I read Jonathan Alter's Jimmy Carter biography not too long ago. What attracted me to it was hearing somewhere that his thesis was that Carter was a better President than you think and not as good an ex-President as you think. That sounded like a hot take, but I bit anyway, and found it to be a somewhat true description of the book. Alter doesn't diss post 1984 Jimmy at all, just notes that he maybe stuck his nose in where he shouldn't have a couple of times and that some of his charitable efforts (especially early on) had a calculated "image restoration" quality to them. But those are quibbles, and Alter says so. An ex-Presidency for the ages.
As for his political career, the parts that stood out to me are (1) his shame that as a Sumter County businessman he didn't get behind Clarence Jordan and Koinonia when he should have, (2) the brilliant bait-and-switch he pulled on segregationists to get elected Governor in 1970, and (3) the Panama Canal Treaty. That's something I remember happening, and Alter's account of Carter recognizing that it had to be done, that it would a brutal job, and that there would be no political payoff for it, and then digging in and making it happen - reading about that inspired me more than any photo of him hammering nails. A lesson for our times.
Godspeed, Jimmy, and thank you.
