Analysis: Tale of two presidents

Bush and Carter: Completely different styles

BBC News Online world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds reported on both the Carter and Bush presidencies and compares the two eras.

On the face of it, they have some similarities: both were southern governors (Carter a Democrat in Georgia, Bush a Republican in Texas) before they became president; both are Christians of a fairly basic kind.

Jimmy Carter was one of the least successful American presidents - and probably the best ex-president

The difference between them is the difference between America in 1980 and America in 2002.

Carter was humiliated. Bush is confident.

Carter shied away from war. Bush has waged it.

Carter presented himself as the plain man. "My name is Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president" was his phrase.

When he and his wife, Rosalynn, walked hand-in-hand along Pennsylvania Avenue after his inauguration in 1976, it was a sign that American politics had been purged after the scandals of Richard Nixon and the interregnum of Gerald Ford.

But by 1980, Jimmy Carter had been broken both at home and abroad.

Figure of fun

At home, the American economy was in rust.

The talk was about the start of a Japanese century.

A plaintive song was sung: "God Bless America again".

This was long before Bill Gates.

In the presidential election campaign of 1980, Ronald Reagan got his biggest cheers when he scoffed at the president with his jokes.

All were on this level and they all worked:

• A recession is when your neighbour loses his job
• A depression is when you lose your job
• And recovery will start when Jimmy Carter loses his job

Jimmy Carter even blamed Americans for their own problems.

Like a hermit, he stayed up in the Camp David presidential retreat in the mountains north of Washington one week and proclaimed that the nation was in an energy and moral crisis.

Forward thinking, many might believe, but the language of blame does not win elections. And it did not.

Hostage crisis

Abroad, Iranian revolutionaries had been holding 100 Americans hostage for months.

At the end of the nightly CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite, the most respected man in America, counted up the days the hostages had been in captivity.

It was a clock ticking on the Carter presidency.

US citizens were held hostage for 444 days

Jimmy Carter sought negotiations and imposed sanctions.

He didn't try war but he did try a far-flung and far-fetched raid to rescue his fellow citizens.

It collapsed in chaos in the desert.

Carter's final humiliation came on the very day when he handed over power to Ronald Reagan.

The hostages were not released until that moment had passed.

Resurgent

At the time, we thought no more would be heard of Jimmy Carter.

And yet the qualities of patience and placidity which made him one of the weakest presidents made him perhaps the best ex-president.

He quietly re-established his reputation.

Carter's humanity was appreciated only after he had long left office

He intervened in world conflicts more effectively than he had done as president.

He put into practice the moral foreign policy he had always preached, but which in power he had found so hard to practise.

His time came.

And people remembered that, while the hostages might not have been freed quickly, they were freed unharmed.

His humanity was appreciated only after he had long left office.

New direction

George Bush believes much more in the value of the world-wide projection of American power and influence.

He resolutely declares his "war on terror" and threatens war on Iraq.

He does not linger in Camp David calling on Americans to use less energy.

He withdraws from the Kyoto agreement (which Carter would have loved) and declares that technology will solve all this.

He does not agonise as Carter did.

Agony, he believes, does not become an American president.

Open verdict

Jimmy Carter did not serve a second term. Nor did George Bush senior.

One was beaten by the economy and foreign policy. The other was beaten by the economy.

George Bush junior intends to be beaten by neither.

Jimmy Carter was one of the least successful American presidents - and probably the best ex-president.

George Bush? History will decide.