Carter's Rabbit

In 1979, while fishing in Plains, Georgia, president Jimmy Carter was forced to use his paddle to fend off a deranged rabbit that had attacked his rowboat. A week later, Carter's press secretary, Jody Powell, unwisely mentioned the incident to an Associated Press correspondent over tea, the reporter dutifully filing the story on the AP wire the next day:

The incident, entirely unimportant in itself, quickly set off a minor media frenzy. The press, desperate for copy during the late summer lull, quickly elevated the incident into a metaphor of the haplessness and impotence of the Carter Administration.

Though photographs of the incident were suppressed at the time, Reagan's operatives eventually managed to get their hands on them. A color copy of the photo can now be purchased at the Jimmy Carter Library for $25.50.

The photo itself paints a devasting tableaux. Alone in his tiny rowboat, Carter looks hunched over and solitary. He is diffidently splashing water at a tiny ball of wet fur that is over fifteen feet from the president and is swimming away from him. Not exactly Teddy Roosevelt tracking for bear.

In general, voters are not attracted to presidents who appear to be taken to the limit by a bunny rabbit. This is one reason why military service has historically been an important path to the White House: It comforts people to think their leader has the prowess to manfully dispatch attacks, whether it be the Soviet army or Silly Wabbit. (Sadly, this is probably why women have had a hard time in presidential elections.)

Why haven't nutcases become conspiratorial about this yet? Clearly this incident was hatched by the Trilateral Commission, working in tandem with a cabal of bankers and fringe scientists, to undermine the presidency of Jimmy Carter—thereby clearing the path for a president, Ronald Reagan, more open to corporate/military rule.

Maybe I'll become that nut.

It's also possible, however, that leaders simply become burdened with the symbols the people want them to wear. Within a year of assuming office, Jimmy Carter was already being attacked for being a rudderless namby-pamby. A battle-to-the-death with an aquatic bunny rabbit only confirmed doubts.

Eight months into the new administration, Obama's presidency is already being called Carter's second term. As Obama tries to revive the ideal of progress in America, a notion that went out of style around the time ties became narrow, he is wise to remember Carter's Rabbit—unless you want to spend four years chasing away your own furry animals, always act sure and pretend to be in control. Above all, voters respect strength.