Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter at a Habitat for Humanity project in 2015. Photo: Habitat for Humanity.
As it sometimes does, the passage of time into history helps remember good things and softens the sting of the bad. You could say this about Jimmy Carter, our 39th president, who was born 102 years ago on Oct. 1, 1924. He died on Dec. 29, 2024.
In the case of Carter, most of the good things happened after he served as president, Jan. 20, 1977, to Jan. 20, 1981. Most of the bad things in terms of politics occurred during his presidency, mostly the result of his outsider political style, and foreign affairs crises such as the 1979 Iran hostages and war in Afghanistan. The revolution in Iran triggered a severe oil crisis, doubling oil prices. The combined impact brought Carter’s political downfall.
Once again we are visited by conflict with Iran resulting in high fuel costs, although this time it was self-inflicted. If there is political justice, the perpetrator today will pay the same political price as did Carter – getting booted from office. And it would be far more deserving. In 1980 Carter did not cause the crisis but took the blame.
The hostage crisis inflicted by Iran revolutionaries starting in 1979 did more to hurt the U.S. than military action ever could. It forced out of office a good man who would have been a great president in his second term, and instead cleared the way for Ronald Reagan.
My recent viewing of a History Channel documentary about Carter, first aired in 2025, provided a balm, soothing sensibilities frazzled by the circus we see today on stage at the White House. If you are tiring from all the political conflict and disruption of our government today, you might get some temporary relief by viewing the documentary, History Remembers President Jimmy Carter.
Carter was the only president I have ever seen in person, barely, as the secondary press corral sat far away from the stage at a Minneapolis campaign event in 1980. A few years later we did meet his vice president, Walter Mondale, at a newspaper association event. Both were true statesmen and would have been great leaders in a second term. Carter also stood out in sharing his Christian faith through service.
A prolific author
The phony phrase ‘be best’ heard coming from the White House today withers in comparison with Carter’s 1975 book, Why Not the Best? An article in Atlanta magazine listed it among the most notable of the 30 books written by Carter. My library inter-loan copy of his 1982 book, Keeping Faith – Memoirs of a President just arrived, and I look forward to reading.
Despite his political quirks and challenges, Carter deserved a high degree of trust and lived what he wrote: “We Americans today are equally capable of correcting our faults, overcoming difficulties, managing our own affairs and facing the future with justifiable confidence as were our forefathers. I have come to realize that in every person there is something fine, pure and noble, along with a desire for self-fulfillment. There is a simple and effective way for public officials to regain public trust—be trustworthy!”
In 1982 Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, who died in 2023, founded The Carter Center, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of people around the world. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. You likely have seen over the years stories and video of the Carters wearing hard hats and tool belts helping build houses with Habitat for Humanity.
In their 1987 book, Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life, the Carters write: “Retirement can be one of life’s greatest dangers if all we do is brace ourselves to face what we think will be many barren and useless years. [Retirees] fear a monotonous life without purpose — and without respect from others. But this need not happen.
“As we have tried to show, longer life and earlier retirement can create significant new opportunities. A second career can be gratifying because it is built upon many years of experience, accumulated knowledge, influence and perhaps freedom from financial uncertainty. This period may offer the first chance to repay our community by service and sharing.”
Good man, tough job
Back in the 1970s, had we known all of this was to happen in their later years, perhaps the public sentiment would have been more favorable. At least back then as a newspaper editor I tried to be supportive in endorsing Carter for re-election in 1980:
“Needless to say, Jimmy Carter over the past four years has not met the expectations of many Americans. His administration has been characterized by indecision and ineptness. But, as many Americans still do, we believe that Mr. Carter is an intelligent man in a very difficult job.
“He ran for office in 1976 as a populist and outsider to Washington. His major mistake was to keep himself surrounded with political cronies from Georgia. For whatever reasons, Carter has not had much success with legislation in a Democrat dominated Congress,” wrote the young, trying-to-be-sagacious editor.
“But most likely that indicates a Congress trying to re-assert its influence after a decade of being overshadowed by the executive branch. We support the re-election of Jimmy Carter and hope that he wins Nov. 4.” Again today we could use a Congress that tries to reassert its influence.
Apparently, the endorsement from a suburban weekly newspaper (Ramsey County Review) didn’t have much clout, nor did the same from big league papers: New York Times, Minneapolis Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer (“with grave misgivings”), Kansas City Star, Chicago Sun-Times, Baltimore Sun, Des Moines Register, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Carter lost the 1980 presidential election in a landslide receiving 41 percent of the popular vote compared with 50.7 percent for Reagan. The electoral difference was much greater, 49 to 489. We also lost a very good vice president, Walter Mondale, continuing Minnesota’s political reputation as the land of vice presidents (Humphrey, Walz-almost).
Maybe you could put some of the blame on the Democratic Party convention in August 1980. A technical malfunction foiled the dramatic balloon drop. “The balloons dribbled out of cracks in the container as invisible persons must have been frantically tugging on the ropes supposed to release them,” I wrote in my weekly newspaper column. “Whether it was sabotage or accident, the failure of the balloon contraption following President Carter’s acceptance speech was symbolic of his administration.”
We are fortunate that such an anecdote is lost in history (except for my column), and today we remember Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter for all the good things they did in their busy ‘retirement’, elevated to a much higher level following their service in the White House. Carter was the 76th governor of Georgia. If we are lucky, Nov. 3 we’ll see another Democrat elected the 84th governor in Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms.
