All That Kept Us From a Second Carter Term Was One Helicopter

Jimmuh Carter seems to think he could have been reelected president had he not come up one helicopter short:

Speaking with XM Radio’s Bob Edwards on Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter (you know, the guy who gave the “malaise” speech) told the radio host that he “would not want to have changed anything” during his presidency. Well, okay, maybe one thing.

Referring to the Iran hostage crisis, Carter said, “I have a specific regret in not having one more helicopter when I wanted to rescue our hostages. If I had had one more helicopter, they would have been rescued. I might have been reelected president.”

There was a lot more wrong with that mission than being short one helicopter. The restrictions Carter and his team put on the rescue mission in terms of personnel and equipment pretty much guaranteed failure. One more chopper wouldn't have made a difference, and after all the other screw-ups by the nation's worst president, there's no way he'd have ever beat Ronald Reagan.