BT: Carter sees tea party parallels to his 1976 run

[JMS]

But he said the tipping points that cost him the 1980 election were the Iran hostage crisis and the primary challenge by U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy.

"Had we not had the hostage crisis, I would have won," he said in the interview of his defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan, adding: "Had I not had Kennedy as my opponent, who sapped away a portion of the Democratic wing, I would have been re-elected."

I love Jimmy Carter. I think he's our greatest ex-president; having done more for folks out of office than any other former president in the modern era. However this sounds like sour grapes to me. Jimmy's mishandling of the economy along with other foreign policy issues was pretty epic. The oil embargo, the double digit inflation along with the very high unemployment rate... ( 21% combined ).... Not to mention home loans with 16%+ interest rates...

Overall Jimmy was a fiscally and socially conservative democrat who pretty much deserved to get the sack in 1980. I think Reagan was pretty much unstopable that year once he finally got the nod for the GOP nomination. Ron was too strong in the depates to be denied.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9IBN1L80&show_article=1

Carter sees tea party parallels to his 1976 run

ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday he sees parallels between today's tea party and his own campaign for the White House in 1976. But he doesn't think the movement will be much of a factor beyond this fall's elections.

The Georgia Democrat told The Associated Press he rode a wave of voter discontent to the presidency on the heels of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that felled President Richard Nixon, much like tea party conservatives are now earning support by voicing anger at the nation's economic woes.

"I was a candidate that was in some ways like the tea party candidate," Carter said in an interview. "I was a complete outsider. I capitalized legitimately on the dissatisfaction that was permeating our society."

He said the tea party's momentum will likely wear off and they will be co-opted by the Republican Party.

"I think they're going to be quite a major factor in November," he said. "I think there's already a process of absorbing them into the Republican Party. I think they will be much less of a factor in 2012 and in future years."

The comments came the same day the former president's new book, "White House Diary," was released.

In the book, Carter said he pursued an overly aggressive agenda as president that may have confused voters and alienated lawmakers. But he said the tipping points that cost him the 1980 election were the Iran hostage crisis and the primary challenge by U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy.

"Had we not had the hostage crisis, I would have won," he said in the interview of his defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan, adding: "Had I not had Kennedy as my opponent, who sapped away a portion of the Democratic wing, I would have been re-elected."

Carter said in the book that he is proud of his accomplishments during his presidency, but that pushing controversial decisions such as the end of U.S. control of the Panama Canal and working to normalize relations with Communist China cost him political support.

"I overburdened Congress with an array of controversial and politically costly requests. Looking back, I am struck by how many unpopular objectives we pursued," he said, adding: "We were able to achieve a remarkable amount of what we set out to do, but ultimately the political cost—of my administration and for members of Congress—was very high."

Carter, 85, compiled the book from thoughts and observations he dictated several times a day in tapes turned over to his secretary. Thirty years later, he condensed and annotated the diary with recent reflections. The book was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The former president said in the interview that he neglected his role as the party's leader, opening a vacuum that cost some of his chief legislative supporters their jobs. He said there were 20 senators up for re-election in 1978 who voted for the Panama treaty—and only seven came back to the Senate the next year.

"One of the things I could have done better is I could have been a better leader of the Democratic Party. I didn't feel comfortable," he said. Carter said he decided to publish the diary because it "may be my last chance to offer an assessment of my time in the White House," he wrote.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Burgold]

Carter was a great person with a big ole heart. He's gone a little bit over the edge in recent years which is a shame, but he has done a tremendous amount of good humanitarian work. I view Carter as sort of the opposite that I did Clinton. Clinton was a very good politician and a good President, but a slime of a person. Carter was a weak President and a poor politician, but a good guy.

[JMS]

Just with respect to 1976 election and the 2010 perhaps 2012 election... Carter might be on to something.....

Carter did get the Node in 1976 because he was a conservative political outsider something designed to draw supporters from both parties. The Dems basically mapped a candidate over top of what they thought the Republicans would vote for, and it worked. The Conservative Republicans found Carter attractive because he was a conservative, and the more moderate Gerald Ford was not. Besides the country was still up in arms with Ford for pardoning Nixon. To Fords credit he did it prior to the election so the American public could pass judgement upon him for it. Which they did when they overwhelmingly chose Carter for President.

To go further though.... Ronald Reagan was also a political outsider who the Republican party turned to when it turned away from the unpopular Nixon and Ford era's in 1980. Ronnie was seen as too conservative by those in power in 76 and 72. A guy out of the Barry Goldwater branch of the GOP who scared the shorts off of people.... When Ford failed to win as an incumbant in 76, the party refused to send Ford back to the general election in 1980 to face Jimmy Carter. Thus Reagan who also lead a revolt of fiscal and newly minted social conservative Republican voters became main stream. Not because he had changed, but because the definition of acceptable shifted to the right.

Interesting note.... In 1976 Gerald Ford offered the VP nomination to Reagan who turned it down. Gerald Ford subsequently blamed Reagan for his defeat in that election. When Reagan got the nod in 1980 he turned around and offered Gerry Ford the VP position; which Ford subsequently turned down. Then Reagan decided upon the socially liberal G HW Bush as a Ford replacement. A candidate who had little in common with Reagan but was a politicla insider designed to balance the very conservative reagan ticket.