By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on 4.17.08 @ 12:08AM
At least it can be said that Jimmy Carter's post-presidency remains consistent with his presidency.
WASHINGTON -- In the 1980 presidential election the American
people did the best they could with President Jimmy Carter, given
the limitations imposed on them by our Constitution. They retired
him from office (44 states participated in the ceremony). Looking
back, however, on how the scamp has abused his retirement, I, for
one, wish we could have done better. Perhaps he could have been put
in a jar. He has, in the succeeding twenty-eight years since his
exit from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, remained almost as ruinous a
nuisance out of office as he was in office. This cannot be said of
any other president.
When Jimmy was given the heave-ho, the Misery Index, an index
combining rates of inflation and unemployment, was at an all time
high of 21.98% -- up from 13.5% when he was elected in 1976. After
his last full year as president, inflation was at 13.5% and
unemployment at 7.2%. Today the Misery Index is at 8.83%, though
the Democrats have not a nice thing to say about Jimmy's Republican
successors. In Jimmy's day the prime rate moved from 7% to 20%, and
the home mortgage rate was almost 18%. Think about those figures
this autumn when you are asked to choose between Senator John
McCain and either Senator Barack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton,
two Democrats with even less experience than Governor Jimmy Carter
in matters economic.
As for foreign policy, Jimmy presided over a steady decline in
American influence, as the Soviets went on a worldwide offensive
and the American military atrophied. American diplomats were jailed
in their own embassy in Tehran and the military rescue mission
mounted by Jimmy to free them was one of the few American military
embarrassments of the 20th century. Incidentally, Iran's present
president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, played a major role in holding our
diplomats, according to retired FBI agents who monitored
Ahmadinejad's communications from Tehran to fellow conspirators
then in New York.
Yet Jimmy remains quite full of himself. In fact, his sense of
moral superiority has grown as the memory of his failed presidency
recedes into history. Rather than retire to a library to read, as
former President Harry Truman did, in the hope that he might
understand what went wrong during the Carter Administration, Jimmy
founded The Carter Center for Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, and
Building Hope. Perhaps it is his intention to spread the failure of
his presidency throughout the world. Think of it, a worldwide
Misery Index of 21.98%!
There was a time when former presidents were reluctant to
criticize their successors and absolutely refused to do so while on
foreign soil. Jimmy broke from that discipline years ago. He
attacked the Reagan Administration from Cairo in 1984 where he
scoffed at the President for being "more inclined to form a Contra
army to overthrow the Sandinistas or inject the Marines into
Lebanon or use American battleships to shell villages around
Beirut" than to negotiate. In the run up to Gulf I, he interposed
himself, warning that if the Bush Administration attacked Iraq the
United States "would reap great and very serious deleterious
consequences politically." To the consternation of Clinton
Administration officials in 1994, Jimmy popped up in North Korea to
work out a nuclear agreement with President Kim Il Sung that proved
utterly futile. The North Koreans detonated a nuclear device 12
years later.
Now against the wishes of the Bush Administration Jimmy is in
the Middle East, holding meetings with Hamas and laying a wreath on
the grave of the deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Hamas
regularly lobs rockets and mortars into Israeli neighborhoods and
is dedicated to Israel's destruction. Arafat was a famously corrupt
leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front and over a lifetime
responsible for the deaths of Americans and Israelis alike, as well
as hundreds of other innocent people. Of course, the Bush
Administration's opposition to Jimmy's arrogant journey only
encourages this impudent man.
The Israelis are for the most part ignoring his visit after
making it abundantly clear that they do not favor it. They are
right to snub him. That he has been greeted by Hamas speaks volumes
about the public life of Jimmy Carter. A failure as a president,
Jimmy is appraised as a useful tool by our enemies.
topics:
Foreign Policy, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Constitution, Military, Iraq, Iran, Israel, NATO, North Korea, Oil
