The worst in history?

[The_Professor]

I unfortunatley agree with much in this article (the Iraq debacle, the Republican environmental record, etc.). However, I think it is iinteresting that President Carter says this, all from a man who couldn't even properly address our Embassy personnel being taken hostage, which is why I didn't vote for him again...what a wimp!

(The previous statement was made by ME, not by the author of the following article or any affiliated editors, etc. associated with the following article)

Carter Blasts Bush on His Global Impact
 
May 19, 7:08 PM (ET)

 
(AP) Former President Jimmy Carter listens to a student's question after speaking about his book...
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.

The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented for the 39th president, also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative funding.

"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's Saturday editions. "The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me."

Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo confirmed his comments to The Associated Press on Saturday and declined to elaborate. He spoke while promoting his new audiobook series, "Sunday Mornings in Plains," a collection of weekly Bible lessons from his hometown of Plains, Ga.

"Apparently, Sunday mornings in Plains for former President Carter includes hurling reckless accusations at your fellow man," said Amber Wilkerson, Republican National Committee spokeswoman. She said it was hard to take Carter seriously because he also "challenged Ronald Reagan's strategy for the Cold War."

Carter came down hard on the Iraq war.

"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered," he said. "But that's been a radical departure from all previous administration policies."

Carter, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, criticized Bush for having "zero peace talks" in Israel. Carter also said the administration "abandoned or directly refuted" every negotiated nuclear arms agreement, as well as environmental efforts by other presidents.

Carter also offered a harsh assessment for the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which helped religious charities receive $2.15 billion in federal grants in fiscal year 2005 alone.

"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion," Carter said. "As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."

Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer, described Carter's comments as unprecedented.

"This is the most forceful denunciation President Carter has ever made about an American president," Brinkley said. "When you call somebody the worst president, that's volatile. Those are fighting words."

Carter also lashed out Saturday at British prime minister Tony Blair. Asked how he would judge Blair's support of Bush, the former president said: "Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient."

"And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world," Carter told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.


Now, to attribute thisCORRECTLY so big bad BT doesn't jump down my throat: (geesh)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070519/D8P7O79O0.html

Retrieved at 8:26 am EDT.

[Mucho]

I love Jimmy now. He is a great man , but was an abysmal Pres. He is probly pleased that the Bushidiot replaced HIM as the worst.

[The_Professor]

Isn't it interesitng how he is appreciated more for his actions AFTER his time in office than during it. Sad, in a weird way.

[Mucho]

Isn't it interesitng how he is appreciated more for his actions AFTER his time in office than during it. Sad, in a weird way.

It isnt so weird,did better things after he was Pres than during. A person has to be a little bit of an asshole to be Pres. The Bushidiot is too much of one ane Carter too little. Bill Clinton got it just about right.

[The_Professor]

Jimmy Carter Backtracks on Calling Bush Administration Worst in U.S. History

Monday , May 21, 2007


CRAWFORD, Texas —
Former President Jimmy Carter backed off Monday from harshly critical comments he made of President Bush over the weekend after the White House offered a biting rebuke to the former president by calling him "increasingly irrelevant."

"My remarks were maybe careless or misinterpreted but I wasn't comparing the overall administration and certainly not talking about anyone personally," Carter said in an interview Monday when asked to explain.

The comments "were interpreted as comparing this whole administration to all other administrations when what I was actually doing was responding to a question about foreign policy between [President Richard] Nixon and this administration, and I think that this administration's foreign policy compared to Nixon's was much worse. ... I wasn't comparing this administration with other administrations throughout history but just with President Nixon's," he told NBC's "The Today Show."

Carter, whose administration was plagued by sky-high inflation and a 444-day American hostage crisis in Iran, was filling in a quote Saturday in which he said, "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."

The Georgia Democrat said Bush had overseen an "overt reversal of America's basic values" as epressed by previous administrations, including that of his own farther, former President George H.W. Bush.

Carter made the comments to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's Saturday editions. On Sunday, the White House bit back.

"I think it's sad that President Carter's reckless personal criticism is out there," White House spokesman Tony Fratto responded from Crawford, Texas, where Bush spent the weekend.

"I think it's unfortunate," Fratto said. "And I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments."

Carter, who runs the Carter Center and whose latest book on the Mideast has been deemed anti-Semitic by some, said he doesn't "claim to have any relevancy" on the Iraq issue, though he has sent reports for the president and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on his personal activities monitoring elections around the world.

He said Monday he has "not been timid about sharing my opinions with those leaders but obviously I don't have any authority."

Carter added that if it were up to him, he would follow recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton commission to discuss the Iraq situation with Iran and Syria, something the Bush administration has done, and would set a deadline for withdrawal based on the ability of the Iraqi government to meet benchmarks for a political solution to the violence there.

Asked about the former president's comments, 2008 White House hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton said she, too, has been very critical of the Bush administration but hasn't yet done so as a former president.

