An inside look at the Jimmy Carter presidency
An interesting look at my least-favorite President. From
Stormbringer:
SECRET SERVICE HATED JIMMY CARTER
America must never forget those who hate us for what we are, those who spread ill-will and discontent about what we stand for.
According to writer Ronald Kessler, Jimmy Carter was the "least likeable" president. Ronald Kessler reveals this in his new book "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect", about the Secret Service that chronicles the agency�s activities guarding every president from Kennedy to Obama.
A bit more:
"For three and a half years, agent John Piasecky was on Carter's detail � including seven months of driving him in the presidential limousine � and Carter never spoke to him, he says.
"At the same time, Carter tried to project an image of himself as man of the people by carrying his own luggage when traveling. But that was often for show. When he was a candidate in 1976, Carter would carry his own bags when the press was around but ask the Secret Service to carry them the rest of the time."
And more:
Early in his presidency, Carter proclaimed that the White House would be "dry," and only wine, but no liquor, would be served at state dinners.
The word was passed to get rid of all the booze on Air Force One, at Camp David, and in the White House. But on the first Sunday the Carters were in the White House, they ordered up Bloody Marys before going to church.
Kessler discloses that Carter "would regularly make a show of going to the Oval Office at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. to call attention to how hard he was working for the American people."
In fact, "he would work for half an hour, then close the curtains and take a nap," Robert B. Sulliman Jr., who was on Carter's detail, told Kessler.
"His staff would tell the press he was working."
Carter carefully positions himself on the highest of the moral high grounds. Somehow I am not surprised to find that he is just as human as the rest of us. Only good thing that came of his administration was the two terms of Ronald Regan.
Posted by DaveH at October 14, 2009 9:25 PM