re: #23 opnion

It is a mystery why Carter is treated with respect as a serious person, rather than being medicated & spending his days sitting by a duck pond.

Not really a mystery. More an ever present reminder of how the media determines the ‘salinity’ of the water we all swim in. To them he is representative and thus given weight.
In contrast, I recall the derision for Barry Goldwater, up until the very end when in seeming senility he started espousing liberal ideas and lo and behold he became an elder statesman and was resurrected by the media just to stick it in conservatives eyes……..
Bastards, all of ‘em