The phone kept ringing for Amber Roessner, one day after Jimmy Carter died at age 100. She’s a rare expert, a scholar who has devoted an important part of her life to documenting the impact of a former president who has a complicated legacy: world-class diplomat and seer about the dissatisfaction that’s fueled the MAGA movement; one-term president and foil for critics from left and right
Roessner, a University of Tennessee at Knoxville professor, is the author of “Jimmy Carter and the Birth of the Marathon Media Campaign,” a 2020 book that focuses on the campaign and “image craft” of the former president, who finalized the Camp David Accords as well as the treaties that transferred the Panama Canal to its Latin American namesake.
Carter took office as the 39th U.S. president in 1977 and served a single term that is often viewed as a “failed presidency.” But Carter’s legacy of humanitarianism elevated his service worldwide.
Carter was the only president to reach 100 years old. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died last year at the age of 96.
To learn more about the president’s long and impressive life, Knox News caught up twice with Roessner, who collected archival newspaper and television coverage with her own interviews of Carter, his former staff and reporters to write her book on the former president. A follow-up book on his presidency and post-term life is in the works.
The first conversation took place in person in November. Roessner provided additional written responses to Knox News following Carter’s death.
Responses have been lightly edited for grammar, length and clarity.
Roessner: True to Carter’s character, he persevered through his diagnosis of brain cancer in 2015, through brain surgery to relieve pressure after a serious fall in 2019, and through his wife’s last chapter as he battled his own ailing health. Ever the underdog victor, he persevered, against all odds to victoriously celebrate his centennial and to cast his final vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman of color atop a major party ticket, in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The timing of his death in some ways is apt in this moment of presidential transition. Current President Joe Biden, who offered Carter his first endorsement from a U.S. senator in 1976, will eulogize his friend, ally, and fellow political underdog, in Washington, D.C., during a National Day of Mourning on Jan. 9. American flags will remain at half-staff during the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump on Jan. 20.
Carter’s life reminds us of the importance of character in our national leaders. His legacy will be bound not only in the ways that he helped glue the country back together after Vietnam and Watergate with his promises never to tell a lie and to deliver a government as good as the American people, but also with his commitment to keeping the peace, to championing human rights, and to promoting free and fair elections both during his presidency and thereafter.
In the end, folks around the globe will remember Carter, a man of great faith and integrity, with a hammer in hand ready to give back to those around him, as an exemplary public servant, a worthy model for us all.
Knox News: Carter’s presidency was derailed by events in the Middle East, but his legacy is also defined by the Camp David Accords. Forty-six years later, with war still ravaging the region, it’s difficult for many Americans, especially those with no memory of the Middle East before Egypt and Israel made peace, to understand how monumental the deal is. Can you put it in perspective, especially for younger Americans?
Roessner: As you note, this area of the globe has long been plagued by conflict and unrest. Such was the case in the middle of the last century. Just getting Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in the same room was a major coup. Based on Carter’s personal diplomacy that involved reminding these two world leaders of the impact that this peace treaty could have on their children and grandchildren, Begin and Sadat came together for 13 days at Camp David to produce a framework for peace in the region.
Knox News: Another major accomplishment in international affairs is Carter’s negotiation of the Panama Canal treaties, which were ratified the same year as the Camp David Accords. Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker played a significant role in ensuring the pact received Senate approval. Now the treaty is in the news again with President-elect Donald Trump’s statements about reasserting American control over the canal. Again, for many Americans, there is no memory of the significance of the Panama Canal treaties. Can you put in perspective the impact of that deal and the consequences of upsetting it?
Roessner: “Giving back” the Panama Canal was never a popular political position on either side of the aisle. However, though it was not politically advantageous, Carter ultimately heeded the advice of his Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and embraced the goal of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. To broker the deal, Carter worked across the aisle, convincing U.S. Senator Howard H. Baker that it was the right move to keep the peace in the region. The outcome contributed to the demise of both Carter’s and Baker’s political fortunes, but it remains a modern example of a profile in courage.
Knox News: Carter famously ignored the dictum about past presidents not criticizing sitting presidents. What drove him to continue to dive into politics against tradition?
