Jimmy Carter's rabbit
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Dubbed the Killer Rabbit by the media, Jimmy Carter's rabbit was a Swamp Rabbit that caught press imagination after trying furiously to board then-President of the United States Jimmy Carter's fishing boat on April 20, 1979.
Carter had gone on a solo fishing expedition in his hometown of Plains, Georgia when the rabbit approached his boat, "hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared and making straight for the president"[1], trying desparately to try and enter the boat, causing Carter to flail at the swimming creature with the oars from his boat.
Upon returning to his office, Carter found his staff disbelieving of his story, insisting that rabbits couldn't swim, or that they would never approach a person threateningly - however it was later confirmed that a White House photographer had in fact captured the plight on-camera.[2]
Press Secretary Jody Powell mentioned the event to Associated Press correspondent Brooks Jackson on August 28, 1979, who filed the story with the wire service the following day. The story PRESIDENT ATTACKED BY RABBIT was carried across the front page of the Washington Post, though the White House's refusal to release the photograph resulted in the newspaper using a cartoon parody of the Jaws poster labelled "PAWS" as its illustration.[1]
The White House however refused to release the photograph of the incident to the media, until it turned up during the Reagan administration and the story saw another revival.
In Press Secretary Foster's 1986 book The Other Side of the Story, he recounted the story as such:
"Upon closer inspection, the animal turned out to be a rabbit. Not one of your cutesy, Easter Bunny-type rabbits, but one of those big splay-footed things that we called swamp rabbits when I was growing up.
The animal was clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk. The President confessed to having had limited experience with enraged rabbits. He was unable to reach a definite conclusion about its state of mind. What was obvious, however, was that this large, wet animal, making strange hissing noises and gnashing its teeth, was intent upon climbing into the Presidential boat."
The incident with the rabbit later became synonymous with Carter's presidency, illustrating him as somewhat "hapless" and "enfeebled".[3]
[edit] References
- ^ a b http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_019.html
- ^ http://www.narsil.org/politics/carter/killer_rabbit.html
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/carter2.htm
