Jimmy Carter And Walter Mondale

The Nation Salutes Former President Jimmy Carter On His Record Setting 97th Birthday!

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Former President Jimmy Carter celebrates his record setting 97th Birthday today, and this is a cause for national celebration!

The 39th President of the United States has lived more than two and a half years longer than the second longest lived President, George H. W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at the age of 94 years and about five and a half months.

Carter surpassed Herbert Hoover in 2012 as the longest retired President, and on January 20 of next year, he will have survived as a former President for the amazing total of 41 years!

His wife, Rosalynn Carter, turned 94 in August, and the couple have been married longer than the Bushes were, a total of 75 years as of July of this year.

The basic decency, compassion, empathy and genuine nature of Jimmy Carter stand out as virtues not shared by many Presidents, although Joe Biden fits those descriptions for sure.

While Carter has not stood out in polls of experts or of the general public as outstanding, it is a certainty that his historical ranking will rise after his eventual passing.

Carter will be remembered:

for the Egyptian Israeli Camp David Accords;

for the Panama Canal Treaty;

for his environmental activism, ranking as the most successful one term President in this regard, and ranked as number 3 all time by environmental historians, just behind Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon

for his brilliant intellect, with many thinking he is one of the few Presidents to have an extremely high IQ;

for his promotion of the values of human rights around the world in office and ever since leaving office through the Carter Center;

for winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for all of his good works;

for demonstrating what true religiosity was, as he was a genuine “good Christian” rather than being a hypocrite as so many supposedly devout people have been and continue to be;

for engaging in building housing for the poor through Habitat For Humanity;

for creating three Cabinet agencies, in Health and Human Services, Education and Energy;

and for having the closest, most engaged Vice President in history in Walter Mondale, who was a team for more than 40 years until his death in April of this year.

The What-Ifs Of History: 10 Vice Presidents And One Speaker Of The House Who ALMOST Became President By Succession!

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Anyone who has studied American history knows that NINE Vice Presidents succeeded to the Presidency because of death in eight cases, and resignation in the ninth case, of the President.

What very few people realize is how many times Vice Presidents missed being President by a stroke of luck, and this is not including those who became President later by election.

In the past century, a total of TEN Vice Presidents and ONE Speaker Of the House, came close to succeeding the President in office, but since they did not, they are pretty much forgotten! Here is the list and the circumstances:

1919-1921–Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralytic stroke, but recovered slowly, and his wife Edith held cabinet meetings, and kept Vice President Thomas Marshall in the dark about the medical status of Wilson. This was, by far, the longest period of medical incapacity of a President, 18 months! Had Wilson died, Marshall would have been President.

1933–Franklin D. Roosevelt was subjected to an assassination attempt 17 days before being inaugurated. Had the assassination attempt been successful, John Nance Garner would have been President.

1944-45–Franklin D. Roosevelt was diagnosed secretly with congestive heart failure, and had he died sooner than he did, Henry A. Wallace would have been President.

1950–A distant assassination attempt against President Harry Truman at Blair House, where he was staying while the White House was under renovation, would have led to Alben Barkley being President. Truman was not in the building at the time of the assassination attempt.

1963–The evening of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, past midnight, newly inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson was almost shot by accident by a Secret Service agent at the Vice Presidential home, which would have led to Speaker of the House John W. McCormack being President.

1965-1969–Lyndon Johnson, who had suffered a severe heart attack in 1955, and had bad drinking and smoking habits, and a gall bladder operation while President, would have had Hubert Humphrey succeed him as President, had he died in office.

1975–Twice, President Gerald Ford was subjected to assassination attempts in the month of September. Had either attempt been successful, Nelson Rockefeller would have been President.

1980–A plot against the life of President Jimmy Carter by John Hinckley, who later shot President Ronald Reagan, occurring in the fall campaign, would have led to Vice President Walter Mondale in office before the national election, and might have led to him defeating Reagan, out of tragedy and sympathy over the assassination.

1991–George H. W. Bush had a heart problem, atrial fibrillation, and had it been more serious, leading to his death, Vice President Dan Quayle would have been President.

1998-1999–When Bill Clinton was under investigation in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and faced eventual impeachment and trial, had he resigned or been removed, Vice President Al Gore would have become President.

2001- On September 11, there was theoretical danger by terrorists against President George W. Bush, as he flew to different locations on Air Force One. Had bad fortune occurred, Dick Cheney would have become President.

Just imagine Presidents Thomas Marshall, John Nance Garner, Henry A. Wallace, Alben Barkley, John W. McCormack, Hubert Humphrey, Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Mondale, Dan Quayle, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney!

It shows just how important the Vice Presidency is, and who is the occupant of that office!