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Originally Posted by Not Bob
He gets credit for the Camp David accords by not screwing things up when Sadat made his overtures. And for recognizing China and finalizing the Panama Canal treaty. And for continuing SALT talks and starting the rebuild of a military decimated by Vietnam.
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Compare his list to either of the two Bush's. Set aside the perceptions, where he sucked (leading to me supporting Kennedy in the day), but looking at the accomplishments, not bad at all. What does Bush II even have to his name? An unfunded education plan and a drug benefit that is today a modest aside to ACA? A couple recessions?
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He didn't lose Iran, and the Shah would have been toast even if Washington, Lincoln, or Reagan were president, but his combination of supporting the Shah while undercutting his regime in general was ambiguous and probably made it difficult for the interim post-Shah/pre-Ayatollah government to succeed.
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I don't want to understate the scope of the screw up in Iran. Standing by the Shah was an inexcusable cluster-fuck that still hurts the region. But when you line up Carter's tangible screw ups against those of either Bush, or, say, Kennedy, I think they had more and bigger screw-ups to their names.
