Former President Jimmy Carter Died on Sunday at the age of 100James Fallows, who was a White House speechwriter during the Carter administration, reflects on the passing of one of the most eccentric presidents:
Now very few people will remember, but Jimmy Carter, who reached the White House from obscurity, had magic.
Her piercing blue eyes. His big-toothed smile became a trademark on campaign posters. His ease with the diverse cultures of post-Vietnam traumatized America: poets and farmers, evangelicals and rock-and-rollers, war protesters and his fellow veterans, white and black people alike. His ability to connect with so many of them inspired voters to take a leap of faith with him. Watergate was still an open wound. Carter offered balm and remedies. He said, “I would never lie to you.” He promised us to give our best.
In my 20s, I was thrilled to meet him at one of his famous softball games on the Plains, and was honored to serve as a speechwriter on his campaign. Americans yearn for healing, renewal, and the possibility of fulfilling the best of our national ideals. This is what the serious, profound, no-frills Jimmy Carter offered and which most of the country accepted with hope.
During his first year in office, it worked. As a new president, Carter was more popular than almost everyone who came after him.
Then, things went wrong. Rampant inflation. Endless gas lines. Hostage crisis in Iran. Too much.
This was partly Carter's fault, due to his harshness and inexperience. There was a lot of bad timing and bad luck. He was relatively young and very fit for the presidency. Yet ruthless cameras caught him being attacked by a “killer rabbit” and watching a fatal chase in a 10km race. These are stuck as symbols of an administration standing on its last legs.
After working for him in the White House, I wrote a critical and controversial article arguing that his presidency was “passionless.” None of us could have known that most of his adult life was still ahead of him – the years in which he would show his passion, values and achievements as a creator, disease-fighter, peace-making Nobel laureate.
He would live to see his character and idealism recognized and his time in office re-evaluated.
Jimmy Carter had magic in the beginning. And he found it again.
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