RateItAll: The Opinion Network

One of the worst presidents of the 20th Century. Carter was a weak-kneed president who sat by as Communists took over Nicaragua, Russia attack Afghanistan, and gave away the highly profitable Panama Canal. Unemployment and inflation were rampant under his admininstation, and he cut funding to the miltary so severely that they used the backs of maps as typing paper! Most of all, he bundled the second major threat of Islamic Terrorism, and to this day, he is anti-Isreali to an almost disturbing extreme.

Far from perfect, but he negotiated a peace between Israel and Egypt that has held for almost 3 decades, and may have saved millions of lives by preventing a war that could have made today's middle east look like a boy scout camp.

He is as of right now the best ex-President. The only reason he wasn't a great President is leadership. Although throught nuclear acciedent he was great.

Carter was a had a weak grip on foreign affairs because he though peace was the answer. A good quote is "If you want peace prepare for war.

Por' Jimma, he jest got in over his haid and totally botched up th' job.

The U.S. needed some moral cleansing, then got mad when they got it...

Perhaps the worst president in US history (other than Jackson), Carter enabled terrorism through his weak actions against terrorists. His domestic policy lacked any sort of vision. When he finally left the White House, America was at it's lowest point in history. Carter's awfulness cannot be overstated. Therefore, even though he is usually rated low, it isn't low enough. Carter is actually overrated!

Though he took office at a terrible time, Jimmy Carter did not help matters much. Carter seemed to think he was smarter and more knowledgeable than all of his advisors which resulted in a failure to properly delegate authority and a bottlenecked decision making process. (In this aspect, Carter was a preview of what a Gore Administration probably would have been.) His sole material success was the Camp David Accords, which was certainly no small feat. The treaty ended the war between Israel and Egypt in exchange for Egyptian recognition of Israel's political existence. Egypt being Egypt, this had a profound effect in the Arab and Islamic World; nevertheless, notwithstanding this notable achievement, Carter's failures are glaring. His boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980 was no more than a nominal act, resulting in a retaliatory boycott of the Los Angeles Games in 1984 and an erosion of the very concept of global cooperation at some level. Furthermore, he had no clue as to how to handle the Iranian Hostage Crisis, setting back the American global position of strength, resulting in an overly complex and doomed hostage rescue mission that only served to emphasis this appearance of being impotent and incompetent (though Carter had no other viable choice but to listen to his advisors regarding the details of the mission). Furthermore, Carter failed to get a handle on the inflationary pressures that were plaguing the economy. The bottom line is that Carter exacerbated an already bad situation, resulting in a demand for new patriotism that swept in the Reagan Era; however, Carter did inherit a country suffering from the malaise of Watergate and Vietnam, so the nation's problems result in him being a bit underrated as well notwithstanding some liberals overrating Carter for his post office years (that are irrelevant for this analysis).

as much as i appreciate the person of jimmy carter today - he was a very weak president. not the right one in that position in that time. during the soviet union tried to increase its influence in the third world and also in europe he was so passive. he didnt realise that the time of a peaceful cooperation and agreement, that the time of relaxation between east and west went by. a bit i suppose he was the perfect picture in the mirror for a nation that was weakened by its vitnam-trauma. also unlucky when he tried to free - much too late - his people captured in iran. economically it was the same kind of stagnation. i think it was not accidental that reagan follwed him into power. he was the complete opposite in a time when leadership was needed very much.

The worst president of the 20th century. As soon as he took office he was weakening America, by declaring intentions to remove missiles and troops from South Korea, trim $6 billion off of a seriously diminished defense budget, and of course his will to sign more harmful arms reduction treaties (which favored the Soviet Union). His foreign policy would be laughable if it didn't pose such a serious threat to American intrests. Apparently his administration thought that if we reduced our arms then the Soviets would be convinced to do the same. While Carter was in office the Soviet Union continued in their goal of Finlandization (a.k.a. expanding the empire, intimidating Western Europe, weakening the United States) with smashing success. There are countless other follies of the Carter years, including Iran, Nicaragua, stagflation, the hostage crisis, the gas shortage, and Afghanistan. He spoke of the inordinate fear of Communism (only 100 million killed!) that the American people had. When it became clear that he had lost the confidence of the American people he blamed it on a nation malaise and warned us that our best days were behind us. As we would find out in the eighties, great days were just around the corner. Carter's failings must be blamed on the fact that he was never fit to be chief executive in the first place. His legacy ultimately is as doorman for the Reagan Revolution.

What other President is helping poor people AFTER his career is over? Carter has more integrity than the rest of the Presidents in my lifetime (begin with Johnson) put together!

Last good man to hold the office since JFK.

He was idealistic but not realistic as a president has to be both. Time is being more kind to the Carter administration and he deserves that. However, he was not the right man for the job especially during the late 70's.

Seemed determined to make USA accept a position of defeat and humility. Nothing else he did could redeem him for the way he demoralized the country. He is the only president, the only human I know of, who was attacked by a rabbit.

He in only 4 years, almost torn down a nation that had taken 200 years to build. If he had won a second term, the cold war would have ended in the early 80s with the Soviets taken over a broken America.

Just a dumb peanut farmer.