Second-Worst President in History Asks the Worst President to Deliver His Eulogy

In his characteristically clumsy fashion, Old Joe Biden has revealed that former President Jimmy Carter has bestowed upon him a singular honor: “He asked me to do his eulogy — excuse me, I shouldn’t say that,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe, California on Tuesday. When that day arrives, no matter how poorly Old Joe delivers what is certain to be a farrago of lies, half-truths, historical revisionism, and self-serving distortion, there will be a certain fitting aspect to the entire occasion: the previous holder of the title of Worst President in American History will be eulogized by the current holder of the title.

“I spent time with Jimmy Carter,” said Biden of his predecessor in failure, malaise, and an outstandingly unjustified self-image, “and it’s finally caught up with him.” Carter is 98 years old and has entered into hospice care. “But they found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated,” Old Joe continued, “because they found a breakthrough.” Biden didn’t elaborate on what this breakthrough, or how long it might keep Carter with us. Whatever may be the state of Carter’s health at this point, it’s easy to understand why he and the octogenarian who currently pretends to be president of the United States would be close.

The Associated Press reported laconically on Tuesday that “Biden’s presidency represents a turnabout, of sorts, for Carter’s political standing. He served just one term and lost in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980, prompting top Democrats to keep their distance, at least publicly, for decades after he left the White House.” Yes, AP, you could say it’s a “turnabout, of sorts.”

People who remember the Carter years or who have studied them if they still take a break from pronoun instruction and white guilt indoctrination long enough to do that sort of thing anymore in any of our colleges or universities know that things could be a lot worse. Yes, Jimmy Carter was a disastrous president, but hey, now we have Old Joe. By comparison, Jimmuh looks like Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln all rolled into one.

In this era of rising international tensions, thanks to Old Joe’s fecklessness and America-Last priorities, it’s illuminating to recall how Carter betrayed one of our most reliable allies in the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. As Rating America’s Presidents details, Carter told Egyptian President Anwar Sadat: “I will represent your interests as if they were my own. You are my brother.” A jubilant Sadat told his aides that “poor naïve Carter” was ready to pressure Begin into giving Egypt everything it wanted.

Sadat was right. “Mr. Prime Minister,” Carter told Begin icily after Sadat presented his proposals “that is not only the view of Sadat, it is also the American view — and you will have to accept it.” Angrily he repeated, “You will have to accept it.” These included Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied after Egypt attacked it in 1967. While territorial expansion at the expense of an aggressor nation had been recognized as a right of the victor in a war from time immemorial, Carter was determined that it would not apply to Israel. He also wanted Israel to acknowledge that it was carrying out an illegitimate occupation of Palestinian land. He complained to Begin: “Listen, we’re trying to help you bring peace to your land. You would have us feel that we are going out of our way deliberately to be as unfair to Israel as possible.” Indeed.

Meanwhile, as protests against the rule of another American ally, the shah of Iran, engulfed that country, Carter abandoned the shah to his fate. Many in the Carter administration admired the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic leader who was at the center of the protests. Andrew Young, Carter’s ambassador to United Nations, said, “Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint.” The U.S. ambassador to Iran, William Sullivan, said, “Khomeini is a Gandhi-like figure.” Carter advisor James Bill declared the Ayatollah a “holy man” of “impeccable integrity and honesty.” The shah later recounted: “The fact that no one contacted me during the crisis in any official way explains everything about the American attitude…. It is clear to me now that the Americans wanted me out.”

On Jan. 4, 1979, Carter told French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing that the U.S. was abandoning its ally, withdrawing all support from the shah and backing Khomeini. “I was horrified,” recalled Giscard. “The only way I can describe Jimmy Carter is that he was a ‘bastard of conscience.’” Khomeini took power and sneered, “Jimmy Carter is too much of a coward to confront us militarily.” Indeed. That cowardice was on display again when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Carter did nothing publicly beyond boycotting the Moscow Olympics, only enhancing his reputation for weakness and pusillanimity.

That reputation is rivaled only by that of the chief executive whom he has tapped to deliver his eulogy.