Jimmy Carter and the Post-Presidency

Many posts have discussed the presidency.

John S. Gardner at The Guardian:

The Founders never planned for a post-Presidency. Or if they did, they thought of Cincinnatus returning to the plow, his civic duties done, as President Washington retired to Mount Vernon in 1797 when his term ended.

In Washington’s final illness, doctors applied leeches. Modern medicine –including the innovative and successful treatment for brain cancer that Jimmy Carter received in 2015 – has invented a post-Presidency, and the question is how to occupy it.

Truman and Eisenhower resumed private lives, Kennedy assassinated, LBJ left office in poor health, Nixon resigned, Ford wrote memoirs and dabbled in the corporate world. Just as Carter reinvented the Vice Presidency by giving large roles and a West Wing office to Walter Mondale, Carter had a chance to reinvent the post-Presidency, and he did. The Carter Center, the focus of his efforts, served as a platform for his many interests, including human rights, democracy promotion, conflict resolution, and health – all concentrated around the “alleviation of human suffering”.

Most Americans, on right and left, believe that Jimmy Carter used this influence overwhelmingly for good. If an enduring image of work for Ronald Reagan is cutting brush on his ranch, that for Carter is a few extra nails in his mouth as he strikes a hammer to another nail on one of his numerous house building projects for Habitat for Humanity (an organization founded in nearby Americus, Georgia, by a longtime friend of Carter’s), which eventually garnered the name “Jimmy Carter Work Project”. There have been 36 of them over the years, many abroad, including in Mexico (Carter read the Bible in Spanish as part of his daily devotions), with over 4,000 houses built and over 100,000 volunteers.

Religion and Presidential Elections

At The Los Angeles Times, John-Clark Levin writes:

Reagan's success was driven by the defection of evangelicals from Carter's camp. Although they favored Carter by 21 points in a Gallup poll two months before the 1980 election, many began to feel that he had drifted too far to the left. Two-thirds of white evangelicals ultimately cast their ballots for Reagan.

Yet a striking thing happened. In 1984, Democrats did not make a serious bid to win back religious voters. Instead, they nominated Walter Mondale, Carter's vice president, who never brought his faith into the public sphere. To the contrary, he told voters that politicians should keep their "nose out of religion." Reagan, running his Morning in America campaign, handed Mondale the most devastating electoral college defeat in American history, 525 to 13.

The demographics remain abundantly clear. Even though religiosity is dropping in the U.S., according to the Pew Center, more than 70% of Americans still consider themselves Christian, and about 6% follow other faiths. Republicans have vigorously pursued religious voters since Carter's day, and whenever the Democrats have run candidates uncomfortable with the language of faith, they have been defeated.

Michael Dukakis, Al Gore and John Kerry were all privately religious, but they did not justify their positions through religious morality or references. By contrast, the two Democrats since Carter to secure the White House were adept at using their religious worldview to connect with voters. Bill Clinton often deployed Scripture to reinforce his arguments about poverty, while Barack Obama famously saved his candidacy with a speech tracing America's present racial discord to the "original sin of slavery."

Citizen Davis

On this date in 1976, President Carter signed legislation posthumously restoring citizenship rights to the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis:

In posthumously restoring the full rights of citizenship to Jefferson Davis, the Congress officially completes the long process of reconciliation that has reunited our people following the tragic conflict between the States. Earlier, he was specifically exempted form resolutions restoring the rights of other officials in the Confederacy. He had served the United States long and honorably as a soldier, Member of the U.S. House and Senate, and as Secretary of War. General Robert E. Lee's citizenship was restored in 1976. It is fitting that Jefferson Davis should no longer be singled out for punishment.

Our Nation needs to clear away the guilts and enmities and recriminations of the past, to finally set at rest the divisions that threatened to destroy our Nation and to discredit the principles on which it was founded. Our people need to turn their attention to the important tasks that still lie before us in establishing those principles for all people.

Conventions

Many years ago, American political conventions actually chose each party’s presidential nominee. Conventions often started with doubt about the outcome, which depended on bargaining among delegates and party leaders. But candidates now win delegates by competing in primaries and caucuses, and the identity of the nominee is clear by the end of spring.

Conventions put a formal conclusion to the nomination process. Instead of forums for decision, they are big political rallies that enable each party to gain a few hours of television coverage. Yet they remain significant. The televised speeches and the media coverage may affect public opinion. Conventions usually help candidates, but sometimes they can hurt.

This week's Republican convention will be important to Mitt Romney. Although he ran for president four years ago, and resumed his quest for the presidency soon after President Obama’s inauguration, many Americans still know little about him. The convention speeches, and especially his own acceptance speech, will introduce him to millions. If he and his party make a good impression, then he will gain several points in the polls.

Conventions, however, can go badly. Thousands of delegates will attend, and reporters will be eager to catch them making intemperate remarks or engaging in unsavory behavior. That's especially true in the age of camera phones and Twitter. This year, the latter risk is great because Tampa is notorious for its strip clubs. Convention planners will try to keep the delegates busy with wholesome activities.

Acceptance speeches usually go well, but they can fail. Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992 gave weak performances that made their supporters worry about their prospects. Romney needs to avoid that fate. 

The Democratic convention takes place next week, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The stakes are not as high for President Obama as they are for his challenger. After nearly four years in office, he does not have to introduce himself: most voters have decided whether they like him.

Nevertheless, his convention will still matter. The president has a reputation as an outstanding orator, which presents a challenge to him. Expectations will be extremely high, so a moderately good acceptance speech will come across as a disappointment.

In the end, the conventions might only shift a point in the popular vote. But the election is likely to be close, so that point could be crucial.

Zero-Based Budgeting

At the debate last night, Governor Perry proposed zero-based budgeting for foreign aid. The broader idea has been around for a long time. On August 8, 1981, UPI reported:

A prize concept pioneered by the Carter administration -- ''zero based budgeting'' -- has been awarded its own zero by the Reagan administration.

In a formal order, budget director David Stockman rescinded the technique throughout government Friday. It was an inauspicious end to an accounting innovation heralded as an antidote to government waste and poor planning.

The system, introduced in 1978, was supposed to make departments build their spending requests from nothing -- justifying entire categories of expenditures, not just the yearly increases.

Instead, Stockman said, ''The technique had proved cumbersome in some respects and had not achieved significant results in holding down federal government spending.''

The New Foundation

Presidents often repeat language and themes from their predecessors. For instance, The New York Times reports that President's State of the Union address will speak of a "new foundation" for the country. "The New Foundation" was the theme of President Carter's 1979 State of the Union.