The last Democratic Messianic "Cult" Candidate was Jimmy Carter in 1976....

[McCamy Taylor]

...and he won. Even with Gore Vidal running around saying that Jimmy Carter thought that he was Jesus Christ.

So chill. Maybe the nation wants a savior after eight years of Darth Cheney and his side kick, same as they needed a savior after Nixon and Watergate. This might be why the hard core Republicans "heart" Huckabee, too.

All Obama has to do is run a better White House than Jimmy Carter did.

Ooo. And McCain sure reminds me of Ford. Ugly as sin, old as the hills, saddled with baggage from the last GOP administration and none of the Republicans really like him. Could be a good year for the Democrats.

:dem:

[MADem]

1. Not that he WAS a cult candidate (nice try, but not true) he was a one-term wonder.

So if you're trying to argue FOR a cult candidate, he wasn't the best example.

[sunonmars]

2. Jimmy Carter is no recommendation

Hmm, Clinton or Carter, i think i'll take Clinton

[MadHound]

3. Actually the last charismatic Democratic figure running an inspirational campaign

Was Bill Clinton, back in '92. The man from Hope, and all that. Could have easily qualified as cultish by the standards of Hillary's supporters, which is why this all so deliciously ironic.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. Clinton was a pragmatist. He was the adulterer who said "Forget character, I will deliver solutions"

[sandnsea]

9. Not in 1992

He was all about Hope for a new kind of politics and all he delivered was warmed-over Reaganomics.

[malletgirl02]

7. I agree

Bill Clinton is a much better choice for the OP's argument than Carter.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Yeah, but Carter was inexperienced.

He had 0 years in the senate. Plus he supports Obama, so that makes him a cult member.

[McCamy Taylor]

8. No, Carter was an "outsider", he was "pure". he was "new", he was "change"

[sandnsea]

6. No no no, this hasn't happened since Bobby

I voted for Jimmy Carter and this is NOT what that election was about or like.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Yes, it was. Jimmy Carter promised to tear down the old DC establishment

and bring transparency to government.

[sandnsea]

13. There was no massive movement with Carter

He promised to go into Washington and run a clean government after Nixon. He did not promise to make a transformational change in the course of the nation. Quit trying to dump the perceived failures of Carter onto Obama. The desperate hatefulness of the Clinton supporters is disgusting.

[McCamy Taylor]

18. I am an Edwards supporter. I am giving Obama advice to help him win. Carter WON in 1976.

Get that? Carter WON MOral is: look to see what Carte did right

[sandnsea]

21. We don't need comparisons to Carter

and I don't trust the supposed "integrity" of Edwards' supporters so that holds no sway with me.

[End Of The Road]

22. YES - someone who knows their history!!

You're right - the last candidate whose followers MIGHT accurately be described as "cultish" was Bobby. Thing is, his young supporters were FAR more "politically aware" than Obama's supporters, who seem to me to be weak on political history, political theory, and history in general.

Carter was not in the least a cultish figure. Shit, we were just looking for an honest politician.

[Bitwit1234]

11. Gee it must be a cult, the other candidates supporters are

messing themselves trying to deny it.

[flpoljunkie]

12. I don't remember Jimmy Carter that way at all, but he did win.

[McCamy Taylor]

14. Read Carter's Democratic Nomination Acceptance Speech

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter's_First_Presidential_Nomination_Acceptance_Speech

Nineteen seventy-six will not be a year of politics as usual. It can be a year of inspiration and hope, and it will be a year of concern, of quiet and sober reassessment of our nation’s character and purpose. It has already been a year when voters have confounded the experts. And I guarantee you that it will be the year when we give the government of this country back to the people of this country.

There is a new mood in America. We have been shaken by a tragic war abroad and by scandals and broken promises at home. Our people are searching for new voices and new ideas and new leaders.

snip


This has been a long and personal campaign—a humbling experience, reminding us that ultimate political influence rests not with the power brokers but with the people. This has been a time of tough debate on the important issues facing our country. This kind of debate is part of our tradition, and as Democrats we are heirs to a great tradition.

I have never met a Democratic President, but I have always been a Democrat.

