Chalabi may very well be unreliable (and you’re right, the election certainly proved he’s unpopular with the Iraqi public), but it was the consensus, worldwide, prior to the invasion that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction…

The pre-war debate was not over whether such weapons existed, but whether they constituted grounds for a preemptive war…

But this is rather far afield, and I’m not trying to gang up on you…it’s good that Carter still has some fans…after all, a lot of people never gave up on the White Sox, either, and it paid off for them…

Jimmah told people what HE wanted them to hear, which was that his incredible weakness and ineptness of leadership was somehow the American public’s fault, and not his own administration’s.

Recently – released archives from the KGB and Soviet Politboro have concluded that once Brehznev took the measure of Carter, they immediately decided that going into Afghanistan would not be opposed by NATO, and that any incursions across the world (Angola, Africa, etc.) would similarly not be opposed after the fecklessness shown by Carter during their summits.

Detente’ was a total joke to the Soviets under the Peanut Man – Carter was rolled by everyone during his Presidency, and his current hilarious miscalculations – validating corrupt and invalid elections in kleptocracies across the world have reminded so many of why he was the worst President to lead our country in the last 50 years, hands down.

And yes, you’re just about alone in your “Great Pumpkin” – like beliefs on this score.

I think Carter was mediocre but not awful. Given the issues he had to deal with — he inherited an inflation rate in the teens from Ford, Volcker choked the economy with interest rates that went to the high teens, a hostile Soviet Union, and an oil embargo — I think things turned out reasonably OK.

Moreover, I think that Carter had a much more difficult period for his Presidency than Bush. Bush inherited an economy which was humming, a budget surplus, relative world peace, and a Cold War which ended fifteen years earlier. The biggest problem Bush faced, of course, is 9/11, and of course we disagree on his performance there (although the grades you gave him earlier of an A- on offense and a C on defense are passing grades, but imply that others would have done better).

I give Jimmy Carter a lot of credit for telling the American people things they do not want to hear, which I think is a sign of true leadership. To use one example, we have had an oil problem for decades. Jimmy Carter was roasted for wearing a cardigan sweater and telling Americans to turn down their thermostats. Unpopular, but true. A far cry from the current administration, which not only is afraid to tell Americans that, regrettably, there is a correlation between driving a Ford Explorer and how much oil we have to import from unsavory regimes — but also subsidized the purchase of SUV’s and trucks by providing a tax break to businesses who purchased them –

I think that we have become a weak and flabby nation which has lost many of the values which made America great. Part of leadership is trying to restore these values, of which sacrifice for the common good is chief among them. I think Carter deserves a lot of credit for an earnest effort to move the country in the right direction.

I did not vote for Reagan, but I found him a very difficult person not to like. I think there is much to be said for his Presidency. I don’t agree with his policies, but I think he brought qualities of leadership to Washington which are admirable. I don’t think he will go down in history as one of the greats, but neither will he be in the same class as Hoover, Nixon, or Bush II.

And I’m guessing that you thought the exact same things about Reagan during his tenure as you do for Bush – Reagan was accused of worse things during his two terms, but now?…