Was Jimmy Carter the worst President we ever had?

Question

His leadership during the Iran Hostage Crisis was pathetic and he failed the nation. Iran should have been invaded 25 years ago and we possibly even could have stopped Islamic terrorism before it even got a foothold in the Middle East. Instead he sends an ill equipped, poorly trained team that failed the mission. And inflation rose like crazy during his administration.

Answer 1

He was probably the most honest president at least in the last 50 years (while in office), and yes also the least effective.

Answer 2

Jimmy Carter’s presidency was a disaster. His anemic responses to events in Iran and Afghanistan are some of the lowlights....the best thing to come out of the Carter years was Ronald Reagan. And atop of Carter being the worst president ever--he is even a WORSE ex-president! First he stuck his nose into the North Korea situation in 1994 by persuading Clinton to send him to negotiate. Kim Il Sung broke the subsequent agreement, and kept on working on nuclear weapons. In other Carter lowlights:
He visited Cuba in 2002 and cavorted with Castro.
He certified the results of the questionable election in Venezuela in 2004 that kept Hugo Chavez in power. It was widely believed that the vote was fraudulent.
He wrote an error-riddled book about the Middle East, accusing Israel of practicing apartheid.
Carter has exercised poor judgment throughout his national political career.

Roselyn should keep him on the peanut farm!

Answer 3

There have been many Sci Fi shows about how history could have been drastically changed in one thing was altered. I believe it is quite likely that, if Carter had been elected for a second term, instead of being replaced by Ronald Reagan, the USSR would have continued to get stronger, rather than disintegrate.

By the time Reagan got into office, the USSR was on an expansion campaign unparalleled in its history. In quick succession, it had gobbled up territory in Asia, Africa, and most troubling of all, in Central America. Mexico could not endure long as a free country once its neighbors to the south turned Communist, and our government knew it.

In a few decades, the USSR could literally have started dictating the terms of our surrender. Democracy worldwide would have plummeted. Back in the Carter administration, many Western European countries were already Socialist, so turning Communist was not such a big jump for them.

People today like to re-write history, and pretend like the USSR was going to collapse anyway. That is total fiction, and dangerous wishful thinking.

Yes, Carter was a very bad President, indeed. This is why the Democrats wouldn't let him anywhere near their Conventions for 20 years. Only now that people's memories have diminished has he been allowed back.

I remember being embarrassed as I travelled overseas during the Carter administration. People in Europe tried to be diplomatic, but they kind of wondered if Carter didn't have some mild form of mental retardation. This is not a joke. They thought he was an idiot, but were too polite to put it in such crass terms.

Answer 4

My life was much better when Carter was president so my own personal belief is the present president (Bush) is the worst ever. Maybe Carter failed in Middle East things but Bush has totally failed on the home front. Since their job is to protect Americans, Bush has failed hands down.

When Carter was president I was able to work and put myself through school without incurring thousands of dollars in debts at minimum wage jobs.. It cost me 7 bucks to fill my car with gas. They didn't force people to undergo drug and alcohol and background checks for a basic job. Never heard of home invasions and I could forget my keys in the car and still find it sitting in the driveway in the morning. I could walk the streets safely at night and I didn't have to push 1 for English. Our un-employment rate where I am today is 6.9%. My realestate taxes are double from just last year. Half the time I don't know if I'm in the United States or Mexico. Just in the past few days our regular grocerys went up 3% and beef 15%. My electric bill alone is more than what I paid for rent and all utility bills when Carter was in. Cable was 10 bucks and you didn't HAVE to have to have it just to see anything on your TV. There isn't a perfect president but this country has gone to h in a hand-basket since that time mostly under Bush's rule.

Answer 5

To address your question in full, the Iran contraversy was pathetic - I can't argue against that - however the contraversy happened toward the end of Carter's term and Congress was controlled by the Republicans. So, Carter couldn't really do what he wanted to do in the Middle East.

The high inflation was the result of the Latin American crisis. The Republican controlled Congress and the Republican controlled Federal Reserve decided to lend a crap load of money to the troubled Latin American countries which led to high inflation.

So, based upon those facts, we can conclude that Jimmy Carter was not to blame for all of the country's problems during the late 1970's.

Answer 6

He was, without a doubt, the worst President in my lifetime, and I go back to Harry Truman. Jimmy really screwed the pooch on the whole Iran thing and got us into the mess we have today, but he went even farther than that. He decimated our military with budget cuts; home lona interest rates his 18%; they had to invent a new made for his economic programs called STAGFLATION; he pardoned all the draft dodgers, including Billybob Clinton; he literally screwed up everything he touched.

