Here's what Jimmy Carter taught me about party unity:

[trof]

I met him in 1975, during the campaign. I disagreed with some position he had taken on something. I forget what now, but I thought he was pandering and I said so.

He was very kind, but he said "You have to understand that I can't do any of the things we want to do unless I first get elected. I can have the highest ideals, and the best plans and policies, and if I can't get elected none of that matters."

I've cut Democratic politicians a lot of slack since then.

[marylandblue]

1. Much as I like Jimmy Carter, he could not hold the party together

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. You are correct, but he made a very valid point about getting elected. n/t

[marylandblue]

7. I think the problem for Carter was the change in the electorate

Even as he tried to make those compromises, it was too much for some and not enough for others. Reagan took advantage of this disunity and created a new coalition. Trump is facing a similar problem now. Country is facing new challenges that Trump won't be able to handle. This gives Democrats an opportunity to create a new coalition, but it won't look like the old one.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Of course, you're right.

I always try to remember the old saying: The only constant is change.

[Cicada]

16. Iran revolution caused oil to hit all time high price in 1980

Oil cost $3 per barrel in 1973, before the oil embargo. It rose to $12 and there were huge lines at gas stations. When oil production in Iran fell 75% in Iran it pushed prices to $39.50. Again there were lines at gas stations. Economic performance in the US was best in the big economies but Carter was blamed and lost.

[trof]

3. Ya think the hostage 'crisis' and Reagan's inauguration day 'surprise' had anything to do with that?

[elleng]

5. And Ted Kennedy?

[trof]

6. Yep. I'd forgotten about that.

Thanks.

[elleng]

10. ALMOST better to have history against which to view today.

[marylandblue]

8. Republicans are already jockeying to be Trump's Ted Kennedy

[Renew Deal]

4. He is of course correct

[George II]

11. That was similar to a lecture my father used to give me. I asked him "what's the most important....

....thing a politician can do?" His simple answer was "get elected".

[lastlib]

19. Salvor Hardin (the Foundation trilogy hero):

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."


(I guess it's correctly attributed to the great Isaac Asimov.....)

[Fresh_Start]

12. notice

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10212710364727771&set=p.10212710364727771&type=3

[David__77]

13. Yes, winning is required.

That said, I do not imagine I would have supported Carter in the Democratic primary of 1976 (or 1980), had I been a voter at that time.

[trof]

14. But in the general?

Please say you would have?

[David__77]

15. Yes.

And general elections are quite different from primary elections, in my opinion.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Agree and REC

[NHDEMFORLIFE]

18. As a still-proud member of the Draft Kennedy 80 movement ...

Jimmy Carter is a fine gentleman and exemplary statesman.
As president, he was pretty much a disaster. The economy was awful, and it wasn't that he made it awful but that he refused to do much of anything to ease the pain. He entered office as a right-of-center Democrat and governed as such. He had great majorities in both the House and Senate and on most major policy proposals spit in their faces.
The Iran hostages saved him in the fight for the Democratic nomination. Kennedy, for all his PR flaws - and there were plenty - had an overwhelming lead before the hostages. Then it was "rally-around-the-President time." By November, 1980, the hostages were viewed as just one more situation in which Carter looked hapless and hopeless.
On Election Night, when Carter conceded before the polls closed on the West Coast, probably costing Democrats in more than a couple of Senate and House races, Tip O'Neill called Hamilton Jordan and growled, "You guys are going out the same way you came in - no class!"
Since then, I have learned the importance of party unity, and come to understand the need to support candidates who may not pass my liberal litmus test. But as much as I respect Jimmy Carter, his presidency was not undermined by Ted Kennedy or forces over which he had absolutely no control.

[XRubicon]

20. He was right

We have to be in office just to maintain what we have gained, it is already being eroded.