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| Democrats Rewrite History to Praise Jimmy Carter |
| 2025-01-04 |
| [RealClearPol] Tom Donilon, President Barack Obama’s national security adviser from 2010 to 2013, attempts to rewrite history on the Foreign Affairs website to praise Jimmy Carter as a great foreign policy president. We "learn" from Donilon that Carter left a legacy of peace in the Middle East with the Camp David Accords, enhanced U.S. security in the broader Persian Gulf region by proclaiming the Carter Doctrine, deftly managed our relationship with China by advancing the "one China" policy and ensured the ultimate downfall of the Soviet Union. One wonders why American voters overwhelmingly rejected Carter in 1980 after he accomplished so much (according to Donilon). There was a time when Democrats had the courage to distance themselves from a failed foreign policy by a president of their own party—and that time was in the late 1970s. The list of prominent Democrats who supported GOP candidate Ronald Reagan over Carter in the 1980 election because of Carter’s failed foreign policy was long and distinguished, and included the likes of Paul Nitze, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Max Kampelman, Norman Podhoretz, Lane Kirkland, Eugene Rostow, Richard Perle, Richard Pipes, and Elliot Abrams, among others. Many of these were known then as "Scoop Jackson Democrats," named after the long-serving Senator from the state of Washington Henry M. Jackson, a key member of the Armed Services Committee. Scoop Jackson was one of the nation’s chief critics of détente, especially as practiced by the Carter administration. Scoop Jackson was on Reagan’s transition team. Kirkpatrick, Rostow, Perle, Abrams, Pipes and Nitze all joined Reagan’s national security team. The first major Democratic salvo against Carter’s foreign policy was fired by Jeane Kirkpatrick in an article in Commentary in 1979 titled "Dictatorships and Double Standards." Kirkpatrick’s first sentence set the theme of the article: "The failure of the Carter administration’s foreign policy is now clear to everyone except its architects, and even they must entertain private doubts, from time to time, about a policy whose crowning achievement has been to lay the groundwork for a transfer of the Panama Canal from the United States to a swaggering Latin dictator of Castroite bent." Kirkpatrick criticized Carter for failing to adequately respond to a massive Soviet conventional and military build-up, watching as the Soviets extended their political influence in Africa, Afghanistan, and the Caribbean Sea, and undermining long-time U.S. allies in Nicaragua and Iran to the detriment of U.S. security interests. Carter, she said, wielded the cudgel of "human rights" against America’s allies regardless of the strategic consequences. Related: Jimmy Carter 01/03/2025 Biden briefed on plans for potential US strikes if Iran makes nuclear move — report Jimmy Carter 01/03/2025 San Francisco mayor-elect promises worried resident that he'll clean up city, address homelessness crisis Jimmy Carter 12/31/2024 Jimmy Carter the terrible, distorting reality in Gaza and other commentary |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #5 Absolutely agree. Thank goodness President Trump v.1 and v.2 have/will work with Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu to unravel all that Carter, Obama, and the Biden-Harris administration strove to achieve. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2025-01-04 19:03 |
| #4 ^ Agreed, Fuck his Legacy |
| Posted by: Frank G 2025-01-04 18:22 |
| #3 Poster in AoS this morning by Cynical Publius " Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius I promised to myself that I would not comment further on Jimmy Carter's death, but it bothers me to see so many otherwise sensible conservatives spouting the "Bad President, good man" line that the Democrat/Media Complex has been spinning for 40+ years. Thus, I feel the need to drop some truth bombs, propriety at time of death notwithstanding. Yes, he hammered a few nails on some houses for poor people. But that alone does not make one a "good man," when the rest of the track record is so awful. After Carter lost in spectacular fashion in 1980, he did not do what every other President before him did and retire to a quiet, private life. He could have farmed peanuts in Plains with Rosalynn. Instead, he bitterly engaged in active and public efforts to undermine the policies of the elected Republicans who came after him. He INVENTED the jealous, manipulative ex-President model that Obama put on steroids in 2016. Jimmy Carter flew around the world for decades, un-asked by America, on self-appointed missions of national importance, almost always involving gleefully interacting with raging antisemitic terrorist and/or Communist leaders, always working against the official policies of the ACTUALLY ELECTED Presidents. Carter's hatred of Israel bordered on pathological, and reeked of a sort of cloaked antisemitism that has become quite fashionable today. Somehow Jimmy Carter convinced himself that he was such an important and historic figure that he stood outside and above the U.S. systems of election and governance, even though no one other than the Yassar Arafats and Hugo Chavezs of the world asked him to do so. Jimmy Carter was a bitter, angry narcissist who cloaked his lifelong, seething rage at the indignity of being body-slammed by Ronald Reagan (someone he considered lesser than himself in every regard) with that genteel "Southern gentleman" accent, vague scripture references and the occasional hammered nail. He purposely and vengefully wreaked havoc on America's official foreign policy for decades and he INVENTED the concept of a meddling ex-President poisoning American political discourse. (In that regard, Obama has been Carter v.2.0--we have Carter to thank for that.) Literally every aspect of the man's self-serving public life was harmful to America, he knew that, and he did it all anyway because narcissists always operate like that--they cannot help it, and they can never admit fault. Carter's "good man" image was a carefully constructed and nurtured illusion, one that he gladly worked with the corrupt media to maintain. So please consider these factors before pronouncing "Bad President, good man." Sometimes truth needs to be said even when some find that truth untimely." |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2025-01-04 16:33 |
| #2 ^^ Back when some news folks were actual journalists. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2025-01-04 09:33 |
| #1 ...They also forget just how close the Lion Of The Senate, Teddy Kennedy, came to getting nominated instead in 1980. He was setting up for a floor fight at the convention - and may well have won it - had Mike Wallace not asked him during an interview about committing involuntary manslaughter. His response made Kamala Harris sound like Cato the Elder, and that sank him then and there. Mike |
| Posted by: MikeKozlowski 2025-01-04 08:59 |