Answer 7

No.

His actions regarding the hostage crisis ended up with all of them alive and home again, without the United States becoming embroiled in a war that would have been very much like the mess we have now in Iraq.

Inflation rose due to the Oil Crisis more than anything else, and that he was powerless to end.

He was not a particularly successful president in a lot of ways, but he wasn't the worst by a long shot. For one thing, his adminsitration was almost completely untainted by any hint of corruption (which is more than Harding or Grant could say, to put it mildly). Carter did not involve us in long, bloody conflicts with no honorable end in sight (would that Johnson and Dubya hadn't done the same). Nor did he actively ignore major problems facing the nation, as did Buchanun and Hoover, making the problems much worse.

The worst? Not by a long shot.

Answer 8

No, George W Bush is the worst. Jimmy Carter wasn't the best but he did care about the hostages. If Iran would have been invaded all the hostages would have been dead.
There has been terrorism in the middle east way before Jimmy Carter was President

Answer 9

No he wasn't the worst, but he was in the same room. As for your notion of the Iran hostage situation, the US backed the Shah during Iran's unrest at the time. Meanwhile, the people of Iran and the religious leaders backed the Ayatollah. When the Ayatollah finally prevailed, he sent a clear warning to America to get its people out. When the US Embassy didn't heed that warning, guerillas stormed the embassy and took those prisioners hostage.

Flashback to the Nixon administration, Henry Kissinger was pulling strings all over the Middle East. He was financing questionable regimes, making political pacts between the US and shady Mid-East rulers. The arab people in the Middle East viewed Kissinger's meddling as America using bullying tactics to keep their people in power and ignoring the will of the Arab world.

Back to the Carter administration, it was reviewed how best to handle the hostage crisis. The US had just been through a war in Vietnam (remember that one), the Shah had just been overthrown, and anti-American sentiment was at dangerous levels thanks to Kissinger's politics. Carter's administration was also dealing with a shaky economy. It was decided that if Ameirca launched another stirke against a country and American forces failed or were held back, then it would embolden other country's to do the same, not to mention it would cause even more unrest with Americans here at home. Instead, the Carter administration decided to try a diplomatic approach.

In 1981, when the Regean administration appeared, they employed the Kissinger style of politics and quickly aligned themselves with Saddam Hussein. They gave him finances and weapons to present a new front against Iran. Hussein's objective was to hold Iran at bay for the US. Also they began to make illegal deals for the hostages with the guerillas that holding the hostages. The controversial Iran-Contra scandal began with Oliver North, under direction with officials from the Regean administration, brokering deals with guerillas that in exchange for weapons to fight rebels that still supported the Shah in Iran, the guerillas would let the hostages go. They did let some free, but kept some and took all the weapons. This turn of events lead to the "I don't recall council" hearings that North underwent.

So the Iran hostage crisis was not all Carter's problem. Consequently, the Nixon administration laid the ground work for the anti-American sentiment in the Middle-East. The Carter administration tried to ignore it and the Regean administration caused it to spread with questionable policies.

As for your question regarding the worst President's, my list looks like:

1. Hoover-lead the US into the great depression and showed no leadership skills or ideas to get America out of it, along with some ridiculous legislative policies (prohibition being the top choice) Hoover was doomed

2. George H.W. Bush-took America's debts to new heights during his administration along with a knack of using military at will (Panamanian conflict and first Gulf War), also lead America to the second largest recession next to the Great Depression again like Hoover showing no real leadership or plan to get America out; also failed foreign policies including the Mid-Easat peace talks, fueled anti-American sentiment through the Arab world

3. George W. Bush-"the decider" turned out to be "the divider" by starting two unresolved wars, one being the worst run military campaign, foreign and domestic, since the Vietnam War; also failed education policies, failed economic policies and record debts which toppled record surpluses left by the previous administration and left the economy to be run strictly by consumer confidence; further divided America by pushing religious ideals into political ideals

4. Lyndon B. Johnson-started the Vietnam War under less than credible pretenses; failed at relieving a nation mourning the death of one of the most popular President's of modern times; as for domestic policies, passed controversial Civil Rights Act, but that remained the only significant domestic program

Answer 10

As a Republican I think Carter was blamed for a lot of things that were beyond his control. If you placed all presidents in a three tier category, I'd say Carter would probably fit somewhere in the middle of the third tier. That being said, I truly believe that he is the absolute worst past-president, living or dead!

Answer 11

No Andrew Jackson was. (Trail of Tears)
Then Jimmy Carter. (Gas Shortage, hostages, boycotting the Moscow games, 27% inflation, blaming America for his problems)