Jimmy Carter finally gets a legacy
So I'm sitting there Saturday evening, watching the news, when I'm just about knocked out of my chair by the image of Jimmy Carter smiling his usual creepy smile as dozens of sailors run up the gangplank to board their new vessel, the USS Jimmy Carter.
It seems that the navy, for some odd reason, has decided to christen the last of the Seawolf class attack subs after one of our worst presidents. Can someone please tell me who was bribed, and how much did it take, to allow for this to occur? That Jimmy Carter should be memorialized alongside some of our best and greatest leaders in this fashion is more than ridiculous.
From an article by Kevin Drum in the Washington Monthly:
"Jimmy Carter, of course, is an actual Annapolis graduate who served on board submarines for seven years. During that time he served on one of the first nuclear submarines, the USS Seawolf, which makes it all the more fitting that the last of the Seawolf class of subs should be named after him. This contrasts with, say, Ronald Reagan, whose closest connection to an aircraft carrier was on a Hollywood sound stage."
True, true....but if we were to make service in the carrier fleet a criterion, then Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower, some other presidents who have the honor of having aircraft carriers named after them, are undeserving as well.
And besides, to even compare Carter and his failed (1-term) presidency to Reagan and the success of his (2-term) presidency and legacy is just moronic.
Carter rode into office on the wreckage of the Republican party as it floundered in the aftermath of Watergate, Nixon's resignation and end of the Vietnam War with the fall of Saigon on Ford's watch.
In four years, however, he managed to utterly destroy the enormous cache the Democratic party had earned by default from Nixon's damage to the Republican party's image. So complete was his failure as a Democrat leader and president that the people of America gave him the finger and carried Ronald Reagan, the most conservative president in 100 years, into office in a landslide election in 1980.
Carter's one claim to fame is his "Camp David Accords" between Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Isreal. His plan for peace in the Middle East fell apart after a few years, too.
Carter's presidency was defined by crises: the energy crisis in which gas lines stretched for blocks and theromostats had to be set to 68 degrees and the Iran hostage crisis which lasted from Novemember 4, 1979 to Inauguration Day, January 20, 1981, when Reagan officially took office.
Carter has done more post-term, especially with his work posing for photo-ops for Habitat for Humanity, than he ever did in office. Of course, his work of burnishing the image of dictators and tyrants the world over, in the guise of some kind of partisan ambassador of left-wing good will, will never be complete.
From a May, 2002 article in the National Review:
http://www.nationalreview.com/20may02/nordlinger052002.asp
But, the deed is done....the USS JIMMY CARTER is a part of the fleet, and, by all accounts, is a state-of-the-art vessel.
But please....the JIMMY CARTER? Couldn't they have made it the "James Carter", or the "James Earl Carter"? USS JIMMY CARTER just doesn't have the same strong, decisive ring as "USS GEORGE WASHINGTON", "JOHN F. KENNEDY", "ABRAHAM LINCOLN" "FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT" or "RONALD REAGAN".
I'm sure, however, that the ship's stores will carry a hefty supply of peanuts, peanut products, toothpaste and floss.
Well....Congrats, Jimmy....at least you've been given something for us to remember you by.