History UsefulNotes / JimmyCarter

* Carter appears in ''Literature/FearLoathingAndGumboOnTheCampaignTrailSeventyTwo'', an AlternateHistory in which the 1972 presidential election ended in a messy stalemate. After completing his term as Georgia Governor, he was elected as one of that state's Senators and is still largely nationally unknown - [[ForWantOfANail without the precise circumstances of the '76 election from our history, he would never be considered presidential material]]. His main role has been to help prevent Henry Kissinger being made Secretary of State to President James Gavin. [[spoiler: In the sequel, he becomes one of [[PresidentEvil Rumsfeld's]] most outspoken opponents. He barely avoids being carted off to a BedlamHouse, and goes into hiding when a coup against Rumsfeld falls apart. [[{{Blackface}} He even dyes his skin black]] and is confronted by the racism of Rumsfeldia]].

That said, much of Carter's popularity with liberals came ''after'' his administration. Carter ran as a centrist Democrat with a platform of Christian values and small government not dissimilar from that of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan four years later. Unlike previous Democratic presidents, Carter pivoted away from the welfare policies of the New Deal and Great Society in favor of deregulation and privatization, which angered many liberals within his own party. He was considered a micromanager who had a limited White House staff and difficult relations with both his own cabinet and Congress.[[note]]The health care reform debate collapsed in part because of disputes between the White House and Congress with Carter aiming for expanded private insurance whereas Senator UsefulNotes/TedKennedy preferred a government-owned single-payer insurance.[[/note]] In 1980, Carter faced a strong primary challenge from UsefulNotes/TedKennedy, who ran on the idea that Carter had sold out the party's progressive wing. Carter secured the nomination in the last brokered convention to date.[[note]]UsefulNotes/WalterMondale went into the 1984 Democratic convention without a majority of delegates, but the second place challenger, Gary Hart, made no serious effort to contest his nomination at the convention.[[/note]]

The emphasis that the Carter administration placed on human rights garnered respect even among his political opponents who never doubted the sincerity of Carter's intentions. More than a few people argue that Carter was essentially a nice guy [[ThePeterPrinciple who was good at humanitarianism and charity work, but was saddled with a job that he wasn't prepared for, at a bad time to have it]]. Carter's former speechwriter Jimmy Fallows [[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1979/05/the-passionless-presidency/308516/ has opined]] that Carter's administration suffered from his lack of vision and an over-reliance on yes-men. It's often said that Carter would have made a better secretary of State than a president.

Carter launched his 1976 presidential campaign as a long shot against 17 other major candidates for the Democratic nomination, but managed to pull off a DarkHorseVictory in part due to the party's more liberal wing not being able to coalesce around a single candidate, and also because it was felt they needed a candidate who could win the Deep South states that UsefulNotes/RichardNixon had flipped to the Republicans in his two elections. In this he was successful: Carter won every Southern state except Virginia, making him the last Democrat to carry a majority of the South. Carter narrowly unseated President Ford in the general election, which was attributed primarily to lingering resentment at the Republicans over Watergate (Carter's wholesome outsider image contrasting the corruption inextricably associated with Nixon), and also due to Ford having run a poor campaign and his controversial pardon of Nixon. Carter's victory was the only presidential election won by a Democrat between 1968 and 1988, with the Republicans winning every other presidential election during that timeframe by a landslide.

* Grew up on a peanut farm.

For decades, Carter remained remarkably healthy despite his advanced age, walking around without a cane, surviving the pancreatic cancer that killed his father and three siblings, and still doing humanitarian handiwork with his own hammer and tool belt, [[HappilyMarried with Rosalynn at his side]]. However, like all people, it couldn't last forever; in February 2023, the Carter Center announced that he had entered hospice care, and that he would spend the last days of his life with his family in retirement. Surprisingly to almost everyone, he's managed to hold on for several months afterwards. On November 19, 2023; his wife Rosalynn passed away from complications of dementia, two days after it was announced that she too was entering hospice care.