Flags are at half-mast today, recognizing the passing of the greatest former president this country has known.
He was a politician from the South, and he was not perfect. His wife Rosalyn snapped him back to the path of righteousness, and he never forgot that.
His presidency was marred by his desire to do what was best for the little guy. He wanted working people to have good lives. A doomed enterprise from the start. But when his presidency was torpedoed by Ronald Reagan illegally negotiating with the Iranians (seriously, it was a flagrant disregard of our laws), he was forced from the presidency and in that moment he found true greatness.
It is probably not possible to count the number of homes people live in now that he personally helped build. It is not possible to measure the effect Jimmy Carter had on democracy in other nations as an election observer.
Jimmy Carter deserves his rest now. There will not be another like him in US Politics, and more’s the shame, even if he proved why someone like him should not be president.
