Jimmy Carter, the Man & the Myth

This book should be required reading because of Jimmy Carter's screw-up with the North Korean peace treaty and the hollow mockery that was his reception of the Nobel Peace Prize. I did not think that Lasky could do any more damage to the Carter presidency or follow up his brilliant "It Didn't Start with Watergate", but he did. This book plays out like a sit-com. In fact Lasky even gives them catchy nicknames: Lillian Carter, "Miz Lillian", Zebaziegnew Brezinsky, "The Hungry Professor", and James Earl Carter, Jr., "Wee Jimmy" (Once again Lasky presents political intrigue in a palatable manner on the ultimate micromanager in American politics.) But yet there is a sense of shock which is consistently undercut by Carter's gaffes. For example, it was an open secret that Carter's staff were habitual cocaine and heroin users, and Carter himself had his own "mini-Watergate", where he misappropriated state funds to fund a private political poll. He bungled things so much that he could have taught Clinton how to be even more corrupt. I now feel lucky that presidents can only serve 8 years in office. This man is a case in point about why people shouldn't vote Democratic. The readers shall feel the same way after reading about the man who "grew up in hard times, when things were difficult"--Carter's words, not mine---