Former President Jimmy Carter, now nearly 30 years out of office, only behind Herbert Hoover in years of retirement, has decided to reveal his diary entries from his years in the White House, rather than wait till his passing!
Carter was interviewed on Sixty Minutes on CBS last night and will do the book tour for the next few weeks, including on Larry King Live on CNN tonight.
Carter certainly is not avoiding controversy now, any more than he did while in office!
Often considered a “failed” President, despite many accomplishments, a lot of the reputation due to his defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980, Carter makes the assertion that he accomplished more of his agenda in four years than any other one term or two term President who followed him, and including Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon before him!
In other words, he had the highest rate of success in his agenda than anyone since Lyndon Johnson!
That assertion seems hard to prove, and actually very startling, and will require scholars to examine the Carter record in greater detail as to the validity of his assertion, which the author finds hard to believe!
Carter also shows an ugly streak of resentment and bitterness by attacking Senator Ted Kennedy, who died last year, accusing him of not wanting Carter to accomplish health care reform, which Carter claims could have been done thirty years ago!
Again, it is hard to imagine such a scenario as being possible in the late 1970s, with a growing conservative movement by 1978, which would have made such an accomplishment impossible!
Jimmy Carter has loved being controversial in his post Presidential years, and his newly published Diary only will add to that image he seems to pursue!
If nothing else, it will provoke historians and other scholars to focus on Carter, who has not been as much investigated as his successor, Ronald Reagan, and certainly deserves more analysis!
Carter’s longevity may have delayed much research, but it is likely much more will be published sooner, rather than later, due to this publication of his Diary!
I think, in part, he is trying to put his record out to the people in order to direct attention to to what he considers his accomplishments. In this day and age, when you see what some supposedly unbiased researchers publish, I can understand. Remember the Forbes article on Obama?
As to Kennedy, many people don’t realize the political ill will between the two when Kennedy challenged Carter for the nomination. There was even so issue as to whether Kennedy would be allowed to address the convention. I can certainly believe Kennedy would seek retribution and kill Carter’s health care bill. Politicians have long memories.