So many sheep-like commentators, so sad.

"I did. And I survived pretty much unscathed. Yes it was a pain waiting in long lines for gas, but I remember seeing pictures of Russians waiting in similar lines for bread."

I have seen many lunatics attempt to come up with creative explanations for why Carter wasn't a horrible president, but claiming that Carter's America was slightly better that Brezhnev's USSR is certainly a novel one. I suppose Carter jailed fewer of his political opponents than Fidel Castro, so he's got that going for him too.

great response to night biker what kind of pre written sheepish answer do you have to that

I live my life following the NO MA'AM creed, "Carpe Mammarium" - Seize the Hooters hehehe.

Actually(common sense coming up)...

Carter did send a special ops task force to rescue the hostages in Iran. It was rushed, poorly planned, against the suggestions of military advisors and 8 soldiers died. Many thought it was an effort to give him a boost in the upcoming elections.

Second, Carter dealt with the Middle East in the context of the cold war, where countries could always play nice with the U.S. in hopes of playing us off against the Soviets and getting military aid from Both sides (like Iraq, Egypt, etc. did. So Carter's brokering of the peace deal between Israel and Egpyt (Which really did nothing except set the stage for Yassir Arafat and the rise of international terrorism in the 80's) was as much to thumb our nose at the Soviets as anything else.

Third we could not have sent bombers to Iran without risking WWIII. Remember the Soviet Union had just invaded Afghanistan (Iran's neighbor) and the Soviet Union would have reacted to American bombing with escalated military action.

Fourth - it's worth noting that we were never directly attacked by Nazi Germany, nor ever in harm's way of the third reich. You could even argue, Pearl Harbor aside, America itself was never realistically threatened by Japan. Should we have fought a war with them? Hundreds of Thousands of Americans died in that war, perhaps we should have taken the embarrassment of Pearl Harbor rather than the 400,000 who died?

In short, knowing what we know now, I would still suggest the invasion and overthrow of Sadaam was a worthy military action. Has the occupation after the defeat of Iraq gone particularly well? Not really. Will Iraq collapse into civil war as soon as we leave? Likely so.. But that's not really our problem.. they should not have tolerated Sadaam for as many years as they did. Once again America had to take out the trash the rest of the world left around stinking up the place.

The fact is that Iran is currently fighting a proxy war with the U.S. through insurgents (terrorists) in Iraq, has threatened assasination and terrorism against U.S. leaders, actively supports terrorism in all forms, and is actively seeking to develop nuclear weapons to use as leverage (at best) or tools for terrorism (at worst). War may not be needed currently with Iran. But they must be dealt with shortly.

romanoff...I realize this last post was written back in 2007 so I don't know if you will get this but I thought I'd write this nonetheless...

Since your post alot has happened in the world and the biggest being the Financial Collapse in 2008 (which if you look back at history, Ronald Reagan was the one who started to deregulate the banks and other markets and it took less than 25yrs for all of it to collapse).

Since your post people from all walks of life have been bringing the discussions of alternative fosil fuel, conserving energy and the mass consumption our society is so comfortable with and how all this is ruining our world, to a heightened state because we all now know that the way we've been living has to change.

The cause of the finiancial collapse, the shortage of oil and oil prices these days and many other problems we are facing clearly all lead back to the Reagan administration. It's clearly obvious the Reagan-policies were so flawed and completely based on greed and helping a small portion of the population (which lead to our current predicaments). And the ideas and discussions people are having these days about conserving energy, looking for alternative fuel, etc etc were all brought forth by the Carter administration and if all Americans have listened to those policies that he wanted to pass, we most likely wouldn't be in the situation we are now in.

So I don't know if your opinion of Reagan and Carter has changed since 2007 because of eveything that's happened but if you still feel the same way as you did then, then I suggest you look at the facts, look at history and don't just read a book that some person wrote to distort history. (It's crazy that the Republican Party are still trying to pass this myth of Ronald Reagan as being this great President even after the 2008 collapse and the end of the middle class).

I'm not saying Carter was an amazing President and Reagan was evil and everything is his fault, all I'm saying is that the policies and ideals that Reagan passed onto the American public was the starting point to why America (and the world) is in this economic state. And the things we have to do are the same solutions that Jimmy Carter and his administration but forth 30yrs ago.