I wasn’t a fan of Jimmy Carter as president.
But as a human being, I can only hope to show the kind of compassion that that man has shown to others. And that I can teach my children to have a fraction of his generosity of spirit, his basic human kindness.
Without getting too political, I think in many ways Jimmy Cater was too decent a human being to be president. As a human being he had a lot more compassion for others and lived into his faith rather than using it as a battering ram to divide people, and for that he should be remembered. If anyone wanted to ask me how a person of faith should act, a model, he would be a pretty good one, instead of using his faith as a battering ram to denigrate other people, he seemed to try to live into it.
Sad news. I wonder how aggressively this will be treated given his age vs being a former President. I hope he’s being kept comfortable and surrounded by loved ones.
@musicprnt totally agree. I read a biography about him when I was in college and ended up with the utmost respect for him, not realizing how intelligent he really was…as I didn’t care about politics in H.S.
I don’t feel bad for a guy who has reached 90 years of age. You have to die of something.
About Carter:
I have many other points but this is enough.
@Lergnom, you aren’t giving Carter discredit for choosing G William Miller as Fed Chairman?
Greenspan did not understand human behavior so he is the worst Fed Chair in our lifetimes…
Miller was atrocious. That was Carter’s pick. Blumenthal was terrible too as treasury secretary.
Carter did eventually choose Volcker who was the best Fed Chairman but the damage was done.
Carter is a great human being, but as a president…not very good.
History’s greatest monster!!
(It’s a Simpsons reference, for those who didn’t get it right away.)
More seriously, this is sad news. I only hope that I can be that active and involved so far into my 80s.
“I don’t feel bad for a guy who has reached 90 years of age. You have to die of something.”
I do feel sorry and sad. I’d rather die of a quick heart attack or something like that than suffer the agony of slow death while being eaten alive by cancer.
I don’t think anyone here is saying that Carter hasn’t had a long and full life. But even though he’s 90, we can regret that he is facing an illness that may be a miserable experience.
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I don’t feel bad for a guy who has reached 90 years of age. You have to die of something.
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True, but cancer can be painful and miserable. I hope that he can be kept comfortable. That will be a relief for him and his family.
- Did great stuff with Habitat. There is no way to understate the effect of a President taking up a hammer and doing work to help people. Reagan would cut wood but on his own ranch.
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I have different expectations for someone who leaves office in his late 50s than I do for someone who leaves office in his late 70s. lol
My dad died at 62. I wish he’d lived to 90 and died of cancer, no matter how painful. I know he would have wanted the same because he never even knew all his grandchildren. So yeah, it’s too bad but the guy is 90.
As for Miller, he was sooo completely wrong it’s not funny. But he wasn’t Fed chair for long and was out-voted. The issue was more complicated than hindsight tends to say: we had these oil price shocks from OPEC embargoes and there was rational discussion about whether killing inflation was more right than trying to preserve demand and investment by keeping rates low. The point is that was a unique period of absolute cost-driven inflation, not wage-driven but resource component-driven, and the Fed didn’t know what to do. Turned out they took the cautious approach - keep rates low - and that didn’t work so Volcker and the board voted to raise rates to squash the inflationary spiral. Two points: this was a peculiar episode not some measure of macroeconomic concepts in which OPEC asserted control of resources and it wasn’t just Volcker but the Fed board that voted to raise rates. We tend to give credit and assign blame based on the Chair but he’s a vote not THE vote.
@Lergnom, sorry about your dad. That sucks.
I think the Fed Chair is the Vote. I can’t remember the last time the Fed Chair was overruled.
Ok. I think it was Miller. 
Part of the job of a Fed Chair is to lead compromise so as to get consensus to happen—that’s a big reason why the Chair being outvoted is so rare.
(And now I’m done with this subthread.)
I saw my dad die slowly of cancer.
It’s not a death I would wish on anyone, friend or foe, young or old.
The Carters have my prayers and best wishes.
To be fair, not everyone who dies of cancer has a long, slow, painful death.
Am hoping we can keep the topic of this thread on Jimmy Carter’s health and not delve off into politics.
^^ I agree!
It’s crazy though that everyone in his immediate family - both of his parents and all his siblings - had pancreatic cancer. I read an article about this a few years ago, how medical researchers had studied his family to see if genetic abnormalities could explain the occurrences. So far, nothing. Carter himself says that the only difference between him and the rest of the family, health-wise, was cigarette smoking - he’s a non-smoker.
The only US president in history I would refuse to have lunch with.
On the news the other night, it was reported that people with three or more family members who have had pancreatic cancer are 57 times more likely to themselves develop pancreatic cancer than are other individuals.
I would have lunch with any former US President even if I did not share his views, actions or opinions.
In my church we have a group of people who help parishioners discover their gifts. They identified my gift as “encouragement”. I would encourage the owners of this thread to develop a way to register “unhelpful” specifically for one post on this thread. Humanity does, and always will, transcend politics.