Years ago, as a farm boy sitting outdoors with my family on the ground in the middle of the night, gathered close around a battery radio connected to the automobile battery and listening to the Democratic conventions in far-off cities, I was a long way from the selection process. I feel much closer to it tonight.

snip

We have been a nation adrift too long. We have been without leadership too long. We have had divided and deadlocked government too long. We have been governed by veto too long. We have suffered enough at the hands of a tired and worn-out administration without new ideas, without youth or vitality, without vision and without the confidence of the American people. There is a fear that our best years are behind us. But I say to you that our nation’s best is still ahead.

Our country has lived through a time of torment. It is now a time for healing. We want to have faith again. We want to be proud again. We just want the truth again.

It is time for the people to run the government, and not the other way around.

snip

To our friends and allies I say that what unites us through our common dedication to democracy is much more important than that which occasionally divides us on economics or politics. To the nations that seek to lift themselves from poverty I say that America shares your aspirations and extends its hand to you. To those nation-states that wish to compete with us I say that we neither fear competition nor see it as an obstacle to wider cooperation. To all people I say that after two hundred years America still remains confident and youthful in its commitment to freedom and equality, and we always will be.

snip

As I’ve said many times before, we can have an American President who does not govern with negativism and fear of the future, but with vigor and vision and aggressive leadership—a President who’s not isolated from the people, but who feels your pain and shares your dreams and takes his strength and his wisdom and his courage from you.

I see an America on the move again, united, a diverse and vital and tolerant nation, entering our third century with pride and confidence, an America that lives up to the majesty of our Constitution and the simple decency of our people.

This is the America we want. This is the America that we will have.

We will go forward from this convention with some differences of opinion perhaps, but nevertheless united in a calm determination to make our country large and driving and generous in spirit once again, ready to embark on great national deeds. And once again, as brothers and sisters, our hearts will swell with pride to call ourselves Americans.

[McCamy Taylor]

16. That speech is what Carter's campaign was like. It is what Obama's campaign is like.

Obama would be the last to admit that he is anything like a Jimmy Carter, because the history books have recorded Carter as a "loser" and Reagan as a "winner", but Carter was a moral man and Reagan was a mass murderer.

So, if Obama wants to win an election the way that Carter did--by offering Americans hope and unity and promising to clean up government corruption, that is one tried and true campaign style. It is not new. But hey, it has been tested and it works just fine. The next time some one tells you "Obama can not get elected because he has no experience" tell them Jimmy Carter got elected in 1976 by bragging that he had no experience. That should shut them up.

And like I said, campaigning for president and running your White House after you are president are two different things. Obama does not have to be Jimmy Carter after January 2009.

[Faygo Kid]

15. Got to disagree. McGovern was the last truly inspiring candidate.

Carter was not inspiring, but a relief after Nixon. I thought Bill Clinton would be excellent, top-tier - but I would put him above average. Mondale, Dukakis were decent human beings. Bobby would have been the most inspiring; Humphrey finally earned our respect, but that's about it.

But I worked for George McGovern, and we were passionate about him.

[McCamy Taylor]

17. To his base, but after Nixon finished with him, the electorate thought he was as crooked

as Nixon.

Read Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 . He shows the way that McGovern allowed himself to be portrayed as corrupt, a waffler, sneaky, a liar and all kinds of bad things by the press and his opponent in the general election. It cut his votes down a lot.

On the issues, he was looking good. On character, the GOP creamed him.

Carter kept his character pristine. Obama will have to do the same thing.

[newmajority]

19. Jimmy Carter was the last real President we had

Everything after that has been the BushClinton dynasty. I'd say it's time for a real President again.

[McCamy Taylor]

20. Amd Obama could be that. He could be pure, idealistic. He could clean up DC.

[ngant17]

23. Jimmy Carter set his standards high

and no President has yet been able to meet or exceed them.

Morality, fairness, peace. He really was a leader that made me proud to be an American. It was fitting that the American bicentenial happened on his term, and I think we have a chance at redeeming ourselves yet.

[calico1]

24. I don't remember it that way at all.

I remember him being seen as an outsider and to many people a breath of fresh air. I do not remember weeping, or over zealous support. Of course this was 1976 so we didn't have media then like we do today.

I will never forget the first time I saw him and he said "Hi, I'm Jimmy Carter and I want to be your President."

Jimmy Carter was and is a brilliant man who was distrustful of the Washington establishment and also had the misfortune of having a lot of bad things happen during his term. I think he could have been a great President and in fact, Walter Cronkite has said that he is the most intelligent of all the Presidents he has ever known.