There is one thing all conservatives love to do

and that is to flail away at Jimmy Carter like they are Errol Flynn or something.
Jeff Jacoby, is of course, no exception.
The reason for this is simple, at the moment there isn't a single issue on the front burner in Washington that advantages movement conservatism from the war in Iraq to illegal immigrants...it's all bad news.
So when former President Carter calls out the current admin what better time to wallow in late 1970's nostalgia, a period that today's conservatives regard with hilarious revision as their own version of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain combined. To hear the likes of Jeff Jacoby tell it, Russian troops were poised to wade ashore at Revere Beach on the morning that Reagan was sworn in.
They need to remember it this way, Conservatives have "comic book memories" they only remember the explosions, the glittering triumphs, the pompous Allen Drury style dialogue and the shattering defeats. They duly forget things like the Egypt-Israeli peace treaty, diplomatic recognition of China (a huge setback for the USSR) or the coalition to aid the Afghan rebels.
Carter has a problematic legacy...but in time it'll be vastly preferred to the one that Bush Jr. is leaving behind.