"I think it's the duty of every American to speak out when you feel strongly that your president is headed in the wrong direction. ... And I think we need to have a very vigorous debate. So I welcome everyone to that," she said appearing separately from Carter on the same program.

www.foxnews.com.

[Plane]

Oh well then , that is diffrent , very few presidents will ever have a foreign policy as successfull as Richard Nixons. Nixon effected Detente with China , Reagan effected detente with the USSR.

Without war, overcoming such large scale animosity is a seldom accomplishment.

[_JS]

I think arguing over this is falling prey to the myopia of looking far too much into one's own time period. It is very clear that we are not looking at an Augustus, Constantine, Napoleon, Peter the Great, even Abraham Lincoln. There is no defining moment here, as it was with Carter.

Clinton will be remembered, if for nothing else than being the second President impeached, for which the Republicans will be associated with a political agenda against him. But those will be trivia questions in another century or two. Clinton and Reagan will be remembered for being popular with the people, but not for much that they did. Their changes to their own parties' internal politics will only be recalled by more in-depth academics who actually care about such things.

[Plane]

I think arguing over this is falling prey to the myopia of looking far too much into one's own time period. It is very clear that we are not looking at an Augustus, Constantine, Napoleon, Peter the Great, even Abraham Lincoln. There is no defining moment here, as it was with Carter.

Clinton will be remembered, if for nothing else than being the second President impeached, for which the Republicans will be associated with a political agenda against him. But those will be trivia questions in another century or two. Clinton and Reagan will be remembered for being popular with the people, but not for much that they did. Their changes to their own parties' internal politics will only be recalled by more in-depth academics who actually care about such things.

You think the foreign policy success of Nixon and Reagan worthy of little note?

Both China and the USSR were better armed and more populous than the enemy that FDR faced , is it a requirement that the war be hot for it to count?

[Xavier_Onassis]

very few presidents will ever have a foreign policy as successfull as Richard Nixons

=====================================
Nixon was the guy who had the secret plan to win the war in Vietnam, and then won it, wasn't he?
He was the guy who made the US so many friends in South America by collaborating on the overthrow of elected Chilean Presidenbt Salvador Allende.

He was also the guy who sent Damn Mitrione to Uruguay to teach the military there to torture prisoners.


Sometimes I wonder what planet you actually live on Plane.

[Plane]

very few presidents will ever have a foreign policy as successfull as Richard Nixons

=====================================
Nixon was the guy who had the secret plan to win the war in Vietnam, and then won it, wasn't he?
He was the guy who made the US so many friends in South America by collaborating on the overthrow of elected Chilean Presidenbt Salvador Allende.

He was also the guy who sent Damn Mitrione to Uruguay to teach the military there to torture prisoners.


Sometimes I wonder what planet you actually live on Plane.

I don't think you would have any troubble trippleing that list of Nixon failures in foreign policy.

Or of finding a simular list of failures for each president since Monroe.

Nixon won big in China , Reagan won big in the USSR.

Now imagine that I list for you all of FDR's initiatives that didn't work well ,if it amounted to more than four, could I really argue that FDR was a failure in foreign policy?

[Amianthus]

Nixon was the guy who had the secret plan to win the war in Vietnam, and then won it, wasn't he?

Actually, Nixon never claimed to have a secret plan to win the war. He just claimed that he would end our involvement in Vietnam, but did not elaborate on what he would do. The "secret plan" part was the characterization of it in the media of the time.

[_JS]

Nixon will best be remembered as a crook. Like it or not. He did some good with China and other issues. In fact, Nixon was an extremely intelligent and talented individual, which always left many a little puzzled as to why he bothered to cover up a third-rate burglary of a Democratic candidate he was going to obliterate in the general election.

In the long-run of history, I don't think Nixon will prove to be much other than for Watergate and having a crooked Vice President, leading to two unelected leaders of the United States - an unprecedented event.

The political revisionism of "Reagan won the Cold War" will long be corrected because history is not Americentric. Also, in the long-run the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union will be assessed and the inability of the Western World to deal with the horrible nationalist violence and civil wars that plagued much of the former Soviet Republics or communist states (such as Yugoslavia) will be better reported and their stories told.

In other words, it won't all be pictures of statues being pulled down and celebrations.

Plus, some of the other problems have yet to be addressed. Many nations have yet to achieve the GDP they had under communism. Also, a number of nations had higher church attendance under communist regimes than they do now (Bulgaria being a great example). Neither of these were supposed to be the case according to Cold War propaganda, but the reality is showing a different picture of the world.

It will be interesting, no doubt.

But in the grand scheme of history, no I don't think Clinton or Reagan will be considered all that spectacular in another century or two. They'll both have mostly positive outlooks though as their overall popularity was generally high and both were known as great communicators with the people. I don't think they will stand out as Washington or Lincoln.