My Jimmy Carter confessional

The 39th president turns 100 today. So it’s time for my Jimmy Carter confessional. I never voted for James Earl Carter when he ran for president, either in the primaries or in the general elections in 1976 and 1980.

In 1976, I believe I voted for progressive Fred Harris in the primary.

I was wary of Carter. As this 2023 NYT article discusses, he was a “white politician from the South who once supported segregationist policies [who] eventually won the enduring support of Black voters.”

During the campaign, he debated President Gerald Ford in three televised debates, the first since the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates. During the middle event on October 6, Ford declared,  “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.” That hurt Jerry greatly.

But I was uncomfortable with Jimmy’s Playboy interview that autumn. As this 2023 Daily Kos piece noted, “The centerfold was not the topic of discussion [among the writer’s associates.]. It was the interview with Jimmy Carter. The ‘peanut farming hick’ and ‘goody two-shoes Sunday school teacher’ (their words, not mine) had actually admitted, in a national publication with a readership of millions, to having committed adultery in his heart. Many times in fact.” It may have made others take him less seriously, especially compared with the 45th president, who NEVER apologizes.

Ultimately, I was very disturbed by the weird machinations of the Carter people in New York, who kept Eugene McCarthy, the firebrand who ran against Lyndon Johnson in 1968, off the NYS primary ballot. He wouldn’t get the nomination; the primary challengers were Mo Udall, Henry Jackson, and Jerry Brown. Still, I was annoyed so much that in the general election, I voted for McCarthy as a write-in.

In office

Jimmy Carter’s Presidency is reflected by the National Archives’ description of something else that happened on this date.  “Opened on October 1, 1986, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta holds 27 million pages of records, half a million photographs, and hundreds of hours of film, audio, and video from the Carter administration. Records cover the wide-ranging topics of the administration including the energy crisis, SALT II, Panama Canal Treaty, Camp David Summit and the Camp David Accords, Deng Xiaoping’s visit to Washington, establishment of the Department of Education and the Department of Energy, Iran Hostage Crisis, and more. “

Ah, Iran hostage. The daily count of 52 Americans held for 444 days. The failed rescue mission.

“During his term, Jimmy Carter took 12 international trips and visited 25 countries. He was the first president to visit Nigeria (and sub-Saharan Africa) and Guadeloupe.”

A recent Associated Press story suggested that Carter’s real problem was that “he faced two barriers: the congressional leaders did not view him as one of them, and the national media approached him with a regional bias against the South. Long after leaving office, he still bemoaned the political cartoon published around his inauguration that depicted his family approaching the White House with his mother, Miss Lillian, chewing on a hayseed.”

1980

When the 1980 Democratic presidential primaries came, I didn’t vote for Jimmy Carter. Nor did I choose Ted Kennedy because I was afraid he would be assassinated like his brothers. Also, in an interview with Roger Mudd in 1979, EMK could not articulate why he wanted to be president. I probably wrote in Jerry Brown.

I certainly wasn’t going to vote for Reagan in the general election. He was terrible, but how effective could he be? As it turns out, big tax cuts for the rich, gutting unions, and ignoring AIDS. So awful, much worse than I had imagined. I didn’t vote for Carter or third-party candidate John Anderson. Instead, I voted for environmentalist Barry Commoner, who wrote the 1971 book The Closing Circle, which I had read. It would not be the last time I voted for a minor-party candidate.

Best ex-President ever

After licking his wounds, “Mr. Carter has championed humanitarian causes and engaged in conflict mediation through the non-partisan and non-profit Carter Center [founded in 1982]. He found sustained success working on issues like global democracy, human rights advocacy, and the eradication of disease. In 2002, his efforts were recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize. He was only the third U.S. President to be awarded this prize” at the time.

The former President and his late wife, Rosalynn, were well-known Habitat for Humanity volunteers. He also regularly taught Sunday school at his church.

Jimmy has defied expectations in his hospice care in Plains, GA, which he entered in February 2023.  “Electing hospice care signals a person is nearing the end of life, where care focuses on comfort rather than continued treatment. One study found 93% of hospice patients pass away within six months.” He even attended the funeral of his wife, Rosalynn Carter, in November 2023.

Jimmy recovered in 2015 from a melanoma diagnosis that spread to his brain and liver.

Facts

The National Archives had some interesting facts, written a year ago and updated.

Jimmy Carter holds several interesting records as president. At 100, he is our longest-lived president… In 2012, he surpassed Herbert Hoover’s record for the longest-retired president. He and his wife Rosalynn had the longest presidential marriage at over 77 years.

Additionally, Carter holds many presidential firsts, including the first president born in a hospital. On October 1, 1924, he was born at the Wise Sanitarium, where his mother worked as a nurse.  He’s also the only president to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Jimmy Carter Stopped a Nuclear Reactor From Destroying Ottawa.