Like most of the rest of the country, I was saddened to learn over the weekend that former President Jimmy Carter had decided after a prolonged battle with cancer and advancing age to end the fight on his terms and enter hospice care. May God grant him peace and comfort.
Notably, Carter was in 1976 the last Democratic presidential candidate to win a majority in Mississippi and one of only two Democratic presidential nominees to carry the state since Adlai Stevenson II of Illinois carried the state in 1952 and 1956 against Republican Dwight Eisenhower. Carter’s 1976 win was a narrow one, taking only 49.56 percent of the vote but winning all seven pledged Mississippi electors in the Electoral College.
The former president was also a close friend and confidante of the late Owen Cooper of Yazoo City, the driving force behind what would become Mississippi Chemical Company, a farmer-owned nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing company. Cooper was also a pillar of the Southern Baptist Convention (serving as president in 1972) and that group’s domestic outreach arm, the Home Mission Board.
Cooper’s outspoken moderate stance on race went against the white political majority and saw him lead ventures to address domestic U.S. poverty and healthcare disparities along with global hunger challenges in India. In the early 1960s, Cooper was the most influential white member of Mississippi Action for Progress, the entity created to administer the federal Head Start program in the state.
It was Cooper’s national notoriety in agricultural interests and moderate Southern racial initiatives that brought highly successful Georgia peanut farmer and Georgia Baptist Convention leader Jimmy Carter into Cooper’s orbit. Cooper’s backing was a key reason that Carter carried Mississippi’s 1976 presidential election vote.
Carter’s respect for Cooper’s abilities were borne out by two key Carter Administration presidential appointments – first to the powerful President’s Personnel Advisory Committee, which advised Carter on government appointees and then to the Federal Farm Credit Board. One of the highlights of Carter’s genuine friendship with Cooper was the July 1977 visit by the President to Cooper’s Yazoo City home and a nationally televised town hall meeting in the Yazoo City High School gymnasium.
Yet in Yazoo County in 1976, President Gerald Ford took 50.23 percent of the vote to Carter’s 47.85 percent with the remaining two percent and change going to minor party candidates in the race.
The Carter presidency is best known for the accomplishments of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel that Carter brokered between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin that brought progress on the path to peace in the Middle East. The work would eventually earn the 39th President the Nobel Peace Prize.
But the Carter Administration also struggled mightily with the Iranian Hostage Crisis, scandals involving his Office of Management and Budget director Bert Lance and his late brother, Billy Carter, and a national economy that draws comparison to issues confounding the nation today – high inflation, rising interest rates, and the added malady of high unemployment.
Carter’s re-election bid was a political disaster as Republican Ronald Reagan won the 1980 race in a national electoral landslide, including a win in Mississippi by 1.33 percent of the popular vote. But the 1980 race established the GOP dominance of presidential politics in the state that continues today.
One of the best and most meticulously-researched books on Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, is a two-volume biography written by Mississippi State University History professor emeritus E. Stanly Godbold Jr. entitled “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: The Georgia Years, 1924 – 1974” and “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: Power and Human Rights 1976 – 2020” (Oxford University Press).
Godbold’s work reflects the highly productive and influential life that the Carters have led since leaving the White House some 42 years ago. Both his presidential and post-presidential service is worthy of the nation’s respect.
There is a spot on the grounds of MSU’s Colvard Student Union on the Starkville campus where I vividly recall in 1976 Carter posing prior to an appearance on campus in a maroon felt cowboy hat with “MSU” on the front of the hat’s crown – a bemused but patient “let’s get this over with” grin on his face.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
64 comments:
Well Sid.....
At least your zero lived long enough to see that he was the third worst POTUS!!!!
Mean, tacky and insensitive! I can't think of anyone about whom I would make such a mean-spirited comment. Certainly not someone I probably never met, only disagreed philosophically with their politics. Please check your anger and hate ---it only mars and destroys the vessel in which it resides, you.
I don't think he was necessarily a bad man or big liar. I think he was just a dumb S.O.B..
I was a college student- my first presidential vote.
I voted for him because he was a southerner and worked in nuclear engineering for the Navy.
The FIRST and LAST time I ever voted for a democrat in any election.
