As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I always remember Andrew Breitbart's father in law, Orson Bean revealing his adoration for First Lady Roselyn Carter in gushing over her charm and beauty, and then I remember the rest of the nation referring to her as the Dragon Lady.
It was said and was a fact that when America rejected Jimmy Carter for Ronald Reagan, that Roselyn Carter took it hardest of all. She internalized it, and as she sat in on all meetings with the President, it is assumed that Jimmy Carter being the menace he has been since being removed from the White House all these years in meddling in foreign policy, that it was Roselyn Carter who was edging Jimmy on to put the Carter touch on every policy to regain that legacy which was lost.
I have no doubt that Roselyn Carter could be charming to those she desired to be charming too, but the person that Nancy Reagan found herself with was not the least charming or cordial as she treated Mrs. Reagan like the coon who showed up to fix the pipes and reluctantly had to be let in.
Mrs. Reagan described their first meeting to be shown the residential quarters, so Mrs. Regan was brought to the White House where she found a freezing White House as Carter had turned down the thermostats for his energy crisis, and there in the Diplomatic Room, Mrs. Reagan met Mrs. Carter.
They next went to Yellow Oval Room on the second floor of the residence, but Mrs. Reagan found Mrs. Carter as cold as the White House.
The entire White House was without decor or any cheerfulness. Afterwards, Mrs. Reagan was commended by Democrats and Republicans in how light and inspiring the White House appeared after she started bringing in historical objects to enhance the mansion.
When Mrs. Reagan was asked what she would like to see, Mrs. Reagan wanted to view the connecting bedrooms, to see what furniture to bring. To that Mrs. Carter said the rooms were a mess, but she could look through the open door, and that is all Mrs. Reagan got.
Mrs. Carter then announced she had "something to do" and her Secretary would handle the rest, and with that she was gone and Mrs. Reagan never did see the rooms she would spend most of her time in for 8 years.
In contrast, Mrs. Reagan, made certain that when Barbara Bush appeared as First Lady that Mrs. Reagan even showed her the closets, so she would know what to expect.
Mrs. Reagan said it was hard even for her after success and the best of circumstances to leave the White House, but the lack of composure and absolute abruptness of Mrs. Carter was without a doubt the worst example of any First Lady, as it was rude and simply beneath the office. It is though part of the Carter legacy, the complete Carter legacy which does require a historical footnote as much as the blunders of Jimmy Carter which still plague America.
I have always said that Jimmy Carter would have been best as a Baptist Deacon where Roselyn could preen in the position and scorn those below her, and Jimmy really could not have done that much harm to stupid Southern Baptists who slept in the pew most of the service. As President he was Johnny Do Gooder who stooped to the dirtiest political tricks like asking the Soviets to help defeat Ronald Reagan, to show what Carter really was about in his aura of being moral.
It did not end any better though for Nancy Reagan than it started, as riding up the inauguration on Capitol Hill, she was stuck with Roselyn Carter, who started vacantly out the window in silence, and if not for John Rhodes the House Minority Leader keeping up a steady stream of small talk, it would have been the most awkward of rides to the inaugural.
All of that would make a wonderful comic bit for a movie, and should one day be made, but in the example of Roselyn Carter she bloomed with Orson Bean and wilted with Nancy Reagan to thorny old bush.
It is the thing of history.
Nuff Said
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