And the best living ex-president is…
This poll has a margin of error of plus or minus Israel:
For nearly one-out-of-three voters (32%), Jimmy Carter is the living ex-president who has done the best job since leaving the White House, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, ranks first among the four surviving presidents. George W. Bush, who has only been out of office seven months, comes in last with nine percent (9%) support.
Bill Clinton, president from 1993 to 2001, made headlines again last week when he successfully brought two imprisoned U.S. women reporters home from North Korea. He is viewed by 29% as the ex-president who has performed best since stepping down as chief executive.
As much as I’d like to, I just can’t disagree with the outcome of this poll. The best thing that Jimmy Carter ever did for America was to leave office, and as such he’s not only the best living ex-president, but possibly the best ex-president ever.
This will certainly give Jimmy bragging rights at the next living presidents meeting at the White House.
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we’ve really had some winners lately haven’t we
Too bad Reagan is no longer with us.
Jimmah Carter? Somebody has a real good sense of humor, but then Obama is Jimmy Carter’s second term so maybe this is more suggesting that Obama is on the right track. Which would take an incredible leap in personal logic for just about anyone with brain cells lighting up.
The ex-President with the most parachute jumps wins!
They all suck.
But, Carter is the biggest loser. I remember how morale spiralled downward in the Military when he was CINC.
Billy Carter would have been better as President, and he aspired to cretinism.
By those criteria, Carter is definitely the current 1st place holder, but only until Obama is retired. I didn’t think it was possible, but he’s FAR worse than Carter, and that’s only in 7 months! Imagine how much he can screw up in a whole 4 years!
What!!!
Someone please wake me up when the earth gets back on it’s axis. I am tired of living in this upside down reality.
Precisely! Good call!
Carter deserves praise for his charitable work, but he was a HORRIBLE president. Not that the other survivors were great. If I had to pick a best (that is, least-worst) surviving president, it would be Bush, Senior.
I just can’t believe ANYTHING Rasmussen says about Bush because, he said once in Fox that Bush was forced by public to take action for 911 attacks.
Carter would be even better if he’d keep his Israel-bashing mouth shut.
Morale spiraled down?
Yes, and so did personnel readiness, equipment readiness, spare parts, replacement equipment, training ammunition, ships and aircraft on ready alert status, etc. etc. etc.
The Russians watched what transpired, licked their chops and went about making our lives miserable.
Correcting myself: Bush was forced by public to take action for 911 attacks.
Bush took action after 21 days only after he was forced by public.
That ’s what Rasmussen said.
Are we sure the Question was understood?? Maybe the question on who is the best president, was put in a way as to Which one are you GLAD is an Ex-President..
I pick Reagan. OK, OK, he’s dead, but as far as I’m concerned so is the rest of that rat pack.
Exactly to the word what I was palning to say.
Carter was and is the a pathetic evil man.
Carter was a jew hating bigot, is a jew hating bigot. But its ok, he comes from a long line of jew hating bigots.
When Carter was elected, I served on his inaugural staff, as a volunteer. I had the chance to meet him. By the time he left office, I had stopped being a democrat and was learning that conservatism was the best way. Reagan really showed me the truth. Ex-Presidents should retire to their homes/ranches and leave politics all together. Going around the world and critisizing the next President is abhorrent to me. That puts Clinton and Carter on the bottom, as far as I’m concerned. It shows little respect that they should have known, for the office. I have to go with Bush, Sr.. At least, he’s quiet mostly.
Wonder who paid Rasmussen for that poll.
Maybe the poll question was unclear.
Maybe it was asking, “Which living former President are you most happy is not in office now?”
Ouch!
But that would make him #1 in Kapo lgm’s book. Where are you, little lapdog?
i give carter high marks for his civic actions of building homes for deadbeats, but his continual meddling in every commie election to say all was good and fair, and every democratic election to say they were all rigged is beyond tedious. i agree with the secret service, j carter is an ahole. it would be a real pleasure to wake up tomorrow and read with horror that jimmah had passed away in his sleep.
