Celebrating a century and wishing a happy birthday to our 39th President, Jimmy Carter, who defied the odds and triumphed
James Earl Carter Jr. turned 100 on Wednesday, but that’s not the date the 39th president of the United States has been looking forward to, according to his family.
He’s focused on Tuesday, Nov. 5. That’s Election Day, and Jimmy Carter, secluded and very weak in his hometown of Plains, Ga., wants to make sure he lives long enough for him to vote, and for Vice President Kamala Harris to win.
He has been frail for months, and has been in home hospice care for 19 months. His beloved Rosalynn, his partner in life and in marriage (seen above at the 1977 Inaugural Ball in a public domain image posted on wikimedia commons) for more than 77 years, died on Nov. 19, 2023, and Jimmy seemed likely to follow her soon.
But here he is, marking a century of life and closely following the 2024 election.
“It’s a gift,” Josh Carter, one of his grandsons, told The New York Times. “It’s a gift that I didn’t know we were going to get.”
It’s not the first time he has defied the odds.
Jimmy Carter was born on Oct. 1, 1924. His father, James Earl Carter, Sr., was a successful businessman and his mother, who became the legendary “Miss Lillian” during her son’s presidency, was a nurse. Jimmy was the first president born in a hospital.
He was a top student at Plains High School and was named to the U.S. Naval Academy. Carter was an ensign who rose to the rank of lieutenant. He was a protégé of Capt. and later Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, who was the father of the Navy’s nuclear program. Carter had plans to remain in the Navy, but when his father died in 1953, he came home to manage the family peanut business.
He was the oldest of four siblings and wanted to ensure they and his mother were taken care of, so he willingly changed his plans. That was his nature.
Carter also was interested in politics. He was a Democrat, as were most Georgians then, but he was pro-segregation and an admirer of President John F. Kennedy. That was rare in his small, rural hometown then.
Carter was elected to the local school board, and then served two terms as a state senator. He ran for governor in 1996, losing in a three-way race, but he was elected in 1970.
Carter governed as a progressive on racial issues, a moderate on fiscal matters, and an advocate for government reform. He was a shining example of “The New South.”
“No poor, rural, weak, or Black person,” Carter declared in his inaugural address, “should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job, or simple justice.”
Amazingly, this obscure one-term Southern governor set his sights on the White House. It seemed absurd, with a long list of prominent Democrats eager for the 1976 nomination.
The Republicans were damaged, thanks to President Richard Nixon’s many scandals. He was the first and only president to resign, and Republicans were at a low ebb.
Carter, who promised to never lie to the American people, was seen as a welcome breath of fresh air. He also had several tough, sharp young men who believed in him, and helped him claim the nomination.
It was an astonishing achievement. I turned 18 that summer, and cast my first vote for president for Carter.
He entered the White House in 1977 after a narrow win over President Gerald Ford, as the Republican closed a large gap in the polls and almost defeated Carter. It was a bitter race, but the two presidents grew extremely close later in life. A mutual disdain for Ronald Reagan helped form the friendship.
Carter is famous for his broad smile, deeply religious nature and soft-spoken style. But there is steel behind that grin.
In 1972, he was involved in the Anybody But McGovern movement that tried to deny the South Dakota liberal the Democratic presidential nomination. When that failed, he angled for the vice-presidential nomination, but was unable to land it.
McGovern later discovered Carter’s duplicity and disliked him because of it. He voted for his longtime congressional colleague Ford, he later admitted.
But McGovern came to admire Carter, and voted for him in 1980.
Carter’s presidency is still being reevaluated more than four
decades after he left office. He pardoned Vietnam War draft resisters, oversaw the process to return the Panama Canal to its rightful owners, championed human rights, advocated for alternative energy and worked with Rosalynn, who at times sat in on Cabinet meetings, to assist people trapped in mental illness.
Despite his small-town origins, he was very successful in foreign affairs, formally recognizing China and establishing stronger ties with Latin American nations.
His signature achievement was brokering a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel and that endures to this day. The Camp David Accords were only signed after Carter personally negotiated with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and persuaded them to end hostilities between the two nations.
Carter was hailed for this stunning accomplishment in 1978, and it was a major factor in the Nobel Peace Prize he was deservedly awarded in 2002.
But as president, Carter struggled to get his legislative agenda enacted, even as Democrats controlled Congress. He was not a typical politician, willing to sip drinks and swap stories with veteran lawmakers, and he had few allies in Washington, D.C.
When Sen. Ted Kennedy, the heir to the most legendary family in politics, announced plans to challenge him for the Democratic nomination in 1980, Carter was confident he could defeat the brother of the man he idolized.
“I’ll whip his ass,” he famously said, knowing it would leak out and become a news story.
Carter was aided by the nation’s support for him in the wake of the Iranian hostage situation. Carter declined to debate Kennedy and chose to appear presidential and not engage him on the campaign trail.
That worked, but as the hostage crisis dragged on — it reached 444 days — voters grew weary of Carter and his inability to end it. A failed rescue attempt added to the discontent.
The economy also struggled, with high inflation and unemployment, as well as spiking interest rates and rising prices. Carter tried to reverse this negative trend, including calling for deregulation of large sections of the economy.
By the summer of 1980, Jimmy Carter was unpopular, and suffered from many political wounds. Republican nominee Reagan, with his confident grin and vague campaign pledges, was a real threat to him.
Carter was distracted by the hostages, the economy and his own insular nature. He was not a gifted orator or a natural politician, and he struggled to make inroads on Reagan’s popularity.
I will always recall Election Night 1980. I was in Sioux Falls with several other SDSU students, working for McGovern, who was seeking a fourth term, and Rep. Tom Daschle, who was running for his second term in Congress.
I was a disgruntled Kennedyite, upset that Carter had refused to compete openly with Teddy. So I voted for John Anderson, a liberal Republican — yes, such a creature once existed — who ran as an independent.
1980 was a bloodbath for Democrats. Carter lost in a landslide, and McGovern and several other liberal senators saw their careers come to an end. Daschle, however, did win.
It’s often said that Carter became the best former president in American history, and that’s difficult to dispute. He was deeply saddened by his rejection by the American people, but worked nonstop in the final days of his presidency to ensure the hostages were released.
Carter then returned home to Plains, where he and Rosalynn established the Carter Center. They championed free and fair elections around the world, provided funding and support to improve the health of Africans and other people, and set an example for other former presidents.
Carter famously built houses for Habitat for Humanity, not just pounding a nail, making a speech and moving on, but rolling up his sleeves and actually doing the work. He continued to do so into his 90s.
Other ex-presidents joined corporate boards, flew around with wealthy pals and received massive checks for brief speeches around the globe. Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school in Plains, wrote more than 30 books and remained an active and involved global citizen.
Now, in his final days, he has defied expectations. Carter was diagnosed with brain cancer when he was 91. He has so far survived it.
It seems like nothing can stop the Man from Plains.
“That’s Jimmy,” Gerald Rafshoon, his White House communications director and longtime friend, told The Times. “It’s almost like his whole life has been to go against the norm. Tell him he can’t do something, just tell him that, and you’re bound to see the determination.”
So, happy birthday, Mr. President. Here’s hoping you do make it to Election Day and get to celebrate the victory of another Democratic candidate.
Can he make it another month? Will he be able to cast a vote that counts?
I would not bet against Jimmy Carter. That hasn’t worked out very well in the last century.
Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Republish with permission.