Roessner: Though Carter understood political traditions, he was not constrained by them. He remained involved in global politics, even when it put him at odds with sitting presidents, based in his efforts to keep the peace around the globe. A good example of this is his peace mission to North Korea in 1994 amid growing fears of nuclear war. Carter’s efforts at diplomacy with North Korean leaders temporarily curtailed the proliferation of nuclear armaments, even though it created a rift between Carter and sitting U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Knox News: Carter’s legacy is complicated, and many people still think of his presidency as a failed one, despite some lasting accomplishments that reshaped the world. How did he perceive his legacy? How did he account for his inability to retain the presidency? Did he ever talk about what he could have done differently to stave off reelection defeat? Is there any scenario in which he could have?
Roessner: Carter certainly was frustrated by those who painted his one-term presidency as a failure. He believed – along with many others – that he had contributed to many lasting accomplishments while in office, including keeping the peace, championing human rights across the globe, appointing and promoting more women and people of color in his White House than any other president prior, deregulation of transportation and telecommunications, passing approximately 70% of the legislation that he placed before Congress, not to mention the Middle East Peace Accords and normalizing relations with China.
There is no question that for millions these accomplishments were overshadowed by record stagflation and the Iranian hostage crisis. Carter certainly recognized this − that his presidency became defined by these events, and he acknowledged in 2015 that his one regret remained not sending one more (aircraft) to rescue the hostages in April 1980.
He also recognized that his fraught relationship with the working press did not help his cause with the American public. Carter, of course, only had limited control of the events that defined the last months of his presidency, but he could have managed his relationship with the working press differently. This may have made a difference in the outcome of the 1980 election.
Knox News: Carter’s domestic legacy is often painted in very broad strokes that focus only on the oil crisis and his speech about a crisis in confidence among Americans (the malaise speech).
But he also pardoned Vietnam War draft-resisters, reshaped energy policy and tapped into a vein of dissatisfaction that has had enormous impact on politics today: a deep distrust and dislike for backroom deals and a culture of corruption in government. He approached it from a reformer’s perspective, and it cost him politically. That’s in contrast to the current populist movement, which is built on that same dislike of insider politics but expressed so very differently in the MAGA movement.
How did Carter tap into a vein of dissatisfaction with the status quo that is now being expressed today?
Roessner: Carter, like many of the candidates in the 1976 campaign, was tapping into a deep dissatisfaction with politics as usual. He chafed against decisions made in smoke-filled backrooms and problematic trends in campaign reporting, including sensationalistic coverage of political gaffes. He famously critiqued these tendencies during his historic run for office and offered mass audiences a politics of authenticity that fit the moment when he promised to never tell a lie and to offer a government as good as the American people.
Another political outsider of sorts, Trump, too, critiqued and defied the traditional norms in presidential politics. But his, unlike Carter’s, was not a “politics of love.” He spoke to his niche, right-wing audiences in a tone that matched their frustration with American politics and that some would say served to further elevate political discord.
Still, both candidates successfully spoke to desires of some Americans for change.
Knox News: You’ve talked about how Carter was a “media master” and his campaign was bolstered by his image craft. Can you explain what made Carter a media master during his campaign? How did that change once he got into the White House?
Roessner: Carter was a master of the politics of authenticity, famously introducing himself as “a farmer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a scientist, a governor and a Christian” when he announced himself to elite reporters … at the National Press Club in December 1974. In the days, weeks and months ahead on the campaign trail, he not only mastered the medium of the moment − television − with innovative cinéma vérité political advertisements and telegenic campaign stops, but he also mastered the political landscape with sincere promises for moral reform in the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate.
However, in a post-Watergate world with journalists focused on investigative reporting, he ultimately failed to develop a strong rapport with the journalists that followed his campaign.
Roessner: What was fascinating to me, growing up having only heard of Carter’s presidency in relation to failure, was that there were so many positive elements related to his presidency, and that really (bothered) me as a journalist … and journalists that I interviewed said this … may have done Carter a major disservice in that post-Watergate moment.
But that said, Carter was ineffective at highlighting his successes.
Roessner: From a personal standpoint, I think that it shows a great deal about his own perseverance. I think it’s a great metaphor to look at Carter. He survives against all odds. He wins against all odds.
At this point in time, there are more people on our globe who were born after 1980, so … those newer generations of Americans, newer generations of people around the globe, most remember Carter for what he’s done since his presidency.
The fact that for many, they appreciate that he practiced what he preached in the White House − this (message of) anti-materialism, this message of conservation, this message of protecting the environment. … I think he’ll be remembered as a man of great faith, who continued to be active in his church throughout the course of life until his final days.
Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter @specialk2real.
Support strong local journalism by subscribing to subscribe.knoxnews.com.
