Why do so many people think Carter was a great President?

Question

I recently asked a question about what people thought were the top 5 Presidents of the 20th Century. Several answered including Carter in their list. Why?

As President, I know of only 1 accomplishment, that being the Camp David accords. In every other way, he was a miserable failure as President. Domestically under Carter, we had double digit inflation, high unemployment, high gas prices and gas shortages due to wage and price controls, a weak economy, and a general malaise as it was called then, that America's best days were behind her. He made the decision not to process spent nuclear fuel, resulting in thousands of tons of extra waste.

Internationally, Carter abandoned the Shah of Iran, resulting in the mullahs taking over and holding our embassy people hostage for hundreds of days. The reverberations continue to this day.

After his presidency he has a great record as a statesman and humanitarian, but his Presidency was the worst.

Answer 1

I think Carter was a decent, intelligent man who was over his head as president. I don't agree with your interpretation regarding the Shah.
I just wish people had listened to him regarding our need to diversify our energy supply.

Answer 2

I agree. I think the reason he may be on the list is
(1) He's a democratic president that people who are in their 30s remembers (and good, socially progressive democrats don't have a lot of heroes... FDR, MAYBE Clinton, MAYBE LBJ (if they can look past the whole Vietnam-thing), MAYBE Wilson, (once again with a lot of flaws), MAYBE Jefferson/Jackson... but how many "democratic" presidents otherwise fit the bill... so if you get 5, you get the obvious, FDR, Lincoln/Jefferson, Clinton/LBJ... who's left? Hmm carter.
(2) People know him for the good that he does now, and think that he must have been a better president.
(3) The one thing he's known for is peace, esp. peace in the middle east, and it's something we DESPERATELY desire right now ("at least we weren't invading Iraq, but were actually working for peace during Carter's admin!")
(4) He wasn't an ******. He was an unassuming (but smart and diplomatic) peanut farmer. His moral flaw was having "lustful thoughts" (or something like that) as reported in Playboy-- a little bit different than schtooping interns, gettin daddy to get you out of vietnam, doing coke, etc.
(5) Wasn't the whole plan to depose the Shah started WAY before Carter? I thought it was a CIA thing that started with Ike?

Answer 3

And in reality the Camp David accord made it worse for Israel from the PLO and other terrorist and got the one Arab who saw a need to make peace (Sadat) killed.
People forget the dangers of inflation and unemployment at the levels they were under Carter. People talk about how people around the world hate us now, with Carter many Americans showed no joy in being Americans especially with the constant "fireside" like talks where Carter told us all the thinks we could not do anymore. That is why Reagan's campaign to be the shining light on the hill and make America great again was so much of a turn on to the country and his vote totals destroyed an incumbent president so unbelievably.

Answer 4

Presidents by average scholar rank
# President Years in Office Political party Average ranking
1 Abraham Lincoln 1861–1865 Republican 1.58
2 Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933–1945 Democrat 2
3 George Washington 1789–1797 Unaffiliated (Pro-Administration) 2.83
4 Thomas Jefferson 1801–1809 Democratic-Republican 4.42
5 Theodore Roosevelt 1901–1909 Republican 4.83
6 Woodrow Wilson 1913–1921 Democrat 6.58
7 Harry S. Truman 1945–1953 Democrat 7.18
8 Andrew Jackson 1829–1837 Democrat 9
9 Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953–1961 Republican 10.73
10 James K. Polk 1845–1849 Democrat 11.08
11 John Adams 1797–1801 Federalist 12.17
12 John F. Kennedy 1961–1963 Democrat 12.5
13 James Madison 1809–1817 Democratic-Republican 12.67
14 Lyndon B. Johnson 1963–1969 Democrat 13.6
15 Ronald Reagan 1981–1989 Republican 13.88
16 James Monroe 1817–1825 Democratic-Republican 14.08
17 Grover Cleveland 1885–1889 and 1893-1897 Democrat 15
18 William McKinley 1897–1901 Republican 16.33
19 John Quincy Adams 1825–1829 Democratic-Republican 16.9
20 William Howard Taft 1909–1913 Republican 19.67
21 Bill Clinton 1993–2001 Democrat 20.67
22 George W. Bush 2001– Republican 21
23 Martin Van Buren 1837–1841 Democrat 21.58
24 Rutherford B. Hayes 1877–1881 Republican 22
25 George H. W. Bush 1989–1993 Republican 22.14
26 Chester A. Arthur 1881–1885 Republican 25.5
27 (tie) Jimmy Carter 1977–1981 Democrat 26.3
27 (tie) Gerald Ford 1974–1977 Republican 26.3
29 Herbert Hoover 1929–1933 Republican 26.17
30 Benjamin Harrison 1889–1893 Republican 27.33
31 Calvin Coolidge 1923–1929 Republican 28.42
32 Richard Nixon 1969–1974 Republican 29.2
33 James A. Garfield 1881 Republican 29.57
34 Zachary Taylor 1849–1850 Whig 29.58
35 John Tyler 1841–1845 Whig/none 31.75
36 Millard Fillmore 1850–1853 Whig 32.41
37 Ulysses Grant 1869–1877 Republican 33.42
38 William Henry Harrison 1841 Whig 33.57
39 Andrew Johnson 1865–1869 Democrat/none 34.67
40 Franklin Pierce 1853–1857 Democrat 34.92
41 James Buchanan 1857–1861 Democrat 36.58
42 Warren G. Harding 1921–1923 Republican 37.33

Answer 5

You are right. Carter was considered a lousy President for a lot of reasons. His supporters fail to mention a lot of important facts concerning his so called 'achievements'. One I remember quite well was the Israel and Egypt handshake and Carter later being give the Nobel Peace Prize. No one mentioned until much later how much that handshake cost us the American taxpayer. In addition to the millions and millions of dollars and materials given annually to Israel and a limited amount to Egypt, Carter on this occasion got another 8 million to Israel and 4 million to the handshakers.

Answer 6

He wasn't the worst. That aknowledgment goes to the current President. He started all the peace talks Reagan continued and took credit for. Granted in this country like Bush he accomplished nothing really, but then again it wasn't a great time and I don't think many Presidents would have done a great job at the time. I won't say he was the best, far from it but I have a hard time saying he was the worst when we are having to deal with this current administration and all its many failures.

Answer 7

Could it be his peace proposals and nuclear treaties bring us closer to the end of the cold war .
His work to provide assistance to get people into homes of their own and aid for mothers with children .
Could it be his programs to increase student loan funding and scholarship tax credits .
Somehow I think no matter what he did Iranian hostage situation and the failed rescue attempt will be his legacy . '
Just as Bush will go down as the worst president in history Carter will go down as the man who bungled a hostage rescue .

Answer 8

Carter began the deregulation of transportation, oil, and telecommunications.

Ralph Nader denounced Carter's oil decontrol as "the greatest anti-consumer action of this century." (In my opinion, that strong criticism from Nader is a higher honor than the Nobel Peace Prize.)

Answer 9

He got the Egypt and Israel together for a treaty which has lasted to this day. Remember, Egypt was the main enemy of Israel in the 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars. He signed the SALT II disarmament treaties, which paved the way for Reagan's future talks with Gorbachev. He began an energy saving program and alternative fuels program to wean the US off its dependence on middle east oil (discontinued by Reagan, unfortunately).

Answer 10

who are "so many people"?

I've never met a single human being in my life who thought Jimmy Carter was a great President. Most Democrats don't even defend him.

Answer 11

Not many thought to highly of Carter until George W. Bush was elected. Bush has set the bar so low for the Presidency that he makes any of the others look great.