Jonathan Alter: Jimmy Carter Was a ‘Political Failure’ But a ‘Substantive and Often Visionary Success’

RUSH EXCERPT:

ALTER: “A lot. My take is he was a political failure, not just because he was crushed by Ronald Reagan, but because he could sometimes be ham-handed and he lacks some natural leadership abilities and wasn’t a good communicator. In journalism, we judge presidents by how they’re doing politically. Historians have a different job. He was a political failure, but a substantive and often visionary success. The solar panels you show is just one part of his farsightedness. He wanted electric vehicles by the mid-1980s. He was 30 years ahead of his time, he was talking about climate change before any other leader in the world mention what was then called global warming.”