton Jordan, a political strategist from south Georgia who helped propel Jimmy Carter to the White House and served as his chief of staff, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.
Jordan, 63, died at his home in Atlanta about 7:30 p.m., said Gerald Rafshoon, who was Carter's chief of communications.
"He was a great strategist. He just couldn't strategize his way out of this," Rafshoon said from his home in Washington.
Jordan's battle with cancer began 22 years ago, when he was diagnosed with lymphoma, followed by bouts with melanoma and prostate cancer.
Rafshoon said a memorial service was planned Friday at The Carter Center in Atlanta and Carter would attend.
Carter said in a statement that he and his wife, Rosalynn, "are deeply saddened."
"Hamilton was my closest political adviser, a trusted confidant and my friend. His judgment, insight and wisdom were excelled only by his compassion and love of our country."
Jordan was born in Charlotte, N.C., in 1944 and raised in Albany, Ga. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a political science degree in 1967 and became a key adviser to Carter during the 1976 presidential campaign.
After Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, Jordan ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 1986. He lost to Wyche Fowler, who won the general election.
Jordan worked for H. Ross Perot's presidential bid in 1992.
Later he worked with Unity08, an independent political group founded by independent Angus King, the former governor of Maine, along with Rafshoon and Doug Bailey, a former staffer on President Ford's 1976 campaign.
In a recent public appearance, Jordan told the Atlanta Press Club that he was a fan of Barack Obama in his race for the Democratic nomination.
Jordan visited the press club with the Georgia Cancer Coalition and discussed his fight with cancer.
"I've been to the edge of life and had to face my own mortality," he said. "I'm here to tell you, I'm not through yet. We've been blessed with great medicine and great friends."
Jordan recalled that after "the American people sent us back to Atlanta in 1980" by unseating Carter, he helped his wife, Dorothy, begin a summer camp for children with cancer called Camp Sunshine.
Rafshoon said Jordan had fought his bouts with cancer successfully but recently "had a series of things that shut down his systems." He said Jordan's doctor would describe the medical complications on Wednesday.
"I talked to him many times during the past few weeks," he said. "He was enjoying watching the latest presidential campaign."
Rafshoon said that although Jordan's spirits seemed good, he was obviously getting weaker.
"He was a fighter to the very end," he said.
Wow. He fought cancer a third of his life. That’s pretty tough.
“who helped propel Jimmy Carter to the White House “
First Teddy and now this guy. Who will be the third? Osama?
May he rest in peace! He earned it. Amen.
That means he was 41 when he was diagnosed with lymphoma. I don't even know what that is and I'm 40. I still feel young and healthy, but by the time you reach 40, you do start feeling the lurking presence of the Reaper.
I remember those days well. How are the mighty fallen.
Do we get to vote on who is third?
Sorry — I couldn’t help myself...
Censored, censored, censored.........
Wow. First Uncle Teddy, now Jimmuh’s top advisor? Thus begins the parade of mysterious deaths and illnesses for all who have stabbed a Clinton in the back in the past year...
lol.
...said Gerald Rafshoon, who was Carter's chief of communications.
"He was a great strategist. He just couldn't strategize his way out of this," Rafshoon said from his home in Washington.
And God save us from PR flacks who can't even control their silly sound-bite reflex in a time of mourning.
This is spooky - his name crossed my mind this morning for absolutely no good reason and this was well before I had read any newspapers or web sites.
To think that TIME and NEWSWEEK were my main sources of news at one time. No Internet. No talk radio. Just lame news magazines and having to wait until 6:30PM to get the news on TV. I can remember those days. Damn, I'm old.
Wow, he was much younger than I thought.
At 63 now that means he was 30 or 31 when he ran Carter’s campaign and a little older when he was a WH Aide.
He was just a kid!
Perhaps the lesson learned is that we should not allow anyone under 45 in the White House as even a staffer.
“..... who helped propel Jimmy Carter to the White House...”
Helped, maybe a little.
But it was the LeftMedia via Watergate, one of their first forays into MAKING the news as opposed to reporting it, that had the biggest impact BY FAR in securing the election for the weak loser Jimmy Carter.
Same here but just a few days ago I thought to myself “I wonder what Hamilton Jordan is doing now.”
“Helped elect Jimmy Carter” has got to be among the worst eulogies a soul could get.
Glad you posted that. I got those two mixed up and had Jody Powell pictured in my head.
I remember those days also. Time & Newsweek have private tantrums every day I'm sure when they contemplate what they have squandered and/or what has been taken from them, i.e., the privilege of telling the unwashed masses what to think.
Just be glad we lived to see their demise.
May he RIP.
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