"If there was a problem, he wanted to tackle it without considering the political consequences or balancing it against other priorities. As he reflected years later: "I have to say I could have put it off to a second term that's what Johnson had done; that's what Nixon had done; that's what Ford had done, and got away with it. But I didn't think it was right to continue with it." Even when Rosalynn advised him to wait until a second term, he replied, "Suppose there is no second term?" It was not that he was ignorant of the politics of decisions like Panama, but his overriding, guiding principle of presidential governance was to do things that needed to be done, in the certain belief that if he did the "right thing," he would ultimately be rewarded by the American people with another term. But as he later admitted, he underestimated the difficulty of applying this principle to the task in Panama. His insistence on immediately tackling the tough challenges, regardless of political costs and competing priorities, was at once his strength and weakness."
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Activists from the United StatesPresidents of the United StatesNovelists from the United StatesDiplomats of the United StatesNobel Peace Prize laureates
Original Language: English
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Sources
Stuart E. Eizenstat, President Carter: The White House Years (2018), New York: St. Martin's Press, April 2018 first edition hardcover, p. 558
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
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