Former President Jimmy Carter passes away at 100 years of age.

 

Former President Jimmy Carter. NPR/AP

Former President Jimmy Carter has passed away at 100 years of age after a long battle with cancer. NPR. Carter started his political career as a governor of Georgia and then won his 1976 presidential race against Gerald Ford. Carter's term was wracked with foreign policy and economic issues, most notably inflation and the Arab Oil Embargo, leaving most experts to rate his presidency as a failure, though some appreciate the lack of foreign conflict during his term and the major peace deal between Egypt and Israel that he brokered. Despite the controversy of his presidency, which he lost in a landslide to Ronald Regan, few would argue that Carter did not have a successful post-presidency career of philanthropy. Carter's work with Habitat for Humanity, which built low income housing for the poor, is universally lauded. 

My Comment:

Jimmy Carter was the last living president that I have no memory of him serving as he left office before I was even born, which just goes to show how long he survived. For me, Carter wasn't really a president, he was just the guy that was building houses for poor people and that probably should be his legacy.

Because his presidency? It wasn't a good one. He tried at least but both his policies and luck came in and he didn't rise to the occasion. There was a reason why Carter lost in a landslide to Regan in 1980 (who is the first president I remember as a President) and it was inflation and fuel costs. 

Despite his failures though, I still don't think he was the worst modern president and he is obviously better than some historical ones, like James Buchanan. He did have the one major foreign policy win, the peace deal between Egypt and Israel, which has held to today, and he deserves a lot of credit for that. He also was one of the few modern American presidents to not get us into a shooting war for dubious reasons, so that is in his favor as well. 

I'd say that Joe Biden was a much worse 1-term president than Carter ever was. Unlike Carter, you never got the feeling that Biden gave a damn about the average person that was suffering under his penalties. And Biden never had a single foreign policy win and oversaw the launch of one of the worst modern wars, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, not to mention the Afghanistan disaster. I often liked to joke that Carter lived long enough to see a much worse president than he ever was and I think there is some truth to it. It certainly made us rethink his presidency, as bad as it was, at least he wasn't Biden. 

I do have to say that I felt pretty bad for Carter. It was clear that he has been essentially gone for quite some time now and some of the pictures his family released of him were just sad. He made it to 100 years old, but the quality of life was not there and I feel bad that he had to be seen in that condition. Sometimes death is a blessing and I think in this case it was so. I am glad he is at peace now. 

Carter will get a state funeral and the question is if it will happen before or after the inauguration. Planning two such huge events in Washington DC will be interesting to say the least. Trump is inaugurated on the 20th but I would think the funeral would be before hand, so it might be the last big event that Biden presides over. Hopefully the funeral will be used as a way for Republicans and Democrats to put some of the bad feelings aside and come together for the country...