History UsefulNotes / JimmyCarter

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: ''The Boston Globe'' inadvertently delivered a particularly scathing one. Its March 15, 1980 edition contained an editorial criticizing Carter's economic policies that was famously titled, "Mush from the Wimp". The Globe's publishers claimed that the headline was never meant to see the press, but over 160,000 newspapers were printed with it before the article was retitled "All Must Share the Burden" in later pressings.

Carter has had one of the most active post-presidencies of any former president, founding the Carter Center to work toward peace, which helped him win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. (Contrary to popular opinion, Carter didn't win in 1978 for negotiating the Camp David Accords; rather, Begin and Sadat each won.) His work with charities such as Habitat for Humanity gives him the interesting designation of causing people to like him better for his post-presidency activities than the ones during his presidency. His 2014 project was supporting the eradication of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis guinea worm]], a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neglected_tropical_diseases Neglected Tropical Disease]]-causing parasite now found mainly in South Sudan and Chad. The efforts have been largely successful, with just 27 cases in 2020(down from ''millions'' in the 1980s). It will most likely be the second human disease[[note]]third overall - the rinderpest virus, which infects only cattle and other even-toed ungulates, was the second to be eradicated following smallpox[[/note]] and the first parasitic disease to be completely eradicated.

Satirical media portrayals of Carter focused on his southern-ness, ranging from portrayal as an incongruous SouthernGentleman out of place in a savvier Washington, to an out and out hickish bumpkin; his toothy smile became iconic. The "Redneck President" conception fell a bit out of favor once the nation was introduced to Jimmy's brother, Billy Carter, who generally fit the stereotype a lot better, putting Jimmy in the role of straight man. Given that the former president is still alive and working for diplomacy and Habitat, a lot of portrayals reference this. In the states of the former Confederacy, he was widely known as "The South's Revenge."

A few other facts about President Carter:

** As noted above, the media generally portrayed Carter as a ButtMonkey in the '80s and '90s. He shed this image in the 2000s, both thanks to comedians turning their attention to UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and Carter winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his post-presidential work.

** MemeticLoser: How the media generally treated Carter during his post-presidency until he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 - the first and only US President to win the prize for their post-presidential work.

Carter has had one of the most active post-presidencies of any former president, founding the Carter Center to work toward peace, which helped him win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. (Contrary to popular opinion, Carter didn't win in 1978 for negotiating the Camp David Accords; rather, Begin and Sadat each won.) His work with charities such as Habitat for Humanity gives him the interesting designation of causing people to like him better for his post-presidency activities than the ones during his presidency. His current crusade (as of January 2014) is to eradicate [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis guinea worm]], a disease-causing parasite now found mainly in South Sudan; if he is successful it will be the second human disease and third overall (the rinderpest virus, which infects only cattle and other even-toed ungulates, was the second to be eradicated, following smallpox) and the first parasitic disease to be completely eradicated.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_rabbit_incident Was attacked by a rabbit during a boating excursion.]]

* Has all but eradicated the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis Guinea Worm]], a painful and hard-to-remove parasite, with the help of his Carter Foundation. Torpedoing the number of infections from the millions in the 80s, to ''less than 30'' in the 2010s.
* He is the only modern President to return to living full-time in the house he lived in before entering politics - a two-bedroom ranch house in Plains, Georgia.

* He is currently one of the only two living former US Presidents eligible for reelection, as three of them (Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama) fulfilled the Constitutionally-imposed maximum of two terms. Granted, it's unlikely that Carter will try to run again, given his advanced age. [[note]]Trump is currently the only other eligible for reelection.[[/note]]

** As noted above, the media generally portrayed Carter as a ButtMonkey in the 80s and 90s. He shed this image in the 2000s, both thanks to comedians turning their attention to UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and Carter winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his post-presidential work.

* "Jimmy Carter Says 'Yes'" by Gene Marshall, a cisco song on how the government CAN be open and honest.
* [[WordOfGod According to Mark Mothersbaugh]], Music/{{Devo}}'s top hit "Whip It" was intended as a rallying anthem for Carter's Presidency and re-election.

