Jimmy Carter is a man of good character. Since leaving office, he has done a lot of good work helping others. Still, he was a lousy President.

Some of that was because of unfortunate timing and events beyond his control, such as the doubling of crude oil prices in 1978 following the Shah's overthrow in Iran. That led to the surge in inflation and interest rates over the remainder of his career. I full well remember when home mortgages were going for credit card interest rates (16-18%) and inflation was pushing 20%. This in turn motivated Congress to begin deregulating the S&L industry in 1980, a process that ultimately led to the S&L crisis a few years later.

Other things that happened during the Carter Administration were definitely in his control. For example, the military had declined to a sorry state by the end of his administration. Morale was terrible due to a shortage of personnel, training, weapons stockpiles, and back-to-back pay raises that were 10% below the rate of inflation (FY79 & FY80), effectively amounting to a 20% pay cut. I know because I was on active duty at the time. Things were a mess and the sorry state of readiness and training directly contributed to the failure of the rescue mission.

As for the "Axis of Evil", there seems to be some activity in Iran as a result of the speech. For example, the BBC is reporting that more than half of the members of the Iranian Parliament are calling for an investigation into Bush's allegations about harboring terrorists and smuggling weapons. As for the label "Evil", sometimes you have to stop the diplomatic wuss-speak and call a spade a spade (shovel for the PC crowd).