He is the epitome of how the world is filled with "intelligent" people, but that does not mean their values or character are aligned properly with reality. He was a socialist. He is responsible for the leviathan of the U.S. Department of Education that has corrupted the Republic possibly beyond repair.
Not speaking ill of the man, just offering a self-evident observation.
@9:06 AM, please check your maniacal need to control others. It is unbecoming.
It's interesting to see all the talking heads in the media saying "oh he WAS yadda yadda" like the man is already dead. News flash folks. He aint dead yet. He's decided to do home hospice. Nobody said he couldn't go out the front door and back to a hospital should he choose to do so.
For that matter, he hasn't yet declared for the draft or entered the transfer portal.
"Jimmy Carter Last Democrat to Win a Mississippi Presidential Election"
Yeah, we learned not do do that anymore.
Wonderful man, horrible president.
"Both his presidential and post-presidential service is worthy of the nation’s respect."
I propose that his pre-presidential and post-presidential efforts were commendable, but his presidency was a disaster on practically every front.
I admire Carter for his statement, "the President assumes fully responsibility" after the failed Iran hostage rescue. I'm unsure if we ever had a President that candid before Carter, and certainly not since.
While he was a lousy President, Biden makes Carter look much better.
9:42. Mea culpa. You're right. People have the right to their opinions based on their individual perception and interpretation of facts; as well as the right to abandon what used to be considered proper decorum and respect for others.
Carter is a great man, far better than any recent president. He still volunteers building for Habitat for Hummanity in his 90’s. When’s the last time Trump got his hands dirty to help the less fortunate? When people try to take cheap shots at him, it only speaks to their own rotten soul.
I guess Jesus Christ would also be blasted by the right for being a socialist these days. At some point, we have to agree that helping the less fortunate is a noble cause. Republicans could learn more than a few things from Jimmy.
Not sure Carter 'won' Mississippi or after that is when most white Mississippi democrats switched to Republican. I'm 55 and remember my parents voting for Carter when he won but then switching to Reagan and never voting D again.
Unfortunately that was the last time Mississippi
Had a chance to prosper. It’s been downhill since 1980. Until people stop voting against their best interest it will never change and Mississippi will stay at the bottom.
I’d suggest Carter’s shortcomings as President were largely caused by his refusal to compromise his morals and ethics. Judge it as you wish.
I think he was just a dumb S.O.B..
Says some anonymous commenter about a guy who probably was and is a little smarter than mr anonymous above:
Carter had long dreamed of attending the United States Naval Academy.[10] In 1941, he started undergraduate coursework in engineering at Georgia Southwestern College in nearby Americus, Georgia.[16]: 99 The following year, he transferred to the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and he earned admission to the Naval Academy in 1943.[13]: 38 He was a good student but was seen as reserved and quiet, in contrast to the academy's culture of aggressive hazing of freshmen.[3]: 62 While at the academy, Carter fell in love with Rosalynn Smith, a friend of his sister Ruth.[17] The two married shortly after his graduation in 1946.[18] He was a sprint football player for the Navy Midshipmen.[19] Carter graduated 60th out of 820 midshipmen in the class of 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an ensign.[20]
Naval career
Carter with Rosalynn Smith and his mother at his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, June 5, 1946
From 1946 to 1953, the Carters lived in Virginia, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York and California, during his deployments in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets.[21] In 1948, he began officer training for submarine duty and served aboard USS Pomfret.[22] He was promoted to lieutenant junior grade in 1949, and his service aboard Pomfret included a simulated war patrol to the western Pacific and Chinese coast from January to March of that year.[23] In 1951 he was assigned to the diesel/electric USS K-1 (SSK-1), qualified for command, and served in several positions, to include executive officer.[24] In 1952, he began an association with the Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program, led then by captain Hyman G. Rickover.[25] Rickover had high standards and demands for his men and machines, and Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover had the greatest influence on his life.[26] He was sent to the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C. for three-month temporary duty, while Rosalynn moved with their children to Schenectady, New York.[27]
On December 12, 1952, an accident with the experimental NRX reactor at Atomic Energy of Canada's Chalk River Laboratories caused a partial meltdown, resulting in millions of liters of radioactive water flooding the reactor building's basement. This left the reactor's core ruined.[28] Carter was ordered to Chalk River to lead a U.S. maintenance crew that joined other American and Canadian service personnel to assist in the shutdown of the reactor.[29] The painstaking process required each team member to don protective gear and be lowered individually into the reactor for a few minutes at a time, limiting their exposure to radioactivity while they disassembled the crippled reactor.[30] During and after his presidency, Carter said that his experience at Chalk River had shaped his views on atomic energy and led him to cease development of a neutron bomb.[31]
In March 1953, Carter began nuclear power school, a six-month non-credit course covering nuclear power plant operation at the Union College in Schenectady.[21] His intent was to eventually work aboard USS Seawolf, which was planned to be the second U.S. nuclear submarine.[32] His plans changed when his father died of pancreatic cancer in July, two months before construction of Seawolf began, and Carter obtained a release from active duty so he could take over the family peanut business. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
@9:06am
Atheist democrats seeking political kinship with Jesus by ascribing socialism to His nature are entertaining, as if Christianity did not ascribe virtue, sin, free will and Salvation to individuals, not groups.
