Editor’s Note: This is part of
a series of profiles taking a closer look at US presidents ahead of the 2024 presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
On Tuesday, Jimmy Carter turned 100.
Carter is famous for three things – being a one-term president, his famous ‘malaise’ speech, and his work building homes for the needy around the world.
But America’s oldest living president is so much more than that.
In his first year as 39th President of the United States, not a single shot was fired at a foreign country.
He also had some major accomplishments in office – signing the Panama Canal treaty, the Camp David Accords and creating the Department of Energy just to name a few.
Let’s take a closer look at the peanut farmer-turned-president.
Early life
Carter was born on October 1, 1924, in Georgia.
His father Earl Carter, ran a peanut farm, while his mother Lillian Gordy Carter, was a registered nurse.
Carter went to Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology before heading to the famed US Naval Academy at Annapolis.
He also married his hometown sweetheart Rosalynn Smith.
Carter began his career in the US Navy, but had to resign his post after his father passed away.
He returned to Georgia to manage the soon-to-be-famous peanut farm.
Political career
Carter began his career in Georgia’s domestic politics – serving on the local board of education.
He ran for Senate and won in 1962 and then attempted to parlay it into a gubernatorial bid in which he came up short.
Carter would try again in 1970 – by which time he had become a born-again Baptist.
An estimated crowd of 35,000 people gather for a noontime speech by then presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in downtown Philadelphia, October. 29, 1976. AP
As Governor of Georgia, Carter, who had attended segregated schools, took aim at racism.
“The time for racial discrimination is over,” Carter said in his inaugural address. “No poor, rural, weak, or Black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice.”
Carter’s efforts would land him a Time Magazine cover.
His growing popularity would result in him being named the chairman of the Democratic National Committee campaign for the 1974 congressional and gubernatorial elections.
In August 1974, then president Richard M Nixon would resign as a result of the investigation into Watergate.
Carter, seeing the effect of Watergate and Vietnam on the country, would decide the time was right to run for president.
He announced his campaign before the end of his term as governor.
His campaign slogan? “A Leader, For A Change.”
But many on the national scene still had little idea of who Carter was.
In fact, the biggest paper in his home state went with the headline “Jimmy Who Is Running For What!?
Carter would not be denied.
He positioned himself, as many politicians do, as an outsider who could change Washington and someone with ‘small-town values.’
However, Carter in an interview with Playboy Magazine – yes, that one – caused a controversy when he admitted that he had ‘committed adultery in his heart many times.’
But that minor stumble aside, Carter would win the Democratic nomination and pick Walter Mondale as his running mate.
Carter’s general election opponent was Gerald Ford – who took the big job after Nixon flashed the victory symbol and flew away in a helicopter.
America too was ready to turn the page from the Nixon years.
Carter easily defeated Ford – winning 297 Electoral Votes to Ford’s 240.
Time in office
As president, Carter sought to portray himself as a man of the people.
Carter famously put his business in a blind trust to avoid the appearance of impropriety and make a point of carrying his own bags wherever he went.
The imperial presidency of Nixon, he wanted to show, was a thing of the past.
Carter’s time in office was decidedly mixed.
He had many foreign successes – the Panama Treaty, the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to name a few.
But rising inflation and the energy crisis left Americans at their wits end.
Then came the hostage crisis in Iran which many to this day consider the final nail in Carter’s political coffin.
Carter, the incumbent, was decisively defeated by Ronald Reagan – and for many years remained a cautionary tale as a one-term president.
Legacy
Though voters would ultimately favour Reagan’s sunny demeanour and indefatigable optimism over Carter, history has proved extremely kind to the 39th President of the United States.
Today, there is a sense that America simply wasn’t ready to hear the truth that Carter was offering in his malaise speech. There is also a sense that Carter was undone by events out of his control rather than by his own missteps.
The Camp David Accords remains a towering achievement.
Carter spent years volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and teaching Sunday School.
Former US president Jimmy Carter works with other volunteers on site during the first day of the weeklong Jimmy and; Rosalynn Carter Work Project, their 35th work project with Habitat for Humanity, in Mishawaka on August. 27, 2018. AP
His achievements were recognised in 2002 when he was given the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Carter says he wants to be alive to witness the next president being sworn in.
Though he has taken a step back from public life, those who know him say he is determined to see it through.
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Publish date : 2024-10-01 01:03:00
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