| | A "dark horse" candidate, Democrat Jimmy Carter from Georgia, won his Party's nomination for president, and then defeated the never-elected Gerald Ford in a close contest in 1976. But Carter was not ready for the job, and anxious to give things away like Santa Claus. He started in 1977 by agreeing to give the Panama Canal to Panama, even though the United States built it, paid for it, and needed it for security reasons. The Senate ratified the treaty after a heated controversy, with conservatives opposing the giveaway, and Panama acquired full ownership of it in 1999. Now communist China runs the Canal under a contract with Panama. | | A "dark horse" candidate, Democrat Jimmy Carter from Georgia, won his Party's nomination for president, and then defeated the never-elected Gerald Ford in a close contest in 1976. But Carter was not ready for the job, and anxious to give things away like Santa Claus. He started in 1977 by agreeing to give the Panama Canal to Panama, even though the United States built it, paid for it, and needed it for security reasons. The Senate ratified the treaty after a heated controversy, with conservatives opposing the giveaway, and Panama acquired full ownership of it in 1999. Now communist China runs the Canal under a contract with Panama. |
| − | Jimmy Carter arranged a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1978 by promising each about $10 billion per year in annual gifts from the United States if they complied with the agreement. This is known as the Camp David Accords and it later earned Carter an award of the Nobel Peace Prize. | + | Jimmy Carter arranged a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1978 by promising each over a $1 billion per year in annual gifts from the United States if they complied with the agreement, which requiring Israel to agree to yield control over some of its territory. This is known as the Camp David Accords and it later earned Carter an award of the Nobel Peace Prize; American taxpayers are still paying the massive bill for this treaty, and many concerned about the future of Israel dislike Carter for his constant attempts to coerce Israel into giving up land and security. |
| − | Iran hostage crisis 1979-81: Iranian fundamentalists captured US embassy since Carter helped Shah; hostages released for Reagan | + | In 1979, Carter's appeasement and naivete really embarrassed the United States when the Iran hostage crisis occurred. Carter angered Iranian Muslims allowing the deposed Shah of Iran to obtain medical treatment in the United States, at the insistence of Henry Kissinger and other globalists. The Muslims stormed and captured the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held everyone hostage for more than a year, creating a daily crisis. At one point Carter planned a rescue attempt, but then called it off at the last minute, only to result in the soldiers crashing and dying in the desert. |
| − | Jimmy Carter "1976-1980: Dem. Pres., honest antidote to Nixon scandal, boycotted Olympics, decried nat'l ""malaise"", high inflation"
| + | Carter had other missteps. Friendly to the communist Soviet Union for years and even negotiating the SALT II arms reduction treaty with it (which the Senate refused to ratify), Carter was then embarrassed when the Soviet Union brutally invaded Afghanistan in 1980. Carter responded weakly by merely boycotting the Summer Olympics in Moscow (and the Soviet Union retaliated four years later by boycotting the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles). Carter also ran the economy into the ground, allowing record-high inflation and then accusing the American people of having a "national malaise." It is easy to see why Carter lost reelection in 1980. |