Carter began his political career in the Georgia state senate, and after an unsuccessful run for governor in 1966, was elected on his second attempt in 1970. After an attempt to become running-mate to George [=McGovern=] at the 1972 presidential election ended in failure, Carter decided to instead position himself for the top job at the next election, and earned 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 all the Southern states except Virginia, making him the last Democrat to carry a majority of the South. The end result was a close and surprising win for Carter, which was attributed primarily to lingering resentment at the Republicans over Watergate, and also due to Ford having run a poor campaign. Carter's victory was the only one the Democrats would win between 1968 and 1988, with the Republicans winning every other Presidential election during that timeframe by a landslide.

Considering that his presidency happened forty years ago, a look around the Internet will astonish many readers with just how much of a polarizing figure Jimmy Carter continues to be. Conservatives declare that his watch was a mess, while liberals assert that he ''[[MisBlamed inherited]]'' [[MisBlamed a mess]]: the huge UsefulNotes/VietnamWar deficit, an economy that for the first time ''ever'' suffered rampant inflation ''while stagnating'' (which led to the portmanteau "stagflation" to be coined to describe it), and [[DorkAge a national post-Vietnam, post-Watergate funk]] which was described as a "malaise" -- a word that is hung around his neck by conservative commentators (and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'') to this day, [[BeamMeUpScotty though Carter himself never actually used it]]. "Stagflation" was exacerbated by the 1979 oil crisis; long gas lines and high energy costs contributed to the national unhappiness. In an attempt to lead by example, the President lowered the thermostats in the White House and donned sweaters to keep warm instead -- which, for many, became a hated symbol of the lifestyle sacrifices which they believed his policies had made necessary.

* He is the last living US President to be born before World War II, as well as the last one who served in that war (as of December 2018).

That said, much of Carter's popularity with liberals came ''after'' his administration. Carter ran as a centrist Democrat, on a small government platform not dissimilar from UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan four years later, and alienated many liberals within his own party. He was considered a micromanager who had a limited White House staff and difficult relations with both Congress and his own Cabinet. In 1980, Carter faced a strong primary challenge from Ted Kennedy, who ran on the idea that Carter had sold out the Party's progressive wing. Carter secured his nomination in the last brokered convention to date.[[note]]Walter Mondale 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]]

Still, his term saw a lasting (if somewhat frosty) peace negotiated between Israel and Egypt, having sponsored a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at Camp David. The only significant and lasting peace settlement in the modern Middle East, it's so well-respected that even Egypt's new post-revolution government is honoring it. His administration negotiated the return of the Panama Canal to {{UsefulNotes/Panama}} at the end of the 20th century. Additionally, a few on the Left might claim that his economic policies may have paid off in the next decade and that their success had been wrongly attributed to UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan.

* Was the first President to be born after UsefulNotes/WW1.[[note]] Kennedy, Nixon, and Ford were infants when it ended; UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush is only 4 months older than Carter, but wasn't elected until 1988.[[/note]]
* Carter is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter_UFO_incident the only US president ever to admit to filing a UFO report]].[[note]] For the record, Carter does not believe what he saw in 1969 was an alien spacecraft; he's of the opinion that it was probably a top-secret military experiment.[[/note]]
* His father and three siblings have [[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/health/07jimm.html all died from pancreatic cancer]] at a relatively young age. In August 2015, he disclosed that he had been diagnosed with cancer himself. In December 2015, he announced that the cancer has been cleared out.
* Has all but eradicated the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis Guinea Worm]], a painful and hard to remove parasite, with the help of his Carter Foundation. Torpedoing the number of infections from the millions in the 80's, to ''less than 30'' in the 2010's.

* As of October 2019, Jimmy Carter (nearing 97 years of age) is America’s longest lived President, having surpassed UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush. His post-presidential longevity of 40 years and counting has long since surpassed UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover, whose post-presidential career spanned 31 years after leaving office, and lived to the age of 90.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The premise of ''Saturday Night Live'''s "Ask President Carter" sketch was not fiction, Carter [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/04/ask-president-carter-a-two-hour-toll-free-call-in/6aae028a-ce3a-40a0-94ed-093e9473cf06/ actually did host a two hour show]] where anyone could call in and ask him a question. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbuIgHwAdkQ&ab_channel=MarkFendrick Here's a clip]].
* ApprovalOfGod: Carter [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt69Ya79veQ has commented]] on the 2012 film ''Film/{{Argo}}'', which is a dramatization of the "Canadian Caper", a joint covert rescue by the Canadian government and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of six American diplomats who had evaded capture during the Iran Hostage Crisis.

