Status Updates From The Unfinished Presidency: ...

“Is greatness being a president?” he enquired. “An emperor?” The answer, of course, was no, for Jesus taught that “the foundation of greatness is service to others.” Carter ended his lesson by intoning: “If you act like Jesus, you’ll be good Christians.”

“Because we are all free, we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere…Our commitment to human rights must be absolute.” - Jimmy Carter’s inaugural address

Hendrik Hertzberg: Jimmy Carter is the first president of my adult life who is not criminally insane.

Even the Democrats most stalwart constituency-women-felt by and large betrayed that Carter had given only lukewarm support to the Equal Rights Amendment, opposed a constitutional amendment to legalize abortion, fired the popular Midge Cortana as presidential assistant, clashed with the indomitable Bella Abzug, and failed to mention women at all in his plan to stimulate the economy.

He led efforts to eradicate medieval-sounding diseases such as guinea worm and river blindness and to make sure the world’s children were immunized against polio and measles. He directed programs to make harvests more bountiful in countries facing agricultural ruin; he preached around the globe about the importance of religious tolerance; and he launched an imaginative urban rehabilitation program in Atlanta.