Something Texas Fred wrote today gave me an idea for a shorthand expression for future discussions. Basically, he was critical of the fact that President George W. Bush's immigration policy has gotten rave reviews by former president Jimmy Carter -he of the Keystone Kops Presidency (among other infamies). The summary of Fred's response was this line:
If Mr. Peanut endorses it, it has GOT TO BE wrong...
Now obviously no one is wrong all the time; however, Jimmy Carter has a trackrecord of being so wrong so often that it is a good bet to take the opposite side of him on an issue if you want reasonably sureness of being correct. With that in mind, I propose the following terms to be utilized whenever Jimmy Carter's name comes up in the news on matters such as this:
The Carter Corollary
This can serve in the future as a kind of shorthand to say with a wave of the hand "this position is wrong because it is supported by Jimmy Carter." And by taking such a position, the odds of being right are virtually certain to be higher than the .847 slugging percentage that Babe Ruth had in the 1920 baseball season.{1} Or in summary: often enough to be consider a reliable norm on these kinds of matters and thus worthy of definition.
Note:
{1} That set a record that was almost matched the following year and remained unbroken until 2001 when Barry Bonds set a new steroid-enhanced record of .863.