President Jimmy Carter - RIP

aleshanee said:
this is actually the first time in many years we have a legitimate reason to fly the u.s. flags at half mast - the death of a u.s. president.... in this case a former president ... but still appropriate - and in keeping with historical tradition.... .... in my opinion and the opinions of many others flying it half mast for terrorist attacks only encourages more attacks.... ...and disasters - whether natural or man made - need for people to be able to look up at the flag pole and see the flag flying proudly at full staff... .. lets them know their country is still here and still standing..... ready and able to help. .... .... ... that;s the way it always was for 2 centuries ... ..what made it change?........ i have never been able to find out.......
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Carter was a WW2 era Navy guy, so I’m sure the naval bases will definitely be flying half mast. I agree with you about the terrorist attacks.
 
aleshanee said:
this is actually the first time in many years we have a legitimate reason to fly the u.s. flags at half mast - the death of a u.s. president....
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George H. W. Bush died in 2018, which was only six years ago. That's not long in terms of presidential funerals. Reagan's was 14 years before that, in 2004, and before his was Nixon's, in 1994.
 
DrHuk&Duck said:
Carter was a WW2 era Navy guy, so I’m sure the naval bases will definitely be flying half mast.
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My favourite Carter story is still of him diving to help clean up the Chalk River reactor here near Ottawa after the meltdown in the 1950s. He absorbed something like 1000 times the level of radiation now considered safe, and still lived to be 100. Of course, as an early part of the naval nuclear program, he was one of the few people at the time who actually knew how to manage the problem.
 
Ransom said:
George H. W. Bush died in 2018, which was only six years ago. That's not long in terms of presidential funerals. Reagan's was 14 years before that, in 2004, and before his was Nixon's, in 1994.
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true.... it wasn;t really that long ago........ it just seemed kinda long with all the other things happening in between those events that took the flag down to half mast...... ......... here in hawaii it seems like the flag has been down at half mast more than it has been at the top... ...in fact it was already at half mast even before carter died........ ... and i;m not even sure what that reason was.. ..i don;t think many people in this state do......
 
[checks notes]

My mistake. Gerald Ford died in 2006, two years after Reagan. Relatively speaking, 6 years is starting to look (a little bit) longer.
 
Ransom said:
My favourite Carter story is still of him diving to help clean up the Chalk River reactor here near Ottawa after the meltdown in the 1950s. He absorbed something like 1000 times the level of radiation now considered safe, and still lived to be 100. Of course, as an early part of the naval nuclear program, he was one of the few people at the time who actually knew how to manage the problem.
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My favorite Carter story is of the swamp rabbit that penetrated secret service and attacked him lol. Ironically, the “killer rabbit” helped kill him in the polls and he became a bit of a punching bag for it. As much as I like Carter, I have to admit the incident is humorous. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/jimmy-carter-killer-rabbit-incident.html
 
DrHuk&Duck said:
My favorite Carter story is of the swamp rabbit that penetrated secret service and attacked him lol. Ironically, the “killer rabbit” helped kill him in the polls and he became a bit of a punching bag for it. As much as I like Carter, I have to admit the incident is humorous. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/jimmy-carter-killer-rabbit-incident.html
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i never heard of this before.. ... .. but when i first saw it i wondered if it was the
inspiration for a whacky horror movie called night of the lepus... about giant killer
rabbits... . .but then i found the trailer and saw it was made in 1972.... still it is
pretty funny..... but one of those weird incidents he probably shouldn;t have
told anybody about.... :sneaky:
 
DrHuk&Duck said:
My favorite Carter story is of the swamp rabbit that penetrated secret service and attacked him lol.
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There was also the gaffe (during a debate with Reagan, I think) where he said he had asked his daughter about nuclear arms control. I suppose it was an early instance of the "precocious eight-year-old" meme (Amy would have been about 12 at the time).
 
Ransom said:
There was also the gaffe (during a debate with Reagan, I think) where he said he had asked his daughter about nuclear arms control. I suppose it was an early instance of the "precocious eight-year-old" meme (Amy would have been about 12 at the time).
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i heard about that one.... .. during the debate carter said he asked his daughter amy what was the biggest threat to the world in her mind.... and she told him the spread of nuclear weapons..........

the next day while announcing a dallas cowboy football game - roger staubach... who had recently retired from football and was trying his hand as being a game day commentator.... and who also had a daughter named amy.... made a comment on air during the game how he asked his daughter amy what the greatest threat the cowboys faced against the redskins was.... and she told him "the bomb"......... (at that time a long pass down the length of the field was called a bomb)....

immediately staubach got calls from management telling him to just call the game and cease with the political commentary... .....so he made another comment on air saying he could gaurantee amy staubach knew as much about football as amy carter knew about nuclear proliferation.... ...

while that gaffe of carters might not have been what ended carters career... staubachs comments definitely ended his.... he was told they no longer needed him in the press booth to help with cowboy games..... .... and thats why staubach became a businessman after his retirement rather than a television sports announcer.....

(told to me by a first hand witness who watched the debate and also saw the game....)
 
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aleshanee said:
while that gaffe of carters might not have been what ended carters career...
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Not directly. But the remark was one of his missteps during the only 1980 debate in which he and Reagan faced off (famously also the one in which Reagan first used his "There you go again" catchphrase, and in his closing speech asked whether Americans felt better off than four years earlier). He lost the debate badly, and Reagan surged ahead of him in the polls afterward--and then Carter lost the election badly, and that ended his career.

I think more concrete issues contributed more to his downfall--foreign policy, the economy, gas lines, the Iran hostage crisis--so Amy Carter's opinions on nukeyer proliferation weren't the thing that cost him his career. But it was a thing.
 
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Reagan was a brilliant orator, and of course he was a former Hollywood actor, so he had good training. Carter was good as a speaker, but in more of a rustic, neighborly farm boy sort of way. He really couldn’t hold a candle next to Reagan’s ability. Given that, I’ve always found it surprising that Reagan couldn’t get past Ford when he ran for president in ‘76, especially since Carter defeated Ford. Stranger yet, Ford was never elected president or vice president, so he really didn’t have the incumbency thing working for him either. (He’s the only person to become president without ever being elected as president or VP).
 
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