The Jimmy Carter Paradox

The vast majority of people forget. President Carter was NOT a liberal Democrat. He was a moderate who actually had a better working relationship with the Republican leadership in Congress; Howard Baker in the Senate and Bob Michael in the House (he essentially admitted as such on the Larry King Show) than he did with the Democrats. Yeah, he did go a little nutty after he left the Presidency but this whole notion that he was a leftist President is historically inaccurate (incompetent maybe but an Obama or a Roosevelt definitely not), in my opinion.....................................................................................And this brings us here to the second part of the paradox. Most of the Presidents who worked effectively (substantively, I'm saying) across the divide tended to have successful Presidencies; Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton. The fact that Carter didn't leads me to think that maybe at least some of the bad things that happened weren't necessarily his fault (and, yes, this is coming from a person who's been critical of him in the past) and that maybe we should cut the dude some slack after all. It's just a suggestion.