Jeff Danziger for January 09, 2009

At first glance this looks negative…

llol!!!

To my mind’s eye Pres Carter is at this point the only individual worth emulating.

OK, so I’m thick and slow today. But I’m missing the joke. ‘course I was a tyke during his administration & mainly remember his toothy smile & peanut farmer roots being made fun of. Oh, and the gas lines…

First of all you dumb dog, learn how to spell Habitat for Humanity and second of all what have you done to make life better for the less fortunate? You right wingnuts are always asking WWJD? I think he would do what Carter is doing now, he wasn’t a great president but he’s a great man.

Only two of these guys ever worked out an agreement between Israel and its enemies…and they’re both democrats.

Carter is probably our finest ex-president.

Dallas is struggling and being nitpicky just like Leaky does!

hmmmm … So, Carter still feels the need to fix the mess left in the White House (fix the broken White House) left by the previous administration?

Habitat testimonials can be found if you know how to use Google. That said, I think for once this cartoon is somewhat less political and more personal. Here are four men, three ex-Preznuts and one Preznut-elect, sitting around slurping soup and eating while one ex-Preznut is behaving like a handyman, not like a wealthy head of state. It’s not about Carter’s politics; it’s about his personality. It’s quite positive, IMNSHO, about Carter. Most telling, to me, is that it’s Clinton telling the others to ignore Carter.

puppy, lame come back when called out. Being called a doofus by YOU is like a compliment.

the fact, as well as the joke, Carter is still making an impact. He did and still does contribute while the other (even my boy Bill) are just politicians as usual. Pay no attention the positive impact that you COULD make.

Yes, thanks for your support Humph, you are the wind in my sails. Too bad Carter is lame for your sakes or you would be correct in making Obama the Next God of all Virtue and Truth. To bad he’s just a little corrupt Chicago political-machiner. Carter has his virtues and he also has his problems. Didn’t like it when the country lauded Reagan as a great leader in reaction to (imho) the Hostage Crisis (among other distasteful things), but 18 of the last 28 GOOD years have been presided over by Republicans. Wish both parties would get their act together and remember they work for us.

Interesting that you are counting all 28 of the past 28 years as good ones… I’m sure some would beg to differ.

I think it’s also interesting in what it says about each of the men involved. Obama: Curious, open to the group; Bush 43: Oblivious, only cares about the soup sitting under his nose; Clinton: Dismissive, haughty; Carter: Productive, unconcerned about the big picture, concerned about addressing those things he can manage; Bush 41: Likewise curious about Carter’s activity, but, he has his back to us, closed…secretive.

That’s my take on the matter.

puppy, keep trying, you’re not covert enough.

It’s generally thought by historians that Carter was not a terribly effective president, and he was indeed a micromanager - but he’s had a remarkable post-presidential career. As well as ticking off the Clintons and others for his lone-wolf approach to diplomacy…

motive … I think you’ve a fair idea of Carter’s presidency. His main fault was being a micromanager. The other thing was the time … just after Nixon and won an election because Regan and Ford factions were at each other. Blamed for an somewhat like Obama’s situation but with out a political base in Washington he was indeed not as effective as he could be. PS puppy go away.

I lived the Cater years. There is no argument about him being the worst president we have ever had. Unemployment: 10%, Inflation: 20%, Home mortgage rates: 18% and waiting in line for hours for gas. Carter is an engineer and had no business trying to be PotUS. His work with HfH is wonderful, but he has done 10 times as much damage meeting with and apologizing for the bad guys. He is the first president in my memory who believes WE are the bad guys, in almost every case. Carter was and is a loser and loose cannon.

gb, so did I, in Alabama. Funny I was a Republican at the time and was I reidculed, especially by neighbors loosing homes and jobs. That was the summer of ‘76 and did Ford and Regan go at it. Agree Carter didn’t get very far, some, of his own fault but to stick your head in the sand and lable everything as Carter’s fault … “say it ain’t so, gb”

JDGPro says: Dallas is struggling and being nitpicky just like Leaky does!

Oldgodad 71 disappears and JDG and BG appears.

HUMPH, they do not go away. They are like dandelions, except not so pretty.

Jeff, this is one of your more introspective cartoons, a classic actually. Curiosity, commenting above, has done a good explanation of the ideas behind it. One thing I’d like to know is why Carter and Clinton “hated each other.” Much comment was made about the fact they were standing together but with as much room between them as possible.

