Met him once, to my surprise, at the WWII Memorial in DC.

Not a surprise, as he announced a diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer in February, but I was still rooting for him to be the second major-party presidential nominee to reach triple digits (following Alf Landon who turned 100 in 1987), or third if you count Strom Thurmond (who wasn't nominated by a major party). The first vote I ever cast in a presidential election was for Bob Dole, I know, I know, I'm so young, not quite 50 (although I will pass that mark by the time Trump is inaugurated for his second term in 2025).

In a sense, his life after 14 Apr 45 was a surprise. Got his ONE SOLDIER'S STORY. Signed, to no one's surprise. And a photo of him with 3 vets and two spouses, that day, all members of my family.

Yes. You are young. Keep that up. I forgot to.

This is the oldest I've ever been!

As my Jewish neighbors like to say, 'from your mouth to God's ears'.

My first presidential election: Bush I in 92.

Under the current rules, my first would have been for Goldwater.

And likely will be as true tomorrow.

Pickle and I are about the same age.

Bush in ‘92

And the youngest you'll ever be!

Not me. From now on, I'm living backwards.

My first presidential election was 76. I'm still doing penance.

Did you vote for Carter? I'm fairness, in 1976, he didn't seem that bad

Discovered! I was young then, and impressionable. I took to defending him against my father with weak "Give him a chance." I was 18. What did I know? But even my inchoate idealism gave way to skepticism when he appeared on TV wearing a yellow sweater in front of a fireplace. I distinctly remember thinking out loud, "You're on your own, bud."

Soon afterward I realized I was actually prolife, even conservative. I had voted for the last Democrat in my life.

I'm actually willing to defend Carter in this one respect, in 1976, Ford was unpopular due to his pardon of Nixon and he committed one of the worst gaffes of all time in the presidential debate, and as president, he was as bad as Carter with the incompetence. There was simply no good choice, except I guess for Reagan during the Republican primaries. But, in 1976, even Reagan wasn't yet Reagan. Part of the reason Carter was so bad as president was his lack of focus, he tried too much too soon, and a lot of his ideas were actually good, such as deregulating the airlines and selling off federal assets to cut the budget and save taxpayer money. He actually did sell quite a bit, most people forget that the president used to have his own private yacht, but Carter sold it, and it literally took an act of Congress to prevent him from selling Camp David and Air Force One. Even Calvin Coolidge probably wouldn't have scrapped Air Force One and flew commercial, but that is what Carter wanted to do. A president who promotes austerity can't be all bad. And, in 1976, Carter emphasized a moderate position on abortion, and talked about being 'Born Again'. Compared to Ford, he looked quite attractive I think. At least in November 1976

Epic. Carter was grinning like a possum with a mouthful of persimmons. Ford opened that door to the White House to that cracker barrel-spouting Southern boy like a red-suited doorman at the Waldorf.

No idea. What happened?

Likely

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... fe/493958/

Didn't affect my vote. No Dems, no time, no way.

Carter gave us the Department of Education.

I get we had double-digit inflation. I get that we had double-digit interest rates on debt. I get we had an oil embargo. I get we had the Iranian hostage crisis. All of these awful things and more on his watch. And for all of them, I can forgive him.

But I can never forgive him giving us the Department of Education.