At least when GWB was there, I could sleep nights. Half the world knew he’d not hesitate to hit the button if they did something stupid. It was very comforting.
The others – Jimmah Cawter would have thrown himself on the floor with lust in his heart, Clinton would have been too busy playing with Monica, and Bush ‘41 would have been napping – but somehow, I think ‘Bambi will make them all look like stars.
I agree, Auggie! Carter is a despicable man and the worst ex-president in my lifetime. Who the He&% did they poll for this joke of a result?!?!?!
Even dead, Ronald Wilson Reagan is still a better “living” former President than Jimmy Carter can ever hope to be!
On August 14th, 2009 at 5:37 pm, jjmurphy said:
I can’t wait for Barack Obama to be the worst ex-president of my lifetime.
I get your point, but it confuses the bigger point that Jimmy Carter has done more evil as an ex-president than any other who has occupied that office. He is a wretched, hateful, dangerous man who is a blight on our country, and we should never risk teaching anyone otherwise.
Calling all Thread Rangers for reserve duty at:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/23/the-dont-taze-me-bro-moment-of-henry-louis-gates/?loggedin=1250286071#commentform
Shooting for the 7,000 post mark.
JIMMY %^*(# CARTER?!!!
I had just turned 6 when he got elected and even then I knew he was full of carp.
I just long for the day when Obama is an ex-president (I can’t bear to capitalize the P), if our republic can survive the tyranny.
I am with you on this one. I still can’t believe this marxist is president! This period in time will go down as a low point in US history.
What exactly IS the job of an ex-President of a super power? Funny how the Democrat ones have the face time while the Republicans actually rest. To each his own, but I’d side with the Republicans.
BTWE, can you imagine how mouthy Obama is going to be when he leaves office (in 4 years)?
Obama the worst president of all Whooo! Flag that reid.
Slick Willie must be pissed about this one! After all, didn’t he just save two women from the evil North Koreans?
W. Cleon Skousen’s 1960 book The Naked Communist listed the then-current Communist goals.
Those Communist goals were recorded into the Congressional record over 46 years ago (January 10, 1963).
Look at that list and ask yourself:
Quite a few.
That’s some funny stuff right there!
Doug, you never dissapoint.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, may have had the title of “National Security Advisor” during the Carter administration, but he was the puppet master, and Carter was the puppet.
Zbigniew Brzezinski was/is also an “advisor” to Obama.
For anyone who: a) understands that Obama is an empty suit, and b) wonders who really calls the shots behind the scenes, look at Brzezinski, the Trilateral Commission, and related groups (CFR and Bilderberg Group).
June 6, 2008:
Obama, Clinton Ditch Press for Secret Meeting
June 5-8, 2008:
Bilderberg Group meeting at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, Virginia.
Some of the most powerful people in the MSM were at that meeting, yet there was 100% media blackout of it.
Could it be that the secret meeting, for which both Obama and Clinton ditched their respective press corps, was actually the Bilderberg meeting?
Al Gore — because he never served.
My collie says:
And Rove, you magnificent bastard.
President Bush would have been my vote. He, did not undermine Israel, he tried to keep our Republic free after Sept. 11, he and his lovely lady Laura never once trashed our country in any overseas countries, they both had class and still do. Did he do gobs that made us mad? You bet he did! For a living President, carter is a slug slime on the same frame as our sitting one.
L
I was a kid during Carter’s term. We were dirt-freakin-poor and the folks spent a LOT of time in line waiting for gas. I wish he’d just go away.
In my opinion its a toss up on who did the most damage to the United States. jimmy carter or china bill clinton. Both were evil, but clinton sold this country out. $300,000 donation to the dnc was all it took to get chinese rockets into orbit – where did the norks get their info.
I was in the Marine Corps from 1970 until 1979. To say the military was in a funk, like the country would be an understatement. There will be no tears from me when carter is planted.
Bret Prelutski’s column just a few days ago said:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=106596
Isn’t any of the current Presidents I’m all that wild for. The two Bushes certainly did some things I didn’t like. But Carter and Clinton did things that make me foam at the mouth.
Just put me down as “None of the above.”
