Jimmy Carter

What more can I say about the centennial man who passed away this afternoon? Mostly this:

We've had four US presidents who made major public service after they left the presidency: John Quincy Adams, who served some 17 years in the House and fought fiercely to preserve the right of the people to petition against slavery; William H. Taft, who served as Chief Justice for some 8 years, and whatever the antiquity of his judicial opinions, was the greatest administrator of the judiciary that the Supreme Court ever had; Herbert Hoover, who was tasked by Truman to resume his post-WW1 work alleviating hunger in Europe and then headed two commissions to reorganize the executive branch; and, surely greatest of all, Jimmy Carter, who oversaw the integrity of elections, brokered peace settlements, eradicated diseases in Africa, and personally built houses for the under-housed, among much else.

All these presidents had something in common. They each served only one term as president. They were each defeated for re-election. And in each case it was for much the same reason. Each came into office with definite plans for what they wanted to do in office, but each lacked either the ability or the inclination to be a politician about it, to negotiate with Congress and others, to grease the wheels. As a result there's a lot that didn't get done and the president lost traction with the public. And the way they behaved, they shouldn't have been surprised that they lost public support.

(Though they did get some things done. Among the many things Carter got done were settling the Panama Canal on the country it's in, and establishing the Department of Education: both of which DT wants to undo, but I expect he's going to have a little trouble with them.)

But put those presidents in post-presidential positions where high-level political smooching isn't so important, and they can bring their administrative strengths and visions to bear with less impediment, and accomplish good things. In Adams's case, a tendency towards being an obnoxious gadfly was actually an advantage for someone fighting a nearly-lone battle against the sense of the House. Taft and Hoover found administrative positions where they could actually be in charge instead of being largely exhorting as a president must. And the same for Carter: a man of enormous energy and vision but also of great humility, a moral pulpit didn't suit him (remember the "malaise" speech? Nobody ever showed Carter wrong on the facts, but he was utterly uninspiring) as well as did more limited, but still important, practical problems he could solve.

So let us honor the memory of this man. Protocol says that on the death of a president or ex-president, flags are flown at half-mast for 30 days. That will include the inauguration. Heh.