Pretty bad – but not Jimmy Carter bad

America is in a funk, but it needn’t be

By Gerard Baker
Times Online

You know how bad things have got when Jimmy Carter’s critique of your presidency is taken seriously. This week the former US President attacked the current one, saying that, “as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world”, George Bush’s Administration had been “the worst in history”. It’s one thing to have to listen to Bill and Hillary Clinton claim that things were better when they were in the White House, but Jimmy Carter? Being told by Mr Carter that you’re the worst president in history is like being told by William McGonagall that your poetry stinks.