The inner core of awfulness of Jimmy Carter

John Derbyshire:

It is the little things that stick in the mind, those transient items that show up on an inside-page paragraph of one’s newspaper for a day or two, then vanish, forgotten by everyone else but oneself. Here is one of those oddities from the Carter years. In mid-September 1980 a Russian soldier sought refuge in the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Astoundingly — this, please remember, was nine months into the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, a geostrategic event of the first magnitude — there was no one at the embassy who could understand Russian. After a few days, during which the air in the embassy must have been well-nigh crystalline with embarrassment, a deal was struck — no doubt “assurances” were given — and the unfortunate squaddie was returned to the tender care of the Soviet military authorities. I often wonder what became of him. Better not to know, perhaps.

This little incident has always stood for me as a symbol of the cluelessness and impotence of the Carter administration, by common agreement one of the low points in 20th-century American statecraft.

Now, there is a case to be made that some, at least, of that administration’s misfortunes were not Jimmy Carter’s fault. The man was elected president of an angry, unhappy country, afflicted with major systemic problems and confronted by bold, ruthless enemies. “Stagflation,” with which the Carter presidency will be forever associated, was ten years in the bud, was the fruit of policies taught and approved by most expert opinion at the time, and was vanquished at last by Paul Volcker, a Carter appointee. The hostage-taking in Teheran called for a brisk military response; yet America’s military, reflecting the mood of America herself, was never less keen on, or less equipped for, action of that kind than in 1979. The farcical “killer rabbit” incident might have happened to any president. Let’s face it, the guy had some bad breaks. Yet still, with all allowances made and all excuses listed, there is an inner core of awfulness to Jimmy Carter. Our Endangered Values — it is his 20th book — makes this clear.

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A book review of Carter's latest reminds me why he was the last Democrat I ever voted for for president.