#39 Jimmy Carter Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Jimmy Carter
1. Jimmy was the first one in the Carter family to graduate high school. “In June 1941, Jimmy became the first person in his father’s family to receive a high school degree” (p. 10).
2. In order to become a recognizable national figure, Carter wrote and published his own autobiography. “In 1975, Carter published an autobiography entitle Why Not the Best?, which sold almost 1 million copies and helped build his grassroots support” (p. 30).
3. Jimmy was the first candidate to use his born-again Christian faith as a factor in a presidential race. “Carter was also the first presidential candidate to openly and proudly embrace his evangelical faith…Evangelical voters were also a group that, prior to Carter’s run, had tended to be apolitical; now it was more likely that they would show up and vote” (p. 47).
4. During the 1976 presidential campaign, Carter also was interviewed for an article for Playboy. “It was not uncommon in this era for politicians to do interviews or even to write for Playboy, where the articles did matter, in addition to the photographs of nude women” (p. 50). Unfortunately, Jimmy said a lot of indiscriminate things, things that were eventually published, about past presidents and his Christianity (or lack thereof) that pissed a lot of people off.
5. The 1976 presidential debates between Carter and Ford were the first ones televised since the memorable 1960 election.
6. Carter won the 1976 election but only by a teensy-weensy amount. “In November, Carter won, but by one of the narrowest margins in US history…Carter received 50.1 percent of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 48 percent of the popular vote and 240 electoral votes” (p. 52).
7. Billygate: While Jimmy was president, his brother, Billy, had allegedly received money from Libya but Jimmy protested that his brother was instead working through Libya to get the hostages released. “Billy, an alcoholic, inflamed the situation when he responded with anti-Semitic comments to a question about whether the scandal would influence Jewish voters. There was no smoking gun evidence of illegal wrongdoing, but ‘Billygate’ damaged and distracted Carter at a tense moment in his campaign [1980 primaries]” (p. 109).
On a separate note, my mom told me years ago about Billy Beer, a beer brewed for Billy Carter himself (and which turned out to be another embarrassment for Jimmy. ) I investigated this rumor and found it to be true! In 1977, Billy Beer hit the market. I’m not sure how good it tasted or even how long it was available, but now the cans are mostly collector’s items. PS In the Billy Beer advertising, I like how Billy states that he should know good beer because “I’ve tasted a lot.”
8. During the lame-duck period, Carter actually got a lot done legislatively. “One of his most important pieces of legislation was the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, which created the Superfund, a trust fund to be used for toxic cleanups…Carter also signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which protected almost 56 million acres of land and rivers in Alaska. This was considered one of the biggest environmental measures in American history” (p. 126).
9. One of the reasons that Carter had such a prominent post-presidential career was due to the auspices of Ted Turner and the newly created (1980) news network, CNN. “As he reentered the public arena, one of the most important relationships for Carter was with Atlanta businessman Ted Turner, the creator of CNN cable television network…Turner liked Carter very much, and his network devoted extensive attention to the activities of the former president. CNN offered Carter an international platform to promote his ideas and maintain media attention even after his departure from Washington” (p. 131).
10. Throughout his lifetime, Carter wrote over 25 books! “Carter was also a productive author, publishing a number of books, starting with his memoirs, which he wrote without the assistance of a ghost writer and published in 1982. One of his best sellers was called Turning Point. Released in 1992, the book recounted Carter’s rise to power in Georgia politics and described how he joined a group of young southern Democrats to break the hold of the old guard Democratic establishment” (p. 143).
11. In 2002 (and right after 9/11), Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. “The Nobel Committee was not subtle about its position, announcing that ‘In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power, Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights, and economic development’” (p. 143).
12. Out of all the American presidents, Carter had one of the most successful and active postpresidential eras ever. “He embarked on one of the most active postpresidential periods in American history” (p. 150).

I thought this biography was well-written and interesting but it’s rather clear, at least to me, that Zelizer does not quite fancy Jimmy Carter. One obvious example of this is the quotes the author includes at the beginning of most chapters. These quotes, you can tell, are meant to illustrate the coming chapter through the words of people in the know but, in this instance, the quotes were slightly derogatory regarding Jimmy Carter. For example, here is a quote from Ronald Reagan that sets up Chapter 7, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, and a depression is when you lose your job, and a recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his” (p. 111). Overall, the book was well-balanced but I especially liked the way the author began the book. Instead of starting at page 1 of Jimmy’s life, Zelizer has Chapter 1 summarizing Jimmy’s presidency and the problems inherent therein while Chapter 2 does a kind of flashback-type thing to introduce us to Jimmy’s antecedents and then rising political career.

When reading about the American presidents, it’s hard not to notice all the intricate twists and turns that our political parties have taken since their inception around 1796. Sometimes I’ve detailed the changes that take place, like the Know Nothing Party of the 1840s and 50s, but most of the time I haven’t due the lack of space or time (or it’s really, really boring), like the Democratic realignment of the FDR era. During Jimmy Carter’s lifetime, a pretty significant political change occurred that affected (and still affects) the Democratic presidential nominating system and it is one of the reasons that Carter, a relative nobody, was nominated in the first place. It was due to the pandemonium of the 1968 Democratic convention when most Democrats realized that something needed to change about the current system. Thus, “Primaries and caucuses were declared to be the sole mechanism through which presidential candidates were selected, and states were urged to shift to proportional voting rather than a winner-take-all system. The party also recommended that women, minorities, and young people be represented among the state’s delegates in proportion to their populations. The changes signaled the end of the all-powerful party establishment. As party leaders lost the ability to control a majority of the delegates or appoint ex officio delegates, the machine would slowly grind to a halt, opening up the political process to a wave of fresh and much more diverse players” (p. 27).

To get into the spirit of things, my friend and I recently took a field trip to the Carter Center. I figured that I’m here in Atlanta: what better way to learn about Jimmy Carter than visit this really cool place? And I really liked it. Basically in the heart of Atlanta, Carter set aside several acres of land for lush gardens and walking trails. In the midst of all that is his presidential library and museum which was also very well done. It was fun being able to take the PRP to the next level by doing some actual legwork and then of course we had to take a long nap to relax afterwards. (PS The picture at the beginning of this blog is actually a really cool painting that we saw at the Carter Center. Jimmy’s portrait is actually made up of buildings, boats, planes, etc. Look closely!)

I realize that Jimmy Carter is considered one of our worst presidents of all time but it’s rather hard to say. I do think that Carter, as a president, was less than effective but if you take his whole career into consideration, he has done some amazing things. The problems with his presidency, as I see it, were due to friction with Congress (a Democratic Congress at that!), his maverick/outsider attitude to the inner workings of Washington (which alienated a lot of people), and his single-minded pursuit of foreign approbation. This last characteristic was the one that would get him into most of the trouble here in the United States with our current leaders in the so-called ‘postpresidential period.’ But, by and large, I felt that Jimmy Carter stuck true to his code (whatever that was) and as misguided as he sometimes seemed, his commitment to certain American ideals is estimable.