Well, we can’t know, but I think the Iranians are smarter than that. They wanted to make it clear exactly why they were releasing the hostages and didn’t count on the American people being so stupid they didn’t put it together.
and used them to CREATE the Iranian Revolution simply to embarrass and defeat Carter and get Saint Ronnie the Ray-Gun elected
I’m not convinced that’s the case. The fomenters of the revolution certainly had no love for the old Kermit Roosevelt operatives. I think the Reagan folks just took advantage of the situation that developed organically as the middle class Iranians grew tired of the Shah and his paranoid reign.
Every other president who did not enter the White House as a wealthy man has been seduced by his proximity to wealth and taken advantage of that proximity to grow quite wealthy as well. Carter was never impressed by others’ wealth and has continued to dedicate his life to making the world a better place…for others. He will be sorely missed when he is gone, even by those who won’t quite realize it.
Although I do think that Poppy Bush has a higher sense of noblesse oblige than the other mollycoddled chowderheads, despite being a child of much privilege.
Wonder how his health is faring…?! Jebya’s performance so far,and his poll standing can’t be much of a tonic for his ol’ Paw-Paw.Oooh,I would love for Colbert to interview Barbara Bush…
Mr. Carter seems like a nice man and I hope he recovers from his illness. He has been a public man. My son was on a flight with him a few years ago and Jimmie made sure to go back and say hello to all the passengers. Because he espouses religion writers feel the need to use theological terms and overrate his efforts on behalf of the nation. And since he is ill all bets are off. Even though I voted for him twice, he was not an effective President. Now that he is sick he seems to feel that we must know chapter and verse about the rest of his life. I think that public figures who are ill should battle their sickness in private. Go home and hug your children and grandchildren and give us a bulletin every so often if we ask.
Another prophesy not mentioned here. In Carter’s statements criticizing our decision to invade Iraq, he warned it would make Iran stronger. So now we see.
I’d rather blame those who voted for Reagan and his paganist views of capitalism being the almighty and well as greed.
OK, I’ll give you this, the nonvoters were complicit. There is not one election that could not have given a different outcome by those who did not vote.
I was against the war with Iran as were many others. That does not make Mr. Carter or me a prophet. He wasn’t very good at the job of President. I don’t blame him for Reagan.
Let’s not overrate him because he is ill. The teaching of Sunday School meme this week is no more meaningful to the kids in the class than before. Mostly they couldn’t care less and wonder why mom and dad are making then be inside on a hot summer morning. Time to leave the stage and spend many years hopefully in the company of family. This article was written by a gentleman who is writing a book and wants you to purchase it. I don’t know how old he is but probably was a kid while Jimmie was President. From the perspective of history he will go down as a President who tried hard but failed to inspire the nation. His successes and their were some are out weighted by a misreading of the national mood in many cases. I voted twice for him because the alternative was worse. I hated having to do that.
Under the perverse guise of the U.S. being a fighter for human rights, Carter sought to refurbish the U.S. government’s image after its defeat in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. In doing so, he renewed the faith of a lot of liberals, “radicals” and social democrats (“socialists”) in U.S. imperialism, something they were desperately looking for. This culminated in rallying these constituencies in throwing down the axe against the Soviet Union, specifically over its defense of a leftist government against the fundamentalist mullahs in Afghanistan (a move which opened the way for what the world has faced since the Soviet Union’s overthrow). In these ways, Carter laid the groundwork in foreign policy for the resurgence of American conservatism and Ronald Reagan in particular.
Likewise on the domestic front, Carter gave the counterattack against 1960’s “welfare liberalism” and black welfare mothers in particular, the legitimacy of liberalism, something Nixon or no other Republican had the authority as a Republican to accomplish.
In these and other ways, Carter was an archetype in demonstrating the modern historical role of the Democratic Party in American politics: rallying the liberals, social democrats, labor bureaucrats and left-leaning center back into the mainstream of American imperial politics, and thus greasing the way for its more traditional purveyors, Republican conservatism.
Of course I meant Iraq. It was late. If Mr. Carter wasn’t publicly religious would he have used the term Prophetic to describe his opposition to the IRAQ war. Mr. Obama also loudly opposed it as did you and I.
" The modern conservative is ingaged in one of mans oldest exercisess in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior justification for selfishness."
John Kenneth Galbrath
It has been my experience during my long life that people who are publicly religious have no more insight into public issues than anyone else. If Mr. Carter was correct sometimes on a public issue it was because he evaluated the situation logically and reached a conclusion. My objection is to the use of the word prophetic.