I will not go away Humphries, as long as there is the heavy, fetid stench of B.S. in the air I shall continue to search for the cow that caused it.

Two possible ideas about animosity between Carter/Clinton:

Clinton compromised “Ultra-Lib” principles by making concessions to Repubs. Carter, who once allowed Playboy to interview him had “lusted” in his heart, but has not come out and condemned sin as he should have(as a Christian he preaches a Get-along, watered-down social gospel- Bill the Prodigal, on the other hand, comes from a “Brimstone & Fire” Arkansas Baptist background). In effect Carter has guilt over the disobedient actions of his political son Bill. To accept Bill would be to repudiate his own cherished beliefs(of progressive goverenment, society) and force him to take ownership of his own spiritually-lackadaisical world-view.

Interesting debates here. gbw - “worst president we ever had”? Not even close. He inherited a bad economy from Nixon and Ford, and didn’t manage to overcome it, and got savaged politically by the Iranian hostage crisis, so was gone in four years. Not a great leader of people, but also not all that bad, compared to Bush II. Or, if you want to take a longer view, check out Warren Harding. Though I think Dubya will set a new world record. NoFearPup - interesting ideas, but I would correct one thing: Carter was not an “ultra-lib,” whatever that means. And Clinton, in my view, talked a good game, but his actions were all pretty center-right, given his links to business, supporting NAFTA, etc. We haven’t had a real liberal in the White House in decades, and I doubt Obama will be the exception. As for the “condemning sin,” I haven’t seen any big-name conservative Christians condemning Bush for lying to us, sending people to a futile war, and so forth – except for the Pope, of course. Besides, Clinton’s sins were minor by comparison. Carter probably did speak to Clinton privately, if I had to guess. And Jesus said a lot about loving your neighbor despite who he might be.

puppy the stench is your droppings, skewered facts … as usual. PS Just what are you cow or puppy ?

Hump, If you were a republican in the 70s in Alabama, you were really out of place. I did the 70s in NJ/NY, but live in Alabama now. Everyone is still a democrat here, but voted for McCain by 70-30.

I am so sick of hearing, “Bush lied” and “futile war”. If Bush lied, so did Clinton, Blair and most of the other leaders of the free world. Why the UN sanctions? Did Bush have them fooled also? And your futile war has produced a democratic nation that is no threat to anyone. I agree Bush has a lot of faults and failings, but protecting us from attack is not one of them. His faults are acting like a democrat on a spending spree and being the worst communicator in the history of the world. I only hope BHO is half as good as you people think he is. Most of his cabinet appointments have been center/left, rather than far left. It will be interesting to see how he governs.

gb, you’re catching on. I once remarked the smallest group in town was the Cathloic Republicans. Then a friend of mine said Ha, The only single jewish girl in this town is fourteen, he’d been a long time without a date.

gbw, several points: First: Yes, they all lied, but not about getting us into a war - that’s a massive difference. Second: You also misunderstand the lie. No one said Saddam was a nice man, and Iraq deserved sanctions - but they had NO WMDs. The sanctions were working. We didn’t need to invade and destabilize the whole Middle East. It wasn’t an intelligence failure - except for Bush’s. He was following a cynical (excuse me, “geopolitical) neocon plan going back to his father’s administration (Bush I knew enough about the big wide world to tell them no), and the nonexistent WMDs were merely an excuse. Third, protecting us from what? How many terrorist attacks have we ever had anyway? Right now, we’re still losing people in “Mission Accomplished” Iraq five years later, and a lot of the people doing it are technically terrorists, right? Also, the airport restrictions are simply nonsense window-dressing - they’re making us put liquids in bags because of a liquid bomb threat that did not exist (true - they couldn’t have made it), but are still failing to screen bags or FedEx packages! Fourth, he’s acting like a Republican on a spending spree: handing it to the military, corporate friends, and the rich, taking it from the people of this country. Obama’s got a big job ahead of him, and Bush made it that way. And for the record, while I agree with your point that Obama isn’t being a hardline ideologue (like Bush) most of his big-name appointments have been center or center-right. He kept some Republicans in, too. His EPA appointments and suchlike have been more left, except that Americans on average want more environmental action, so arguably they’re more center.

I think it honorable for “Jimmy” to use any means available to him..Even if that includes building future HUD homes to salvage his bogus Legacy…..