* ButtMonkey: Carter was the go-to President to use as the butt of jokes until UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush came along, so many media portrayals of Carter from the 80s and 90s characterize him in this manner or otherwise portray him as a loser. ''TheSimpsons'' took it UpToEleven.

* CrapsackWorld: Carter's presidency is commonly remembered as a time of "malaise", with a bad economy, a never-ending string of crises[[note]]The explosion of Mount St. Helens, the Three Mile Island nuclear explosion, the Love Canal crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which lead to the Salt II treaty never being ratified and a significant rise in tensions between the two powers and the Iranian Hostage Crisis, just to name a few...[[/note]] and a general feeling that the American public was losing faith in their own country and government. This has influenced Carter's portrayals in fiction, especially after he left office. Republicans like to play up this trope to help portray successor UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in a more favorable light.
* DeepSouth: Carter was the first President to rise from the region post-reconstruction and today remains the most recent. Residents of the Deep Southern states jokingly referred to him as "the south's revenge".
* HandyMan: Commonly portrayed as this in his post-presidency due to his extensive work building houses for Habitat For Humanity. He personally chastises Tim Taylor for the poor quality of his Habitat For Humanity house on a 1994 episode of ''Series/HomeImprovement''.
* JackOfAllTrades: Dan Aykroyd's portrayal of Carter on ''Saturday Night Live'' leaned into this, particularly during the memorable 1977 "Ask President Carter" sketch. The sketch revolves around Carter setting up a hotline in the Oval Office so regular Americans can call him for help with their problems. Calls included a woman needing advice on how to set up a letter sorter at the post office and a college student asking how to deal with a particularly bad acid trip. Carter had the exact solution to all of their issues right off the top of his head.

* The 2012 film Film/{{Argo}} revolves around the "Canadian Caper", a joint covert rescue by the Canadian government and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of six American diplomats who had evaded capture during the Iran Hostage Crisis. Naturally, Carter is referenced throughout the film, and he appears in certain parts via archive footage. Carter has often [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt69Ya79veQ commented on the film]].

* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/{{Timeline 191}}'' series, Carter is a Confederate naval officer and is [[spoiler: killed in 1942 while home on leave, defending Plains, Georgia from an attack by black guerrilla fighters]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Very indirectly referenced in an episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' which has Frasier and Niles publicly endorsing an (inferred) Democratic candidate for office, in which the Democratic candidate for Senate, endorsed as sane by Frasier, casually says he believes in UFO's as he was once [[AlienAbduction Abducted By Aliens]]. While Jimmy Carter never claimed to have had ''that'' close an encounter, he once filed a UFO report and has since said he is "open-minded" on the existence of UFOS and possible alien life. Obviously a man with ideas like that was too flaky to go far in politics.

* The man himself appears (as StockFootage) in the GainaxEnding to Season 3 of ''Series/TheHeartSheHoller.'' Everyone who hasn't been KilledOffForReal (and their {{Doppelganger}}s) sit down to watch his "Crisis of Confidence" speech. He says his entire speech, [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs while weird things happen to the audience.]] [[NoEnding And then it just sort of ends.]] Despite being StockFootage, [[BillingDisplacement his name appears first in the credits.]]

* "Jimmy Carter Says 'Yes'" by Gene Marshall, a Disco song on how the Government CAN be open and honest.

* Had an [[CoattailRidingRelative embarrassing redneck brother Billy]], renowned for his eponymous (and terrible) brand of beer and for financial trafficking with the Libyans.

