O, those Carter years

A lot of people have forgotten what things were like when Jimmy Carter occupied the White House. The Lynchburg News & Advance reminds us:

Double-digit inflation. Sky-high interest rates. Rising unemployment rates. The Soviet Union on the march in Afghanistan and with a firm grip over Eastern Europe. The U.S. Embassy staff in Tehran, Iran, held as hostages for more than 400 days with little done to rescue them. Congressional Democrats in open revolt, not to mention the opposition Republicans.

Come to think of it, things were really much worse than the N&A says.

FHA 30 year fixed mortgage were over 14% and rising (they’re now at 6.5%).

Unemployment was over 10% (it’s now at 4.5%). Real wages were stagnant or declining. Inflation was over 10%.

Carter agreed those were all problems and he knew right where the blame lay: with everyone else.

Carter responded to the news of the hostage taking of our diplomats in Iran with a pledge not to leave the White House until they were released.

Remember? The Iranian kidnapper thugs cheered when they heard the news. Carter had made himself their hostage.

Carter kept his pledge until polls and primary results indicated Senator Ted Kennedy might indeed wrest the 1980 Democratic Party nomination from him. Teddy was “out there” telling America that it needed to get ride of “this failure of a President.”

At the point, Carter announced he was releasing himself from his “ White House” pledge.

Carter went on to say some pretty ugly things about Kennedy and his own cabinet members, many of whom he fired in one day.

And, of course, he had some ugly things to about America. Remember “malaise?”

And do you remember: “The job of President is just too big for one man?”

That’s what Carter’s apologists kept telling us.

And there was: “Americans have to accept that the country’s best days are behind it. Japan has simply surpassed us. And that’s not Carter’s fault.”

Carter agreed with all of that then. I’m sure he still agrees with all of it now.

And to think he had to sit through President Reagan’s funeral service and hear people say Reagan ignored the Carter excuses and reminded Americans we could do much better than what Carter left us with.

So who’s really surprised an angry Carter’s now slamming President Bush? It’s so in character for Carter.

Thank you Lynchburg N&A.

You can read the entire N&A editorial here.