I noted in a Guardian article that Carter had become more pro-Palestinian. But in general I believe he wanted peace and prosperity for everyone, universally. Was he naive in the Presidency? Perhaps. I say this because I can easily believe that he was not always informed of everything going on. The fact that the USA hostages were released on the day he left office is kinda telling, IMHO.
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Your take is fascinating, but as someone born literally five days before Carter’s last State of the Union in January 1980, I have to admit—I feel like I can’t really form an opinion on the Carter presidency. While Carter was negotiating peace and Reagan was allegedly making backroom deals, I was busy trying to figure out how to hold my own head up.
Next time I’ll try to be more politically engaged as an infant.
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On the whole good (but you wouldn’t sense that the day he left office…) Gerald Ford and he were overseeing an economy that was wrecked by the misadventure in Vietnam (and there’s just no way, had Kennedy lived, that Kennedy would have sent +600,000 troops to escalate that conflict, which got us there…)
Reagan was a most ironic presidency: he went in with cocksure views: the Russians are not to be trusted, laissez-faire capitalism with no anti-monopolistic enforcement and anti-insider trading enforcement is great, we just need to cut lots of government spending…) and he did a complete about face on almost ALL his approaches. He reined in the laissez-faire after the [relatively] humongous '87 crash, he ended up negotiating with Gorbachev counter to the wishes of his defense staff, Stockman’s cutting was kicked to the curb (and I seem to remember Stockman even renounced it!) Also, that backroom dealing blew up in his face with Oliver North doing weapons deals with terrorists and ENABLING drug dealing in Central America…
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Made me laugh. 
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And I’ll try not to abhor politics in my early 20’s. Ha Ha !
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Carter was smarter than the last 6 presidents combined . He successfully reached an agreement with the Camp David accords , but unfortunately the Israelis and Palestinians leaders have a pernicious habit of killing leaders searching for peace in the region. He was the only president in modern times that supported Palestine . He knew exactly what Israel was behind the propaganda.
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Well, what other president could have talked someone off a bad acid trip?
He was a nuclear engineer, you know…
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Yes, I did know that. I think it’s one reason my father (also an engineer and astrophysicist) liked Carter from the start. We all voted for him.
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Although I was in my late teens at the end of his first and only term, the Jimmy Carter I remember was good to all people. He cared for the poor, middle class, and upper-class citizens of this country. The seeding of millionaires’ greed was sprouting and did not like that Carter cared too much for the working middle class and poor. This is why he was practically forced out of office, by making Reagan their POTUS of choice who would start the ball rolling in what today is now a power structure of oligarchy. Democracy became ill with Reagan, and had been dying slowly, falling into a coma several decades later, then ultimately taking its last breath. Democracy in our country is dead.
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I was born a year after JFK was elected, so by the time I knew what a president even was, Johnson was in office. I cried when Nixon won (I was 7, don’t judge)
the first time. I was made when he beat McGovern in his re-election bid. So the first election that went my way was Carter. I really liked him as president. Yes, he had his flaws, but everyone does. I’ve always viewed - without evidence - the timing of the hostage release as contrived to help his opponent win.
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IMO Ronald Reagan is the reason America is fucked now. I have so much hate for Reagan. IMO Reagan gave way to the bs third way Republican lite so- called Dem of Bill Clinton. Ugh!!!
I feel like Jimmy Carter was the last good intentioned President for the middle class, working poor, and poor.
Bill Clinton was the first President I could vote for. I was too young to remember and judge Carter as a political figure in real time.
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Clinton started good but then turned into a fucking disaster. His not helping the Russians after their breakup (like a Marshall Plan…) is the reason we have Putin today!
He pushed for Leavitt at the SEC to foster the dot com bubble.
To Clinton’s credit, we worked down a lot of debt; but it would have been wise to take some revenue to insure Russia did not turn into a gangster economy…
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I think Carter was an amazing human and president–especially for what he was left with and had to contend with. (I was born in December of '76, so he was my first president! 
) Hopefully, he will be remembered for all of the wonderful things he did and history will rewrite his presidency to reflect the truth about how the Reagan Republicans even used treasonous means to undermine him.
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drea_m_r_76, I totally agree with you.
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