What Me One Hundred?


Former President Jimmy Carter is 100 years old today. A remarkable feat for anyone, especially a man who saw the stress of four years in the White House. That has to shave off at least a few years. Carter came into office in the wake of Watergate. He was the Democratic answer to a Republican problem. (Sound familiar?) He came to Washington as a successful governor of Georgia and brought with him a team which took some time to find its footing in the White House. Not unlike Barrack Obama he had some difficulty finagling with Congress, especially in a time mired in a lackluster economy.


But he was the man who brokered the first peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. He saw the future and knew that coal and oil were the energy source of the past. I often imagine what the world might have been like for Americans if we had as a nation embraced the changes Carter sought. He was the President who truly brought the Vietnam War to an end when he pardoned those who had escaped the clutches of the draft.  His work with Habitat for Humanity has been transformative in the public mind, and suggests that Presidents need to be more than just onlookers when they leave office. He might has lusted in his heart, but he and his wife Rossalyn brought dignity to an office which has in recent memory been disgraced. 


It was a flagging economy and a failed efforts to rescue the Iranian hostages which denied Carter a second term. The former he could only endure and lead us through, the latter was actively undermined we learn in recent years by his political opponent Ronald Reagan. I am shocked that more is not made of this stunning news, especially in a time when such behavior has become normalized by the Republican Party. 

In the final analysis though, Jimmy Carter had the makings of a great President, but he has remained all his long life a great man. Happy Birthday Jimmy! 

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