When I think of Jimmy Carter I think of the sweater and the “talk” about cutting thermostat down and doing with less. Save me Lord from the smart people (like Jimmy Carter).
President Carter is an asshole. Oops. Can I say that?
True, but SAD, that sarcasm (as opposed to, say, satire) must be the most notable trait of “the opposition.”
for me, one shows weakness…the other strength.
Carter has done the best job at what exactly? Undermining America? I’d agree with that one.
They say that the good die young. Carter will probably live to be 100.
I’m not saying that I’ll go to Plains to piss on his grave when he dies, but only because I hate standing in long lines.
Carters charitable work for Hamas is what truly stands out for me. His lip service for the Thugs in Palestine sets him apart as a Former President. How he could beat the drum so loud and so often for an Enemy
of the United States should be grounds for terminating his passport.
My vote would be for GWB with no reservations.
With the current crop of ex’s, etc., DITTO that. The man was set up for his last 2 years, and I don’t care what anyone else says.
I ran into him once, before he was governor of Texas. He flew into another state to visit an injured friend at a hospital. A ‘real’ guy, and a ‘real’ friend.
Carter?!? Must have polled people who were barely alive when he was pres. The Muriel boat lifts alone were enough to show what a poor president he was. Getting punked by third rate dictators, something Democrats are very good at. Turned Miami into the cesspool of crime it still is today. I’m so tired of the awful consequences of Liberal policies. I’m with you all, W was not the best, his ignoring of the border was enough to make my blood boil, but out of these jokers, he was #1.
Oh, forgot, thank Carter for the bloodthirsty regime that Iran has today and thank Obama for enabling their continued terror of the middle east and the world.
President Carter is much more respected when he focuses upon domestic human issues than when he yammers about foreign issues involving the Middle East. The best thing that you can say about President Carter is that he has no clue about who we deal with in the Middle East. The worst that you can say is that he does understand what those people believe, and does not care.
With all the travel Carter and Obama do, we can only PRAY, long and hard, that they both get the latest and most virulent virus or two (or THREE) and die with moments of each other.
That way, the country can save money on the BS funeral and CRAP that the MSM spews during the days after the funeral, unless of course some craptastic event occurs, like Kalifornia slides into the ocean or Israel turns Iran into a glass parking lot or India makes Pakistan pay BIG TIME for the last 15 years of terror attacks in their country. Well, MAYBE we’d be so lucky as to get a reprieve from the Carter I/II slobberfest.
*sigh*
I might have taken that poll question as “which President are you happiest is no longer serving in that capacity?”
5 more failed banks this week
and the beat goes on…
I have to give JC props for being the first liberal in the history of the universe to actually put his own money where his mouth is. That said, his dismal performance as POTUS and his nonsensical ideology make him the poster boy for all that is vapid, dysfunctional and corrupt on the Left. Sadly, he may have won by default – the other living former Presidents are some of our worst.
Who did the ask this question to? Jimmy Carter is the worst ex president ever. I was only in 1st grade when he ran for president and even then I knew he was a waste of space.
What exactly is the job they’re asking about? An ex-President should just retire and keep their yaps shut. Especially ex-Presidents whose presidencies were total fiascos from the very start.
I’m surprised they didn’t go ahead and give this to Obama.
Racists.
Jimmy Carter has devoted his postWhite House years to one obsessive cause of his: Destroying the image of the State of Israel. It is an obsession so total, so overwhelming in Carter’s life, that you have to wonder if it is a sign of psychosis on Carter’s part. He refused even to criticize the kidnapping of Gilas Shalit, although Carter once conceded that kidnapping Gilad Shalit was “probably a mistake”. Carter emphasized that he meant only a tactical mistake by Hamas. Carter even wrote in his dreadful book “Keeping Faith” that he (Carter) doubted that Yitzhak Rabin was man enough to be a General. This from a wimp like Carter who ran away from a bunny rabbit and collpased during a 6K race.
