I think Carter was just being honest - he knows how demanding the job is and he also knows what it’s like to be 80. Personally, I would like to see candidates in their 40s to 60s. When most people hit 80, even if they are mentally sound - and I know quite a few who are - there is a threshold of physical frailty and age-related immune dysfunction. Adverse medical events can be sudden and debilitating. 25-50% of people over 85 begin to show signs of dementia.
So the age thing is not trivial, in my mind. An 80 year old can be the source of wisdom and sound advice. But I worry about the resilience and energy necessary to serve as president.
But, my comment was that Elizabeth Warren would not be president at 80 years of age. That doesn’t mean to me that even her age does not concern me. She’s my #1 candidate, in fact, by a long-shot. Fortunately the age issue is not one that gives Trump any advantage.
I just plain like and respect Jimmy Carter. Don’t agree with everything he did or every word he says, but his intellect, his compassion, his graciousness, his decency, his humanity and his charm got him through a difficult and sometimes tragic presidency and make him outstanding now. He’ll leave a great American legacy when he walks away from the earth.
I’m sure Republicans will suddenly decide that Carter is the wisest man to ever speak on the Presidency, now that he’s finally (after 40 years) said something they want to agree with. Until this day, mentioning Carter’s name required a Republican to spit afterwards, just on principle.
That is why his Administration was dragged though the mud by the Corporate Media and the Oligarchs.
He wasn’t “One of THEM” AND he spoke with a soft southern drawl, which the East-Coast MSM dismissed as “crude and uneducated” (remember, this is LONG before the MSM decided that cowboy boots and shit-kicking was the height of “fashion” (in the Reagan Years.)
The entire “Iranian Hostage” affair was arranged and executed by a rogue group within (and without) the CIA, directed by one George H.W. Bush (whom Carter had FIRED as Director of the CIA when he assumed office in 1977.)
These hard-line hawks at the CIA were FURIOUS with Carter for firing H.W. Bush and coordinated the destabilization of the US and the entire Iranian “crisis” with the Reagan Campaign.
It was not a coincidence that the “hostages” were released the DAY that Reagan took office, and then he turned and SOLD sophisticated anti-air missile systems to Iran in exchange for them helping fund the Contra’s in South America (in direct violation of the Congress and American Law.)
Who directed the Iran-Contra affair from the National Security Office? H.W. Bush who chaired the NatSec Council.
Carters only problem was that he was an Honest Man in Washington D.C. and unfortunately he brought with him his friends and cronies from Georgia, and D.C. ate them alive, much to the delight of the MSM who hated Carter from the get-go as he was the antithesis of their East-Coast WASP elitism.
One of the last straws was his successful negotiation of Peace between Egypt and Israel. That incensed the Zionists in the East-Coast Media and the War-Hawks at the CIA to no end and they vowed to defeat him in 1980 for it.
and they did. Look what that has brought us.
Not since pre-civil war has a Democrat over 60 been elected president (surely Truman does not count as he was “Reelected” after serving the rest of FDR’s 4th term.
I believe that the fact that Democrats need younger voters to get over the top is the reason. This particular subgroup of the party is the most fickle and least dependable at the polls.
If you are incapable of doing nuance you should skip this post. James Earl Carter, Jr. will almost certainly go down as our finest former President. I gladly give to the Carter foundation and have done for years. He does great work. But his record as President is quite different, something many if not most seem to forget, or never learned. In ’76 I worked for Carter’s campaign, and voted for him both times.
“To be to the right of Carter is to be a Republican” – William F. Buckley, August, 1978. This was exactly why in the summer of ’78 that Democrats favored Ted Kennedy over Carter for president in 1980 by a two-to-one margin. Few seem to remember that.
Carter’s comments are not helpful. And he was a mediocrity in the White House at age 52. Many of us knew within 9 months in – the fall of ’77 and his mishandling of the Bert Lance mini-scandal that he would be a one-term President.
Recall (if you can; history makes rose-colored glasses out of many of us) that Carter and his incompetent, arrogant staff (think Hamilton Jordan, Jody Powell, Frank Moore) spent their first six month insulting Congressional Democrats. Especially Frank Moore. No wonder within 18 months the Democratic Party had had it with Carter.
And the Iran debacle (and, sure, you can trace that back to Ike in ’53, along with the Dulles brothers, John Foster and Allen, who actually ran Ike’s foreign policy), is wholly, squarely on Carter.
Why? Everybody’s different. I’ve met people in their 60’s who couldn’t tie their shoes without verbal instruction and people in their mid-80’s who served as my experts on the stand, dispelling their cross-exams like champs.
Let’s pretend Biden who’ll be 78 next year and Sanders who’ll be 79 are at the top of their game. Warren will be 71 and clearly is aging better than either of them, is sharp, clear headed, simply doesn’t show the slowing down age brings with it. Warren demonstrates 71 is the new 51.
Carter is the only decent president during my entire lifetime of 71 years in the USA. He may have his failings as president, but he remains a good person, before and after his presidency. I can’t think of any other ex-presidents that were even decent, except maybe JFK in some ways.
