Beer and Democracy (Reprise)

I've been busy working on a column about magical thinking about the presidency today and haven't really seen much of the news of the day, but I did notice that Brad Plumer is pushing the myth of Jimmy Carter and decent beer. As I said the last time this one popped up, regular readers will know that I'm particularly averse to overstating the importance of presidents and to any suggest that Jimmy Carter was anything other than a terrible president. Enough so that I wasted a few hours tracking it down, and guess what? Carter had nothing to do with it.

I expect this to pop up again next August, and I vow now that I will do what I can do knock it down again. The US is not a dictatorship led by an elected president, and we shouldn't act as if it is. Especially when Jimmy Carter is involved. And beer lovers should really know who Barber Conable was, even if he was just responding to district interests.