Jimmy Carter
The peanut farmer from Plains was a blessing to North Carolina Democrats in 1976.
In 1972, we had suffered our worst losses ever, thanks to President Richard Nixon’s landslide reelection over George McGovern.
The tide swept in Jesse Helms as the state’s first Republican Senator and Jim Holshouser as the first Republican governor in the 20th Century.
The top Democrat to survive the rout was Jim Hunt, who was elected lieutenant governor.
In 1976, when I went to work in Hunt’s campaign for governor, a host of Democrats were running for President: Carter, George Wallace, Jerry Brown, Mo Udall, Scoop Jackson, Frank Church, Sargent Shriver, Fred Harris, Birch Bayh and, until health problems forced him out, our own Terry Sanford.
Carter was just right for the times and for North Carolina. He wasn’t a Northern liberal, and he wasn’t a race-baiting demagogue like Wallace.
He was a Southern governor, a farmer and a Navy veteran. He was open about his born-again Christian faith, which made some Democrats wary but reassured many voters. He was a balanced-budget moderate, and he was progressive on race. Above all, he was Mister Clean after Nixon and Watergate.
When Carter made a campaign stop in North Carolina, we scrambled to get a picture of him and Hunt together. We spread the photo all over the state during the gubernatorial primary, which Hunt won by a wide margin.
In November, Carter swamped President Ford by 55-44% here. Hunt won even bigger, 65-34%.
It was nice to have the presidential wind at our backs.
But the winds soon changed, and an anti-tax conservative wildfire that ignited in California swept across the country.
Like President Biden (who was the first Senator to endorse him in 1976), Carter was a better President than communicator. He came across as humorless, pious and, in the end, weak.
He was too conservative for many Democrats. Senator Ted Kennedy, the party’s liberal lion, challenged him for the 1980 nomination.
I was in Madison Square Garden for the convention and Kennedy’s “the dream will never die” speech. Carter won the nomination, but Kennedy won delegates’ hearts.
Carter’s acceptance speech was tepid. Maybe he was intimidated by Kennedy’s roof-raising, tear-jerking oration. Carter tried to salute Hubert Humphrey, but called him “Hubert Horatio Hornblower.”
Kennedy refused to do the traditional arms-raised unity pose with Carter.
The red, white and blue balloons in the rafters got caught in the netting and never fell.
Not much went right for Carter and Democrats that year.
He was done in by a bad economy, the Iran hostage crisis and his own political mistakes.
America got Ronald Reagan – and 40 years of an anti-government, trickledown ideology that favors billionaires and big corporations over the rest of us.
Carter has been called America’s greatest ex-President. He doesn’t get enough credit for what he did in his one term.
He restored honor and honesty to the Presidency, something we won’t see the next four years.
He persuaded Israel and Egypt to take a giant step toward peace. He negotiated the Panama Canal treaty and nuclear-arms limitations.
He pioneered government deregulation, especially the airline and beer industries.
Yes, today’s craft-beer industry owes its start to Jimmy Carter.
He established the Departments of Education and Energy. He was ahead of his time on clean energy and climate change.
He worked for universal healthcare, but Republican opposition and Democratic division thwarted him.
He and First Lady Rosalynn Carter put mental-health care on the national agenda.
He had a solid record of accomplishments.
If he had been a two-term President, America would be a better place today.
In his 100 years, he made the world a better place.
UNC Libraries photo: Carter and Hunt in 1980.
Jimmy Carter
The peanut farmer from Plains was a blessing to North Carolina Democrats in 1976.
In 1972, we had suffered our worst losses ever, thanks to President Richard Nixon’s landslide reelection over George McGovern.
The tide swept in Jesse Helms as the state’s first Republican Senator and Jim Holshouser as the first Republican governor in the 20th Century.
The top Democrat to survive the rout was Jim Hunt, who was elected lieutenant governor.
In 1976, when I went to work in Hunt’s campaign for governor, a host of Democrats were running for President: Carter, George Wallace, Jerry Brown, Mo Udall, Scoop Jackson, Frank Church, Sargent Shriver, Fred Harris, Birch Bayh and, until health problems forced him out, our own Terry Sanford.
Carter was just right for the times and for North Carolina. He wasn’t a Northern liberal, and he wasn’t a race-baiting demagogue like Wallace.
He was a Southern governor, a farmer and a Navy veteran. He was open about his born-again Christian faith, which made some Democrats wary but reassured many voters. He was a balanced-budget moderate, and he was progressive on race. Above all, he was Mister Clean after Nixon and Watergate.
When Carter made a campaign stop in North Carolina, we scrambled to get a picture of him and Hunt together. We spread the photo all over the state during the gubernatorial primary, which Hunt won by a wide margin.
In November, Carter swamped President Ford by 55-44% here. Hunt won even bigger, 65-34%.
It was nice to have the presidential wind at our backs.
But the winds soon changed, and an anti-tax conservative wildfire that ignited in California swept across the country.
Like President Biden (who was the first Senator to endorse him in 1976), Carter was a better President than communicator. He came across as humorless, pious and, in the end, weak.
He was too conservative for many Democrats. Senator Ted Kennedy, the party’s liberal lion, challenged him for the 1980 nomination.
I was in Madison Square Garden for the convention and Kennedy’s “the dream will never die” speech. Carter won the nomination, but Kennedy won delegates’ hearts.
Carter’s acceptance speech was tepid. Maybe he was intimidated by Kennedy’s roof-raising, tear-jerking oration. Carter tried to salute Hubert Humphrey, but called him “Hubert Horatio Hornblower.”
Kennedy refused to do the traditional arms-raised unity pose with Carter.
The red, white and blue balloons in the rafters got caught in the netting and never fell.
Not much went right for Carter and Democrats that year.
He was done in by a bad economy, the Iran hostage crisis and his own political mistakes.
America got Ronald Reagan – and 40 years of an anti-government, trickledown ideology that favors billionaires and big corporations over the rest of us.
Carter has been called America’s greatest ex-President. He doesn’t get enough credit for what he did in his one term.
He restored honor and honesty to the Presidency, something we won’t see the next four years.
He persuaded Israel and Egypt to take a giant step toward peace. He negotiated the Panama Canal treaty and nuclear-arms limitations.
He pioneered government deregulation, especially the airline and beer industries.
Yes, today’s craft-beer industry owes its start to Jimmy Carter.
He established the Departments of Education and Energy. He was ahead of his time on clean energy and climate change.
He worked for universal healthcare, but Republican opposition and Democratic division thwarted him.
He and First Lady Rosalynn Carter put mental-health care on the national agenda.
He had a solid record of accomplishments.
If he had been a two-term President, America would be a better place today.
In his 100 years, he made the world a better place.
UNC Libraries photo: Carter and Hunt in 1980.