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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Carter redefined ex-presidency of U.S.

The Columbian
Published:

Jimmy Carter, who has always been most at home in the backwaters of the world, was determined to come home to his own after a hard week’s groundwork as president-elect of the United States.

So he was not about to let a little thing like a south Georgia mix of fog and rain stop him. While the traveling press corps following him was being prudently bused from Atlanta down to Plains, Ga., Carter had opted to get home faster aboard a small twin-engine plane, accompanied by just a couple of aides and a pilot. Now, approaching what the instruments assured was Plains, the pilot dropped lower and lower, listening to his radio for guidance to the airstrip Carter’s press corps liked to call Plains International Airport.

The voice of Plains air traffic control — one guy in a shack — could be heard over the radio. He had stretched his microphone cord so he could stand outside in the rain and peer through the fog toward the treetops he couldn’t really see; but he had his good ears, so he could guide the president-elect’s pilot home. His voice could be clearly heard on the radio, saying things like, “I can’t see you, but I can hear you. Sounds like you need to be over just a bit to your left. … A little more … a little more. That sounds about right.”

And lo, the plane touched down safely, rolled to a stop, and America’s president-elect got into a waiting car and headed down the road to his home.

Flash forward to Aug. 20 and Carter was calmly, conscientiously and even at times humorously announcing he has cancer that has spread beyond his liver to four small spots in his brain.

Then he took questions, which of course led him to reflect upon his exceptional life. Carter really was something of a late bloomer. His greatest legacy will be that he redefined, by example and accomplishment, the ex-presidency of the United States.

He is proud of his rather early accomplishments: becoming Georgia’s governor, then America’s president; and forging the historic peace that has lasted between the Middle East’s warring neighbors, Egypt and Israel.

Yet it was after returning home to Plains that Carter embarked on global efforts that really brought him his greatest satisfaction. He created the Carter Center, an institution he shaped and molded to be a driving force for achieving peace and combating poverty and promoting humanity. And he never pursued the lavish money-raking of paybacks dressed up as speaking fees chosen by others.

There is a common trait that was the key to Carter’s greatest achievements in his ex-presidency (his Carter Center) and the most illustrious achievement of his presidency (the Israel-Egypt peace accord). Carter pursued both goals without any pre-scripting or assurance that success could be achieved — and seemingly without concern for how he looked to outsiders or how he’d look in history if his efforts failed.

Watching Carter’s Aug. 20 press conference, we couldn’t help but be struck by the jarring contrast between his exemplary words and those we’ve endured for months as politicians preened and peacocked across our screens, pursuing a presidency Jimmy Carter remembers most fondly as having enabled him to help his Carter Center’s work succeed.


Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive. Email: martin.schram@gmail.com

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