Things Were So Much Better Then

A clandestine trip and a four-decade secret: An untold story behind Jimmy Carter’s defeat https://t.co/BTuPFbgYYN

— 🦀 Jon Schwarz 🦀 (@schwarz) March 18, 2023

We’re younger than that now.

I was pretty sure I already knew this story. I was right.

When you read today's huge NY Times October Surprise article, recall the story was "discredited" for official Washington in 1991 by a New Republic piece titled "The Conspiracy That Wasn't." The New Republic was then edited by a young Andrew Sullivan. pic.twitter.com/CovudzUcgK

— 🦀 Jon Schwarz 🦀 (@schwarz) March 18, 2023

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” Or to the obvious convenience of the timing of the hostage release (almost immediately after the inauguration). And if you do, whoo boy!, do we have a story for you!

I like to say that the New York Times is absolutely 100% devoted to printing the truth, after 50 years have passed. But that's unfair, here it's only taken them 43 years. https://t.co/BTuPFbgYYN

— 🦀 Jon Schwarz 🦀 (@schwarz) March 19, 2023

Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, briefly president of Iran after the Iranian revolution, said many times the Reagan campaign colluded with the Iranian government to keep the hostage in Tehran until the 1980 election. This was discreetly left out of his obituaries. https://t.co/SqixWuTBBq

— 🦀 Jon Schwarz 🦀 (@schwarz) March 19, 2023

Besides, the source was a furriner, and now we have a white guy who pleads naïveté. And besides, Ronald Reagan was canonized a secular saint in the 90’s, wasn’t he?

So, you see, I did know this story. But after all, what did I know?