The Real Dark Shadow: Carter’s Foreign Policy Legacy

James Carafano / May 14, 2012

Over the weekend, Hollywood brought back a popular TV horror show/soap opera that ended its run in 1971. That, however, is not the only flashback from the days of disco getting attention these days. Comparing President Obama’s impact on foreign affairs to former President Jimmy Carter has also come into vogue.

Carter showed a weak hand to America’s enemies, and many—seeing the White House as soft and the U.S. as a declining power—took every opportunity to insult, ignore, embarrass, and take advantage of the image of Uncle Sam.

Comparisons might be apt. Just last week, newly installed Russian President Vladimir Putin declared he was skipping the G-8 meeting at Camp David this Friday—and that after Obama moved the meeting from Chicago to accommodate Putin. So, where is Putin going for his first foreign visit? China.

This week, Iran got into the act, referencing Obama to bash Israel. “The ramifications of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s defeat in the face of Obama’s policies have been a breakdown in Israel’s usurper regime, where now many within its own government have spoken against its own prime minister, claiming Iran is a rational regime and not after the bomb,” an Iranian editorial (for a newspaper directly under the supervision of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) recently boasted.

With responses like this to the Administration’s foreign policy, it is little wonder that the Obama Doctrine has been accused of plagiarizing the peanut farmer.