Carter was a weak president: recall he said he was menaced by an "attack rabbit" while rowing a boat?
1107 - obviously you were not living in Mississippi, at least not an adult trying to make a living, pay the bills, buy a car much less a house - during Carter's presidency.
Last chance to prosper - only if you were already rich, had money to invest in CDs, had no needto borrow money or buy anything.
Or a Delta farmer - they lived high on the hog for those years, but it led to them all becoming tenant farmers for the insurance companies when the tap for federal 'loans' was closed and the mortgages couldn't be paid.
Triple double digit economy - inflation, unemployment, and interest rates.
All thanks to the ridiculous spending programs instituted by the peanut farmer. Prosper? What a joke.
10:41am, Everyone on the right who works and pays taxes is already helping the poor and less fortunate. How do you think SS, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, free rent, free utilities…are paid for by the government? They are all paid for by capitalism and taxpayers.
2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
Proverbs 18:9
Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.
I’m afraid that my comment won’t get approved if I connect too many dots.
But just remember this: The Georgia Guidestones were erected in Jimmy’s home state while he was POTUS.
And he believed in, and worked to build a world that resembled every word that was etched into them.
That’s all you need to know about Jimmy Carter.
I remember my grandfather voted for him although he did not like Carter but swore he would never vote for a Republican. He never did. Since Carter was from the South that gave him an excuse. My father never told me how he voted in that election but he probably voted for Carter too. Just going along with the program... Things have since changed. Now we have a new program....
I love the people who bring up “Habit for Humanity”
How many of you bleeding hearts have ever seen what your average “Habitat for Humanity” house looks like after five years of Habitation?
They nearly always look like delapidated shit!
Because the person who got the free house is usually lazy, financially illiterate, and incapable of maintaining the home or paying someone to maintain it for them!
It is a complete and utter waste of time and resources to make a group of ignorant do-gooders feel smug for doing a few hours worth of labor.
It’s true Mississippi has been hitting the bottom of the barrel since 1980 with a blindfold on.
12:23 hasn’t seen a HFH in his life, nor does he know anyone who has owned one. Everyone that I have worked on is in good shape .
10:37......
Awwww lil snowflake, did someone make a comment that triggered you butthurt reflex??
Besides, it isn't cheap shots when its the truth, but then again, we call all tell that you're drunk off of the "P-Nut Kool-Aid"
And for 10:41, I'll call out anyone who is a total screw up. Yea, after Carter Republicans learned how just fuk'd up Dim-O-Krats are and to never copy their stupidity.
Doesn't take a genius to see the difference between "Blue" run controlled city that are in the throes of dying, while the "Red" ones are growing, has successful new businesses opening and growing everyday while the ones in you sewer are hauling ass towards the city limits to a prosperous area.
Just some useful info for you two, every morning when you get up, stop putting that target between your eyes, because a target rich environment is only going to prove you dumber each day!! Just say'n......
I guess I'm not surprised so many of you weren't taught " not to speak ill of the dead".
First, they are dead...it's kicking a corpse.
