"... with cartoons depicting him installing
an outhouse next to the White House. His public approval dropped to
28 percent, and when Ronald Reagan succeeded him, the Reagans’ interior designer reportedly smirked about the need to 'get the smell of catfish out of the White House.' President Carter, a member of Congress
lamented in 1979, 'couldn’t get the Pledge of Allegiance through Congress.' Rolling Stone
described Carter as 'the great national sinking feeling.' Ousted after a single term, he wasn’t so much criticized as sneered at. Even Democrats like Bill Clinton treated Carter
as an embarrassment who had undermined liberals and paved a path for Reagan. Yet all this speaks to our failure of discernment...."
Writes Nicholas Kristof, in
"Jimmy Carter Deserved Our Thanks and Respect, Not Our Sneers" (NYT). That's a free-access link, so you can see Kristof's argument for respecting and thanking President Carter. And let it represent all the many columns that are going up right now, expressing that sentiment. It is a time for eulogy.
Reading "the great national sinking feeling" made me think of Carter's "malaise" speech. I'm surprised it didn't come immediately to mind upon hearing of President Carter's death, but it did not. The cliché got worn out over the course of 45 years. Carter lived so long one grew tired of reacting to the name "Carter" with the one-word outburst: "Malaise!"
Or had your reaction to hearing Carter's name over the years been 2 words long?
"Killer rabbit."