As Jimmy Carter began his hospice care at home in his rural Plains, Georgia, precisely where he wanted to be for his final transition, well-wishers from politics and the media began reflecting about how our 39th president’s greatest contributions came after he left Washington.
Carter is being celebrated most of all, these days, for having forged a new template of moral leadership that redefined being an ex-president. He showed us an all-new American post-presidency can become an extraordinarily productive second career. His Carter Center has worked to improve our planet in all ways from crisis management and election monitoring to ridding Africa of the dreaded Guinea worm disease.
Yet, as a correspondent and author who chronicled how this mostly unknown governor became our most unlikely president, I find myself not really joining those who dismissively glide past his presidency to praise his post-presidency. Let alone those who opine that Carter seemed overmatched by the challenges of his times.
