The Presidents: #28

#28: Jimmy Carter
Term: January 20, 1977 - January 20, 1981
Grade: C-

I suppose this could be considered a controversial pick, as Jimmy Carter is near the bottom of the list for many people, especially those who lived through his term. However, I think this grade and ranking is defensible because a "C-" is still not a good grade, and because I don't think Carter's term was as bad as people think it was.

Many of the issues Carter faced were around before his presidency, and he certainly tried to fix them. Sure, he deserves to be criticized for his "Malaise" speech, and his handling of the Iran hostage crisis was not something to be proud of. Still, he was the last president to even try to reasonably handle the environment, he signed a bill that preserved a large portion of Alaska for posterity, and he deserves credit for the Camp David Accords. I suppose most of his grade is for effort, even if his execution was significantly off.

In the end, Carter's greatest failing was a general lack of ability to work with Congress. Reading Ted Kennedy's memoi, I got the feeling that Carter just didn't want to work with Congress. Had he been more understanding and more accommodating to Congress, he probably wouldn't have faced the challenge from Ted Kennedy in 1980, and might have been in a better position to handle the Reagan Revolution. I'm not sure that it would have prevented the mess of the Bush 43 Administration, but it might have helped.