True Leadership – President Jimmy Carter
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 19, 2010
"Jimmy Carter is a failed president".
Jimmy Carter got more legislation passed than any other president who served a 4-year term, and more than many presidents who got 8-year terms. He brokered the only peace treaty between a Muslim country and Israel, one that's stood the test of more than 30 years, and won the Nobel Prize for his actions.
Sometimes it takes a long time for someone else to recognize just how good or bad someone was. No matter what, it takes guts to actually have a stand on something and work hard to follow through with that stand. That's one of the things that separates leaders from everyone else, the belief in themselves to at least try something, even if it goes against the grain, and to actually show achievements, whether they're acknowledged or not.
Of course there's ineffectual leaders who do the same thing. There are people who are probably wishing the Bank of America leadership would step down after the bad news they posted today. In 2008 and 2009, many leaders were asked to step down because of bad decisions they allowed to occur on their watch. Leaders are always responsible for the actions of those under them, whether they authorized it or not. Unfortunately, most of the time they did authorize it.
When leaders make bad decisions, you can usually count on two things that happened for sure. One, they didn't ask the right people for advice, or didn't listen to those people. Two, they didn't ask anyone for advice at all, just came up with an idea, possibly how they thought it would work, and told others to get it done. It's not 100% of course, but it's the overwhelming majority.
Still, perception counts for a lot of things as well. Even Carter acknowledges now that some of the things he did he hadn't totally thought out as to how people would react to them. Having the President sitting in a chair in a sweater telling people to turn their heat down isn't comforting. Not recognizing how Americans would react to not being able to watch their national team compete against the hated USSR after what had happened in the Winter Olympics with the hockey team was inexcusable. And allowing the Iranians to take over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran without a fight, underestimating an enemy that wasn't really understood, was unforgivable.
Still, he did a lot for the country because he had his beliefs. If more managers had their beliefs in what they thought was right rather than what they thought would make them look good, overall things would be better for them and their companies. That's what true leadership looks like.
Carter was a mixed bag. He promoted the consideration of human rights in foreign policy, yet wrote a letter praising the improving climate in Nicaragua under Somoza. The Iran thing was kicked off by Carter allowing the Shah of Iran admitted to the US for medical care, bad ethics AND bad politics.
On the plus side: Camp David accords, The human rights concerns, unloading the Panama Canal, a sad vestige of colonialism.
I’m with most who believe that his best years came after his Presidency–especially when compared with buckraker Bill Clinton.
Well Phil, I’m a big time Bill Clinton fan, and whether people overall liked him or not (BTW, left office with the highest approval rating of any president in history), he learned how to work with people to get things passed.
As for Carter, he was a mixed bag, yet a guy who was brilliant and knew, for the most part, when he had to suck one up for the good of American policy, which he ultimately had to do with the Shah. But he also thought everyone else would act on ethics, and that was a failing, though an honest one once again. He was definitely a “buck stops here” guy, and that’s why I think he showed true leadership, even if it didn’t always work out properly.
Perception. That’s a very complicated topic and a fascinating one as well.
I don’t think it’s possible anymore for “normal” people to have a *real* view on a leader’s performance, because mass media filter every action and deliver just the truth a few individuals want.
Even if a leader does 1000 good things, the single bad one will make him appear like a loser.
I am Italian so I can’t talk much about US presidents, but as an example, over here, they still cite Bill Clinton just for the sexual scandal, and nothing else, despite the fact that, from what I heard and read around, he was more than a decent president.
Thanks for your opinion, Gabriele. The sex scandal thing with Clinton was a negative, but truthfully many of us know that previous presidents did the same thing and it never got reported. Clinton was a good president; if allowed, he could win now.
And normal people really could have a real view if they cared enough to find the information they want to see. But things move so fast these days that unless you’re writing a dissertation on the subject there just isn’t the time to do proper research on everything. Still, good and bad leadership can be evaluated, even if it takes some time.
By all means let’s just kick around the only president in my lifetime who had the courage to speak honestly and sincerely to the American people about our problems as a nation and what steps we should take to correct them – A president who had a plan for the future to make America independent of petrodictators and to get us on the right path towards alternative energy – A president who put the best interest of the American people before the best interest of the corporations – A president who courageously took on the MIC and all the hawks in Congress when he refused to start a war – A president who courageously took on the oil companies when he suggested we start looking for alternatives to oil – A man who led by example – A president who not only had the foresight to understand that peace in the Middle East was crucial but who actually brokered a lasting peace.
We should all wish any of our political leaders had Carter’s decency, backbone and vision for the future. Had we followed Carter’s leadership, we would have an entirely different country and world today.
It makes me wonder why the MSM and Democrats and Republicans alike feel the need to get their kick in. What are those in power afraid of? That we might go back and listen to his speeches and realise how right he was? That we might listen to him today?
Valerie, he was a trendsetter before anyone knew they should be paying attention. I have to admit that I knew little about him back then since he was elected when I was in high school and ran the second time while I was in college, but it’s great to know that he was more than what many people thought he was at the time.