Whether you agree with his politics or not, he clearly was a good Christian and volunteered his time and energy to Habitat.He clearly had a successful marriage. He served not only in the military, but also served Georgia well ( which ought to have been part of why some of you voted for him).
He was something those of you negatively commenting prove you aren't,a gentleman. He had ethics and moral standards. You do not. He was proof you do not have to be born "elite" to be "elite", you just have to be smart,work hard and contribute to your society. Being a egotistical,nasty jerk doesn't achieve those goals.
At least, the late President Carter won't have to see or hear any of you ever again.
@12:23 - I have worked on and seen a fair number and talked with some of the recipients. My bleeding heart completely disagrees with your cold, shriveled heart. It’s a great organization that does incredible, life changing work. You should volunteer yourself so you get some firsthand experience before looking like such a buffoon next time.
The man is dying. Be careful what you say. They might be talking about you next.
@11:37 - you have proven my point. All those programs (SS, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, free rent, free utilities) supported by tax money are what the right calls Socialism. Once again, Republicans would call Jesus Christ a Socialist and you have proven it without even trying.
@12:58 - you must not realize that Republican states take the money from the federal coffers that the Democratic states put in. You can thank California if the feds bless us once again by throwing more money at our failed state. You’d think the Democratic states would be tired of constantly feeding us money, only for us to waste it on Brett Favre and private road projects for the Governor’s neighborhood.
@11:14
Nice copy and paste but the fact remains he made some of the stupidest decisions EVER made by a POTUS and that's saying a something. BTW I always get a kick out of an anonymous poster calling out another anonymous poster out for.....Ta Dah posting anonymously.
He was and is a good man, a great man actually. He was not a good president. A pretty bad president actually. He inherited a mess, but still you get what you get and have to make chicken salad out of chicken s***. Although he was a bad president, he is probably the nicest, most morally upright man to hold the office in modern times. There are few if any, former presidents that can match his good works and overall positivity post presidency,
I remember managing a government office in Greenville when the rice producers and rice mills suffered, and we were required to set the thermostat at 62 in the winter and 78 in the summer (77-79).
If that wasn't bad management enough, along came the hostage situation.
In his defense, Jimma sat behind the plate umpire, cheering, at Braves games years later and his brother made a beer famous. Didn't his daughter marry a Mississippi boy?
His passing does move Barack and Joe, both, to the respective heads of that certain list.
Carter, of all people, has openly criticized presidents who came after him. That’s poor form for a good former POTUS, but for one as epically bad as Carter, it’s asinine. Obama didn’t perform any better than Carter, but even he had more class than that.
Watching HFH videos of volunteers framing a house is like watching nursing home patients pull a plow through mud.
Two professional framing carpenters, using 28 ounce framing hammers, with a laborer, can frame those little 1200 sf houses in two and a half days and attach siding and eave trim in two and a half more, including setting the exterior windows and doors, all without compressed air tools.
There must be a grift scam involved to raise non profit funds to provide the feel-good for retirees to kneel and drive nails with their little pea-shooter hammers. Not impressed by anything Carter did to make up for his interest rates, recession and wuss foreign policy.
@10:37 am-AMEN!! And Im a proud RINO who graduated public school. Some of you folks are just plain sick.
@3:58 - he called out the Bush administration for misleading the public about the lead up to the Iraq war. If you’re upset with him for stating the flat out truth, then I guess you just need to find a safe space because you can’t handle the truth.
Some of you are jumping the gun. Last I checked, he was still breathing.
By god boys did y’all forget the economic mess Bush Left us with in 2008? It took Obama and Joe 8 years to get us back on track and pay down the debt.
@12:13
Adjust you tinfoil hat. The Georgia Guidestones don’t exist.
Failure as President and then lived off taxpayers for 40 years for doing 4 years of incompetent service.
@1:35 - Regarding your list, you should know that employer paid taxes fund the unemployment insurance systems, not 'our' tax money. Nor does the employee/claimant pay a dime towards the benefit trust fund. In short, it's an employer provided insurance program.
@6:49, the unemployment benefits paid during Covid pandemic were funded by the Federal government which is funded by the American taxpayer.
You live in Mississippi dude you get $3 for every $1 you pay . You whole state gets earned income credit ! Remember your a bottom feeder 7:28.
