Jimmy Carter: an appreciation
He was a hard man to like, yet an easy man to respect.
He did not suffer fools, confident as he was in his own keen intelligence, not to mention comfortable with his disdain for the political give-and-take that used to fuel political Washington.
The shorthand summary of his one-term presidency, from 1977-1981, was that it was an overall failure because of his stiff-necked refusal to schmooze and haggle with Congress. This glib (and wrong) assessment gains traction because folks could in the same breath heap praise on Jimmy Carter’s post-White House life: public policy wonk (and often scold), humanitarian whose efforts worldwide seemed to equal those of Muhammad Ali, and of course tireless worker for Habitat for Humanity.
[Think about it: what former president from our lifetime can you imagine not just clearing brush on his ranch a la Ronald Reagan, but actually putting on—and using—a tool belt day after day to build homes for the poor?]
The sumbitch may have been prickly, but, dammit, he was a mensch. Not to mention a Nobel laureate.
Carter won the presidency in 1976 in part because of what he was not. He was not scandal-plagued Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign two years earlier during the Watergate scandal, ceding the office to his hapless vice president Gerald Ford. Ford, a thoroughly decent man (perhaps the most personable president I ever covered), simply could not overcome the stain of that scandal.
It also did not help that, in trying to shore up his conservative base in 1975, Ford sought to portray then cash-strapped New York City as Sodom-on-the-Hudson and threatened to cut vital federal money to this world financial hub. I covered Ford’s National Press Club speech on the subject for the New York Daily News. You may remember the next day’s frontpage headline:
“FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.” Not a good look when you are trying to win that important state. (He didn’t.)
Once in office, Carter took to the job like the policy wonk (and naval nuclear engineer) that he was. In fact, his serious demeanor seemingly about everything made for a hilarious Saturday Night Live skit in which a pitch-perfect Dan Aykroyd playing Carter took phone calls from constituents and managed to talk a frantic stoner down from a bad trip. (Carter reportedly laughed out loud when he saw the show.)
Writing in the Washington Post shortly after Carter died at 100, Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s longtime chief domestic policy advisor, remembered his old boss fondly (and correctly) this way:
“Carter’s accomplishments at home and abroad were more extensive and longer lasting than those of almost all modern presidents…Carter helped restore trust in the presidency through ethics reforms more relevant today than ever before. He established the Senior Executive Service and insulated civil service workers against political pressure. He slowed the revolving door for departing officials and placed independent inspectors general in every department. The Office of Special Counsel originated with his legislation to investigate possible wrongdoing by high-level officials. And he extended ethical standards to the private sector through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, barring corporations from bribing foreign officials to obtain contracts. With Walter Mondale, he created the modern vice presidency as a fully engaged partnership….”
And, of course, in light of the continuing turmoil in the middle east—as well as Donald Trump’s hare-brained yammering about taking over the Panama Canal, one should not forget Carter’s hammering together the Camp David Accords and pushing through the Panama Canal treaties.
Still, it was another foreign policy nightmare, in Iran, that helped seal Carter’s fate. The assault on the U.S. embassy in Tehran as militants following Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini toppled the U.S.-backed regime of the Shah of Iran, was a body blow to America’s prestige. It forced Carter off the campaign trail as he tried to use diplomacy—and, at one point, a botched helicopter rescue attempt—to free his fellow Americans.
Carter lost in November 1980 to Republican Reagan.
But the high-stakes private diplomacy that Carter continued to lead after the November election bore fruit, as U.S. sanctions continued to hobble the new Iranian government. A deal was struck, the hostages would be freed unharmed—but not without one final dig by Khomeini.
The Ayatollah refused to free the Americans while Carter was president, letting them go only after Reagan was sworn in on Jan. 20, 1981.
Credit Reagan for a singular act of grace. Knowing that Carter planned to greet the returning hostages in person once they landed in Germany and were rushed to a military hospital for observation, Reagan upended protocol and let Carter use Air Force One one last time—even if it were no longer his official jet.
I was on that trip. Carter flew on the (non-)presidential jet and we in the White House press flew alongside in our own Pan Am press charter. Our plane was a 747-SP and I was able to snatch a seat in the plane’s big hump, near the cockpit.
Because this was an historic flight, seemingly every senior Pan Am pilot pulled rank to fly the plane. Flying over, I peeked into the crew coat closet near the cockpit. There was so much scrambled eggs on the brims of so many pilot hats, it was as if we newsies were being flown by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
But that was only the beginning. We landed in the dark on a freezing night at Rhein-Main Air Force Base and took buses to the military hospital in Wiesbaden. There was no room for us inside the hospital as Carter went in, so long press tables were wired and set up with phones in the ice-covered hospital courtyard. Like I said: freezing, but what I remember most was looking up and seeing two Marine Guards who had been hostages, hollering down at us from a balcony. All they wore were hospital pajamas and bathrobes.
And all they cared about was how the Dallas Cowboys had done during the season. I hadn’t a clue and I could not have answered if it did. I was too choked up.
