Quote:
Originally posted by cstreit
I dunno... Perhaps he didn't do too much, but the real measure of a President in my mind is what he does AFTER his presidency. Unlike most ex- Pres who went off and built themselves statues and libraries, Carter used his position to help the less fortunate...
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No question that Carter is a great human being and continues to work hard for the less fortunate (and his legacy).
The problems with his presidency were at many levels. Among other major mistakes was his total and complete neutering of the intelligence community, the CIA in particualr. A strong case was built by Steve Coll (NY Times) that we can trace most of our middle east / central asia problems back to this single action. Add to that the total mismanagement of the economy (I sure remember his 18% 30 year mortgage interest rates!) and the debacle of the Iranian hostages.
Jimmy Carter clearly gets my vote as the worst president of my life time.