If we totally disregard what happened while they were in power, it’s a tough call. GWB hasn’t had much chance to do anything, so he only gets points for not being irritating. WJC – gotta give him points big time for making Hillary blow up at that question in Africa. He wasn’t even there! The guy’s a master at keeping her down. Lesson: if you get a chance, ask Hillary how Bill feels about something. Still, it didn’t really help anything. GHWB – eh. So I can’t disagree either. Jimmuh wins by default.
Am I alone in thinking EVERY living ex-president is a tool?
Our Navy squadron VF-24 was never so happy when Ronald Reagan won! We were so sick of the lack of Tomcat parts and the long hours and several aircraft down as we robbed parts from one plane to fly another. We were so sick and tired of mr. carter (Yes, I know no capitals and no title either, purposefully!) that we couldn’t stand him!
Off topic: last night I sent the email I got from David Axelrod to flagatwhitehouse.gov, saying “this guys is lying about the presidents health plan”.
41, no contest. He was no great shakes as a president, but he is a very decent guy. He really is the only one who — as ex-president — has never embarrassed himself and seems unlikely to. Okay, 43 hasn’t really embarrassed himself yet, but he hasn’t had much time. He embarrassed himself and us so often while he actually was president that I don’t doubt he has some more special moments in his future. (I guess I sound pretty harsh and spiteful about 43, but he just never had the confident personality that is essential to leadership, although he had some good moments. It is deadly to sometimes look like an awkward teenager who is not comfortable in his own skin when you are the POTUS. It is so deadly that he and the people close to him should have realized that, whatever his virtues, he lacked the gravitas thing, which is essential to the job.)
Jimmy Carter is exactly what the democrat party is: a philosophical junk heap of mismatched, politically motivated ideas that individually were long ago discredited; but together hold a group of people in a sustaining delusion that things are as they wish them to be and that any contrary facts are apocryphal and demonized.
No. Some tools and fools are worse than others.
Just watched a clip of White Trash Clinton giving a speech to the NutRoots. That self serving sob is easy to hate.
If ever there was a poll where I would feel like throwing up instead of voting, it would be this one.
My vote would be to resuscitate William Henry Harrison and vote for him. The best former President past our founding fathers would have to be one that served the least amount of time.
Vntnrse,
That was normal operating procedure for my squadron, RVAH-12. We never had enough parts (or aircraft) for the RA-5C Vigilante even before Carter became president.
I do however remember spending a lot of time in port during the 77 Med Cruise on the Independence because they wasn’t enough money to conduct operations and I also remember a lot of the married guys qualifying for food stamps because Carter wouldn’t ask congress for money for pay raises.
Morale definitely went up when President Reagan took over.
But that would make him #1 in Kapo lgm’s book. Where are you, little lapdog?
atheling, you crack me up sometimes, tks
***
President Bush 41 first–He booted Saddam out of Kuwait. He had 2 planes shot out from under him defending out country in WW2.
***
President Bush 43 second–He took out the Taliban and put the rope around Saddam’s neck–and gave liberty to the people of Iraq.
***
President Bill Clinton third–He stopped the Yugoslavian genocide. He also realized his left wing nuts would bring him down if he followed them. And he showed us how crooked and immoral a president could be with his Monica Lewinsky moments in the Oval Office.
***
President Jimmy Carter–dead last FOR NOW. Did serve in the Navy during WW2–but didn’t learn anything there. Gave us 20 percent interest rates, stagflation, gas lines, the Iranian Ayotollahs, North Korean nukes, Hamas, PLO, etc. Couldn’t figure out what to do when our people are taken hostage. And continues to SUPPORT AMERICA’S ENEMIES AROUND THE WORLD. But he did give us President Ronald Reagan.
***
But he will move into second place when President Barack Obama (PBUH) replaces him as the worst ex president in a few years.
***
Whoever thinks Jimmuh Peanut is the best ex should stop smoking up!
***
John Bibb
***
Bet he’s not 1/2 as pissed as The Beast after having her hubby show her up alll a round the world.
you gotta think Onobama(his gang) was behind the whole thing, he made them both look like car chasing dogs.
