Originally published at crisis magazine
Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100 on December 29, after a life that went from Georgia peanut farmer to president of the United States. But it was not so much his presidency that earned Mr. Carter fame as it was his Georgia-peanut-farmer decency. As history has it, Jimmy Carter was a feeble president with strong morals; but that his legacy is one of dignity and courtesy is a sign that there is something good in the heart of America. Though it is also telling that a man of virtue, such as Jimmy Carter was, made for a poor president.
When former Georgia governor James Earl Carter, a sincere Southern Baptist and soft-spoken Southern gentleman, ran as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 1976, his candidacy in brave-new-world politics was threatened by his brave-old-world morality. Late in his campaign, Carter accepted an interview with Playboy Magazine, which seemed odd or off for a decent man; but in so doing, he joined respectable ranks who used the pornographic publication’s readership as a political platform.
Carter caused a stir that nearly toppled his bid, however—not by talking to a Playboy journalist, but by admitting that he had “looked on a
