Jimmy Carter

[PassedOut]

With the comparisons between Obama and Carter cropping up these days, it was fun to see this take from the UK on our seriously Christian ex-president: Jimmy Carter: 'We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet. We never went to war'

 

If you're under 40, you may not even remember Jimmy Carter. But you might recall President Bartlet. From The West Wing. When I chat to Phil Wise, vice-president of the Carter Center – the foundation Carter set up after leaving office – he reminds me that Martin Sheen partly based his character on Carter. Wise grew up next door to the Carter family, and as a college student he volunteered for the governor's campaign alongside Chip, the middle son. He worked for the presidential campaign "as the youngest gopher", and ended up in the White House as Carter's appointment secretary. (His character in The West Wing? "The African-American man who sits outside the president's office.")

 

Was Carter really like President Bartlet? I ask Wise that question as we drive from the Carter Center in Atlanta to Plains through the rolling Georgian countryside, passing signs for catfish buffets and churches that exhort us to "Get out of Facebook and into God's Book". He considers the question seriously: "They were both former governors. Could both be very stubborn. And they both had a certain moral tone." He concludes: "There was a lot of Carter in the part."

 

In Britain we assumed that a politician that upright, that pure, could only be fictitious, and the expenses scandal has only reinforced that. But everything about Jimmy Carter's life – what he did as president, and what he's done since – has proved that "certain moral tone". And his home somehow encapsulates this. Inside, there's no hallway, just a patch of carpet separating a small dining room from a tiny sitting room. Then, all of a sudden, there's Jimmy.

 

Strictly speaking, he's still Mr President, but it's hard to give the office its true gravitas in what looks like my mum's living room. And there's a plain, homespun quality about him that's reminiscent of that other great Jimmy, the patron saint of small-town American life: Jimmy Stewart. He'll turn 87 in October, and is recovering from having both his knees replaced this summer, but the dazzling smile that once captivated America is still there.

Carter, the naval officer, and Obama, the civilian, are far apart on the appropriate use of military force.

[luke warm]

Carter, the naval officer, and Obama, the civilian, are far apart on the appropriate use of military force.

true, although close (some might say too close) in others

[Foxx]

passing signs for catfish buffets and churches that exhort us to "Get out of Facebook and into God's Book".

 

I'll bet you a beer, that half of those churches have a Facebook page.

[Hanoi5]

I might be entering a twilight zone with this question but, how's ousting Saddam different from ousting Khadafi?

[helene_t]

I might be entering a twilight zone with this question but, how's ousting Saddam different from ousting Khadafi?

Khadafi was ousted by local rebels armed with whatever Soviet era weapon they could loot from Khadafi's depots. OK they got some help from NATO air force and intelligence.

 

Sadam was ousted by a US/British invasion.

 

So the two do not compare at all. Maybe more relevant to compare either to ousting the Taliban, which was somewhere in between in terms of the relative contributions from Western and local forces.

[Hanoi5]

OK they got some help from NATO air force and intelligence.

 

Yeah, some help. I suppose the rebels were 30 years waiting for a moment to seize the guns from Khadafi and suddenly they got to them and then NATO helped. And they lived happily ever after...

[hrothgar]

Yeah, some help. I suppose the rebels were 30 years waiting for a moment to seize the guns from Khadafi and suddenly they got to them and then NATO helped. And they lived happily ever after...

 

Snark all you want, but that's not too inaccurate a representation of what went on all across the Mediterranean this last year.

 

The defining characteristic of the Arab spring is that these appear to have been internal protests, self organized by local inhabitants. These certainly aren't the first such protests to have occurred (look at the Iranian revolutions, the civil war in Algeria or the uprising in Hama the last time the Assad family flattened it). However, they're the first successful uprisings in 30 odd years.

 

The governments of these countries have been sitting on powder kegs for years. Too many young people, stifled by incredibly dysfunctional governments and economies. (Egypt has long been on my list of "counties not to visit" because I was sure things were going to blow up, but never could figure out when it was going to happen)

[blackshoe]

Whether anyone in Libya is going to "live happily ever after" remains to be seen. As for the sequence of events, as I recall it (and without researching it for three hours on the web) there was a rebellion, the rebels asked for help from NATO, they got it. As to where the individual weapons used in the original rebellion came from, I don't know. I do know there are a lot of rifles and other things floating around that part of the world.

[cherdano]

I might be entering a twilight zone with this question but, how's ousting Saddam different from ousting Khadafi?

Casualties of the Iraq War