@7:28
False. The Federal government does not collect enough tax revenue to pay for its expenses. It barely collects enough to service the interest on the national debt. The Federal Government borrows to pay expenses. Hence why we regularly have a debate over the “debt ceiling” because congress has to authorize more debt every fiscal year.
This is to the great benefit of the central bankers who collect trillions in interest on a debt that will never ever be paid off. But that debt is the only thing that our currency is based on. This is why we have always had inflation since the inception of the Federal Reserve Bank.
How can anyone who lives in Mississippi call anyone a loser?
5:12 takes the lead for the dumbest post of the year! I'm no Bush fan but it was Barney Frank, et al, demanding "fair and affordable housing for all" and forcing banks to make loans to people who had no chance to pay the monthly note that fueled the 2008 recession. I know that more expensive homes were waaay overpriced. Again, thank the man who ran a whorehouse out of his condo for that fiasco.
My son told me to read the comments on some of these post and I would figure out why he moved his family out of Mississippi.
@9:31
Why does your son, who left Mississippi with his family, read a blog about the worst city in the worst state in America?
Shouldn’t he be more concerned with keeping up with the happenings taking place in the progressive utopia that he escaped to?
8:35 you nailed it! We sent a post (no vulgarity, no hate and no racism) saying pretty much the same but KF censored it.
9:31 PM, the “allowed” comments are by design. KF likes what he’s labeled his “knuckleheads” comments. Keeps the clicks coming. Re your son moving, when Bill Crawford and KF get their way with Democrats taking over Mississippi, then destroying it like they have Jackson, there’s going to be a lot more of us leaving with him.
@8:31, so you’re saying paying taxes that goes to pay the interest on the national debt which was used to pay for all of the social programs is not the same as paying for those same social programs? If so, you’re an idiot and why the state and country is broke and in the shitter right now.
@10:41am, No, SS, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, free rent, free utilities are not paid for by taxpayers. Some of that you mentioned are transfer payments from employers. Anything else the Government funds or purchases, Government simply prints money. One could argue that taxpayers pay by inflation making their dollars have less buying power, though.
@7:27, sounds good, we can all stop paying federal taxes then because the government borrows all it needs to pay for everything and doesn’t have to pay interest on its debt. Awesome!
@7:27 - Bernie, is that you?
7:27 So all that money the gubmint deducted from each paycheck for 50 years that went for Social Security and Medicare wasn't really deducted for Social Security and Medicare?
Good to know. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
The USM Library has in its collection the 2008 ID badge worn by Carter during the Pascagoula Habitat for Humanity project. A valuable piece of political memorabilia.
7:27 so when I file my 2022 tax return this week and it says I owe federal taxes you’re saying I don’t really have to pay them because the government can just print the money it needs to run the country? Can you send me that in writing so I can forward it to the IRS with my return?
The hypocrisy of the left is a hoot. "Your so mean to say Carter was a poor President but a fine man."
I remember the parties and celebrations from the Left when truly great leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronal Reagan died.
I read some of these comments and I have to keep reminding myself how surprising and amazing it really is that Mississippi is #1 at being #50 in so many ways!
/s
12:35 What parties? You must have lived in a hippie commune.
Carter wasn't a good president. Usually, time decides the effectiveness and legacy of a president. Those things were decided about Carter while he was still president. You wind up playing the hand you are dealt. Carter couldn't pull it out. My only knock on Carter is as someone said earlier, he was way too quick to criticize other presidents knowing full well his own failures. That's not what stand up guys do.
6:49 here, to correct the genius who tried to correct ME.
Here's what he suggested:
"@6:49, the unemployment benefits paid during Covid pandemic were funded by the Federal government which is funded by the American taxpayer.February 22, 2023 at 7:28 PM"
Not true. The basic benefits drawn by UI Claimants during that and every other time period in history comes from employer-paid UI Tax Fund, not the federal money tree.
The helicopter money that supplemented those payments (and gave people two years to refuse work) came from an imaginary printing press, not from any tax-payers.
Hey, 5:34 AM. I don't suppose you've noticed Mississippi is ALREADY a corrupted mess and young, smart people are leaving the state under your precious GOP leadership.
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