The WORST PRESIDENT EVER, is now the BEST EX-PRESIDENT LIVING??? the AMERICAN PEOPLE are indeed the MOST IGNORANT in the world… No wonder B. HUSSEIN won… You get the government YOU DESERVE!!!
At the time Reagan sent Nixon, Ford and Carter to Egypt to attend Sadat’s funeral, one comedian dubbed the three ex-presidents “a Mt. Rushmore of incompetence.” How many of our currently living ex-presidents would that description apply to today? (We know about Carter.)
I have heard the Carter gave us Reagan line of thought a lot.
Yes Reagan ran and beat Carter.
However that line totally discounts the 1976 convention. It is easy to forget just how contentious that convention was.
That convention, Gerald Ford, Barry Goldwater in 64 and a multitude of other minor events, and yes even Carter to the minor part he played, helped align the events which allowed a man like Reagan to ascend to the presidency.
The idea though that just because we had an extremely lousy president alone is enough to produce a Reagan is one I do not sign on to.
And might I add that I have always thought Bob Dole in 76 as the VP candidate was every bit as forceful and vibrant a candidate as he was in the 1996 campaign.
If you know what I mean…
Let’s see that BHO is included in this poll ASAP.
they all look pretty dead to me…
Carter? That’s just seven-layer stupid.
I agree with the poll. It is best that Carter is an ex-president. Out of all of our ex-presidents, I am most thankful that the peanut farmer is out of office.
I far prefer him building a house to him making foreign and domestic policy.
I don’t get this insipid, sentimental attitude that many Americans still have toward Carter. I was just a baby during his presidency but the way my parents used to describe him, he single-handedly torpedoed the economy. Does anybody even remember the long gas lines? I know my parents do.
Aside from Habitat for Humanity, the man’s blatant sympathetic hand-wringing for the Palestinians should give anybody pause when considering his “accomplishments.”
Habitat for Humamity is not all it is cracked up to be either
1980, ya got that right. I seem to remember Michelle had something on this………ahh, here ’tis.
He’s #1 on my list of the most acidic, soul-less, and ugly Americans who ever lived. Obama would be on that list, but I’m still not convinced that he he’s ever BEEN an American.
You will when you grow up and understand history.
stick to the subject
He booted Saddam out of Kuwait and then failed to finish the job of killing the King at whom he had struck. I still find that mindboggling 18 years later. GHWB just did not understand the likes of Saddam. Since he did not plan to kill Saddam it would have been better for America if we had not done anything. GWB was forced to clean up his father’s mess, and now Iran has been strengthened in the region.
President Bill Clinton third–He stopped the Yugoslavian genocide.
Well lets see…I think this is about what they have done AFTER they were POTUS….Jimmy has pounded nails…supported his liberal causes, in as much as he can get any press time. Bill though not handy with a hammer or any other tool, other than the little bent one has been out there doing stuff, gets lots of press.. and has supported his liberal causes. George 1 has gone out traveling with Bill, some and will stand by smiling as Bill supports liberal ideals…George 2 well he has been gone for only a short time and I imagine he is doing something or other at the ranch?….and Obama 1 just think of all the community organizing he could do as an ex president….he will be able to bring national attention to what ever basket ball league he cares to support and he will no doubt support his liberal causes….so republicans will have to look far…far into the future for an ex president who will do…something AND support conservative causes …for the foreseeable future republicans just don’t have a dog in the race.
To understand the roots of Jimmy Carter’s madness, you have to go back to his stunning landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Carter felt Reagan was inferior to him and Carter could not accept his defeat to Reagan as being a rational decision by the voters. So he got it in his head that somehow Israel and “The Jews” were responsible for his landslide. That has led to thirty years of Carter becoming progressively more shrill and crazed in his denunciations of Israel. He blamed “Supporters of Israel” for negative comments about his books and he defended suicide bombings saying that Palestinians should only end suicide bombings “when Israel accepts the Saudi peace plan”. You can find that quote in his infamous book “Peace Not Apartheid”. After even the New York Times said Carter went too far with that remark, Carter said he would remove the offensive quote from future printings of his book. But given the lackluster sales of Carter’s books, why would anyone think there will be a second printing?