Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, did not care much for the common assessment of his long and remarkable life that he made a better ex-president than president.
That assessment, though, was largely on the mark. That’s because few presidents have ever been so resoundingly booted from office by voters after just one term, and even fewer have done as much positively with their lives after leaving the Oval Office.
Carter came to Washington following the 1976 election in the wake of the Watergate scandal and on a pledge to always be honest with the American people. That character trait has all but disappeared in the modern era of politics, where habitual fabrication has become not just accepted but expected from those in high office. He accomplished some noteworthy achievements during his one term as president: brokering the historic peace accord between Israel and Egypt that still holds today; establishing the federal departments of Education and Energy and the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and bringing a record number of women and racial minorities into significant positions in the federal government.
But there also are reasons why, when the Democrat sought reelection, he not only faced a significant primary challenge in Teddy Kennedy but was routed in the general election by Ronald Reagan. Inflation went wild and gas lines stretched for blocks during Carter’s time in office, both of which had Americans primed to shake things up. And in his final year, Carter was also dealt the Iranian hostage crisis, during which he seemed ineffectual on the world stage. It was humiliating for Carter but no surprise that on Election Day, he only won the electoral vote in six states.
To his credit, Carter did not sulk for long. Nor was he content to kick back and just let his Secret Service detail get bored as it watched him putter around in seclusion.
Instead, he and his wife, Rosalynn, got busy capitalizing on his name and his connections to do good for the poor and mistreated not only in this country but globally. They founded The Carter Center in their home state of Georgia, where it became an international base for peacekeeping, democracy, public health and human rights efforts. The Carters and their staff helped negotiate ceasefires and peace accords, monitored scores of elections to deter fraud, and spearheaded or assisted initiatives to eradicate debilitating and sometimes fatal diseases in some of the poorest parts of the world. There is no measuring how much misery this globe was spared thanks to Jimmy Carter. And still he found time to teach Sunday School classes at his small hometown Baptist church and to build homes with Habitat for Humanity for those in need of affordable housing.
Carter, who lived almost a decade with terminal cancer, did not slow down until a few years ago, when his late wife’s health also started to fail. He once explained what kept him involved in humanitarian efforts decades after leaving the White House: “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”
He lived his Christian faith in the extraordinary way that only a small fraction of believers ever achieve. As Joe Biden, another Democratic president who has been lowly regarded while in office, said, Carter was the model “for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning.”
Carter will never go down as a great president. Even his biggest fans don’t pretend that. But, in the estimation of people all around the world, what he will go down as is a great man.
