Currently he is the oldest living ex-president or maybe it’s a tie with George H W Bush, they’re both WWII vets and ex-Navy officers, despite being from different parties, I bet they get along on a personal level. Anyway, I read that he and Walter Mondale (his vice president) are the longest living former executive team, a record held by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson for two centuries.
I usually like to avoid politics on my personal site (and how I wish some would keep their vitriolic monkey-crap throwing to themselves on Facebook) but I wanted to blather about the 39th president because he was the first one I remembered well as a kid. When I was born Johnson was running out the clock and he was quickly followed by Nixon (or as he was known in my house, Tricky Dick). The resignation was memorable yet puzzling at age seven. Ford would’ve been a huge blur if it weren’t for his notorious clumsiness. Imagine a world without Chevy Chase!
So Carter won in 1976 amidst all the turbulence of what happened before, little did anyone know it wasn’t going to get any easier: the Iranian Revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the coal miner’s strike, double-digit inflation, Three Mile Island and the doozy, an embarrassing brother named Billy. He did get Egypt to recognize Israel’s right to exist giving the latter nation one less enemy in the region. Nobody has had much luck since. Many say his one term was a huge disaster as he left the White House, little did they forget the messes left by Buchanan, Hoover and Johnson nor predict the second Bush. In his defense, I would like to see his critics do better. It’s always easy to criticize from the bleachers than to hit a home when it’s your turn.
Unlike his predecessors, Carter went on to champion worthy causes close to his heart and somewhat a part of his presidential agenda: human rights, peace in the Middle East and building homes for the poor. Other ex-presidents after Truman use the gig as a quick path to becoming a millionaire, Reagan did it in eight days through speaking engagements. The other living ex-presidents promote some phony baloney humanitarian endeavor yet they lack sincerity and conviction, especially when they’re seen at an exclusive golf course or $5000/plate dinner. This has redeemed Carter’s reputation over the last 30 years because other Democrats considered him radioactive in the Eighties and the Republicans made him synonymous with failure. Both parties certainly learned a painful lesson from him, never talk to the American public directly, frankly and truthfully as he did with the “malaise” speech. Kevin Matson recently wrote a book pointing out how Carter received a positive bounce in the polls for it and blew it shortly thereafter. I doubt it would’ve lasted, modern Americans are notoriously impatient which is why they threw him out for a disingenuous b-movie actor who couldn’t author a coloring book.