Jimmy Carter was the last true leader of the American people. Since then it has been a downward spiral and probably it is too late now to undue much of the damage. Had we listened to Carter instead of sticking our heads in the Sand and putting Reagan in - so we could go backwards in time - we might be in a position of hope today.

Carter was not perfect but I think he had the best interests of the American people and humanity as a whole at heart. Will we ever have leaders like him again in elected office?

He has done so much since leaving office. Imagine, a president who leads by saying what is right not by saying what people want to hear. TRUE LEADERSHIP!

I read all the comments, no one mentioned possibly Carter's most important legacy: the Carter Doctrine. In a 1980 state of the union address Jimmy Carter proclaimed what was to become known as the "Carter Doctrine":

"Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force* to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force."

*This statement should be amended to include "and any Mid-east country attempting to control its own oil resources contrary to the interests of the US..."

G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush and continuing now with Obama, all have followed the Carter doctrine.

I agree that Jimmy Carter was better than subsequent presidents, but as he was getting energy from solar panels mounted on top the White House, he was ensuring US control of (via subsequent sanctions, wars and occupations), and our addiction to - oil. We should not look at our history (like this article does) with rose-tinted glasses.

Jimmy Carter environmental goals were contrary to those of the right wing and energy cartels. Hence they assaulted him with deceptive slander (often subtle) that was unprecidented against a president. Sadly they succeeded by unseating him with a president far more cooperative with their agenda, who then trashed Carter's vital environmental measures through indifference and ignorance.

The damage to our planet resulting from Reagan’s environmental neglect & abuses, followed by those of Bush 1 & especially Bush 2, are incalculable. Unfortunately Clinton, the one president who otherwise might had achieved vital environmental reforms, had to tread lightly to avoid Carter’s fate.

Americans now have a president who appears willing to focus toward countering the snowballing environmental destruction. He must be assured that the vicious assaults that had undone President Carter will not again succeed against him if he is to be effective.

Diesel designed his engine to run on peanut - or hemp - oil.

Carter was a peanut farmer.

I guess there was a conflict of interest issue here.

Right - that's why the man laid claim to all Middle East oil with his "doctrine"

Carter's presidency was sabotaged. He may have been the only honestly altruistic person to hold the office in recent history. Carter had the clarity of vision to recognize the need for sane energy policies. He just made the mistake of speaking honestly to the American public, who were not willing to hear that we should be behaving responsibly. We liked Ronnie Reagan's promise that we could spend our way out of debt -- no matter what lunacy that obviously was. We may have had a chance back in the 1970s to avoid complete disaster, we just weren't willing to change.

LOL ! Carter was nothing but a big talker on energy but it wasn't until Ronald Reagan came in that the energy crisis was solved. If it weren't for Reagan, you Carter lovers would still be complaining about higher gas and energy costs. And to the idiot quickstepper who says Obama has no courage, STFU ! Obama won the liberals, moderates, and conservatives over. Obama has every right to praise Reagan for saving the economy from the disasterous 1970s. Solar panels and wind turbines don't give diddly squat. We need more oil, coal, and natural gas and we're going to get it even if we have to scorch the fucking planet to get it ! Nuclear energy is also a powerful solution to keep up with the world's growing energy demands. Nobody believes in Carter so enough with that sorry loser !

In 1980 I had come to understand the vision that Jimmy Carter had for this nation and, like many others, I was devastated by the results of the election. It was like the last hope for a better world had been snuffed out. Carter's Christian faith influenced him greatly in recognizing that the world could only survive if nations acted for the greater good of the planet instead of catering only to narrow national interests. The greater good required that we no longer behave as a colonizing power whose ships and planes bring treasures here from all over the world. Instead Carter saw the US as potentially the leading nation in bringing democracy and peace to the world beyond our borders (much in the spirit of the Marshall Plan). In contrast Reagan preached the type of selfishness that spawned the neocon movement--use our military to grab whatever we want. The selfish can easily portray decency as weakness, which is exactly what they did. To this day they cast Carter as a nice guy weak leader who did not know where he was going. The 80 election, I believe, will be remembered by historians 50 years from now as the watershed moment when American voters turned away from nobility and chose Bozo the Clown in a suit of armor.

The "Crisis of Confidence" speech is replayed in the film "Miracle." The plotline gives one the impression that the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team restored the confidence. But, as Jeremiah claimed, one cannot preach peace when there is none.

This crisis is still being seen in our attachment to militarism, fear of terrorists, and rising gun sales. Will Obama be wise enough to step forward and try to restore our confidence?

The thing about Jimmy was that he spoke to us like we were adults. I appreciated his honesty and his calls for responsibility. He also walked the walk, turning down the thermostats in the white house during winter and actually wearing the sweater that he told us to wear as well. He told the truth, and it didn't matter whether he thought we would like it or not. His own popularity wasn't the first thing on his mind.

Then Reagan came along, telling us to just go ahead and be as wasteful as we could, to hate each other, and to screw each other as much as we wanted for the almighty dollar. To this day I don't understand why he is so worshiped, as he turned us all against each other for the next quarter century.

Jimmy was right, we needed to start acting more responsibly. We needed to get off of foreign oil, we needed to work on alternative energy, we needed to start looking at ourselves as part of the world, instead of the rulers of it all. If we had done that, we would be FAR better off than we are today. Better late than never, but really, it's time to get rid of the idiocy and selfishness of the last 29 years. Until we start heeding the words in this speech, we are doomed to become even more enslaved to big money, who is the ONLY group to be doing well under this system.

Carter may not have had perfect energy policies and he may not have fought for hemp but I strongly applaud him for making the valiant efforts to go green and push for it. Ronnie Raygun may have taken down the solar panels off the White House roof but tell me what Democratic president has bothered to restore them. Certainly not Clinton or Obama.

Our country is filled with energy guzzlers who are in total denial mode because they're used to believing that fossil fuels is their life. Deep down though, I'll bet a lot of them know that they're guilty for causing bloodshed on other nations just to steal the oil to continue their blissful ignorance. Global Peak Oil is coming at us and not even the pie-in-the-sky estimates on how much oil is available in Iraq or here or wherever will stop that. It's time to pull our selves out of denial mode and prepare for sustainable ideas by listening to Carter's speech and improving upon it.

Thank you Jimmy Carter !

"The Limits of Power; The End of Amercan Exceptionalism" By Andrew J. Bacevich, Metropolitan Books, N.Y.2008

Mr. Bacevich covers this speech very well in this book, contrasting it directly with the speech Reagan gave a short time later announcing his intention to run for President: the "morning in America" thing. Need-less-to say, no matter how many cards and letter's Carter got in support of what he said, the speech doomed his chances for re-election: a lesson not lost to every politician since which is why Obama is "hotter" to reproduce the Clinton legacy than he is the Carter one.

Americans didn't want to hear about sacrifice or putting their shoulders to the plow then, they don't want to hear about it now.

"That Carter spoke honestly and found praise for doing so should give Obama grounds for taking Americans into his confidence and arousing them to follow him on moral grounds."

Unfortunately, Obama has nowhere near the personal courage that Jimmy Carter has exhibited throughout his life.

Whether you agree with Carter or not (and I don't always), you must admit that the man puts his faith into practice.

Whether calling out political thuggery (the Bush/Cheney administration, Israel, etc.) or helping to build houses for the poor (Habitat), Carter has never shied away from what he considers to be the truth. He's right far more often than he's wrong.

He was probably too good a man to be President.

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