* Pushed for a comprehensive national energy policy and advocated alternative energy sources in the mid-to-late '70s, which, regardless of one's political views, made him most certainly a man ''well'' ahead of his time.[[note]]He even installed solar panels on the White House roof. Reagan [[JerkAss had them removed as soon as he was inaugurated.]][[/note]]

On the foreign policy front, meanwhile, the UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}ian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent protracted holding of American hostages seemed to many to demonstrate the feebleness, incompetence and ineptitude of the Carter administration's foreign policy, an impression by no means dispelled by a bungled attempt to free the hostages by force. In fairness, the reason that Operation: EAGLE CLAW was aborted before it ever reached the US Embassy was mechanical issues; such is the [[HellishCopter fickleness of helicopters.]] Still, the inadequacy of his response to an act of war was emblematic of his presidency. (Conspiracy theorists have held that there was an arrangement between the Ayatollah and the Reagan campaign as the hostages were released on Inauguration Day 1981, [[LetNoCrisisGoToWaste almost immediately after Reagan had taken the oath]].) Carter's term also saw the Soviets deploy better [[UsefulNotes/FromRussiaWithNukes nuclear weapons]] and [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan invade Afghanistan]], resulting in the SALT II arms control treaty not being put before the Democratic-controlled Senate. And, again emblematically, Carter withdrew the USA from the 1980 Olympics.

In response to the American hostage crisis and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Carter formulated the Carter Doctrine and green-lit Operation Cyclone. The former states that the United States will do anything to promote its self-interests in the Middle East and the latter allowed for the CIA to support anti-Soviet Afghan mujahideen. Both of these policies were continued and expanded by Reagan, and every president since has taken a keen interest in gulf countries. However, both policies also ended up backfiring on the US by dragging the country in costly geopolitical campaigns in the Middle East that culminated in the controversial UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror.

Carter has had one of the most active post-presidencies of any former president, founding the Carter Center to work toward peace, which helped him win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. (Contrary to popular opinion, Carter didn't win in 1978 for negotiating the Camp David Accords; rather, Begin and Sadat each won.) His work with charities such as Habitat for Humanity gives him the interesting designation of causing people to like him better for his post-presidency activities than the ones during his presidency. His current crusade (as of January 2014) is to eradicate [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis guinea worm]], a disease-causing parasite now found mainly in South Sudan; if he is successful it will be the third disease (the rinderpest virus was the second to be eradicated, following smallpox) and the first parasitic disease to be completely eradicated.

* As of October 2019, Jimmy Carter (at 96 years of age) is America’s longest lived President, having surpassed UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush. His post-presidential longevity of 40 years and counting has long since surpassed UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover, whose post-presidential career spanned 31 years after leaving office, and lived to the age of 90.
* He is the last living US President to be born before World War II, as well as the last one that served in that war (as of December 2018).

* A graduate of the Naval academy, he was a submariner and nuclear engineer in his early life (although he never got to serve on a nuclear submarine). This is why he got the submarine USS ''Jimmy Carter'' (SSN-23) named after him rather than a carrier (as is typical for presidents). It was a [[UsefulNotes/TypesOfNavalShips fast-attack nuclear boat]] and was also last of the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast even-scarier-than-the-name-makes-it-sound]]-but-also-ludicrously-expensive ''Seawolf'' class.

--->'''Carter''': You too, huh? Hey, I know a good yogurt place.
--->'''Bush:''' ''(shoving Carter out of his way)'' Get away from me, loser.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jimmycarter.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You just have to have a simple faith."'']]

'''James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr.''' (October 1, 1924-) was 39th President of the United States, following UsefulNotes/GeraldFord and preceding UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, and lasting from [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventies 1977 to 1981]].

On the foreign policy front, meanwhile, the UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}ian Revolution of 1979 and the subsequent protracted holding of American hostages seemed to many to demonstrate the feebleness, incompetence and ineptitude of the Carter administration's foreign policy, an impression by no means dispelled by a bungled attempt to free the hostages by force. In fairness, the reason that Operation: EAGLE CLAW was aborted before it ever reached the US Embassy was mechanical issues; such is the [[HellishCopter fickleness of helicopters.]] Still, the inadequacy of his response to an ActOfWar was emblematic of his Presidency. (Conspiracy theorists have held that there was an arrangement between the Ayatollah and the Reagan campaign as the hostages were released on Inauguration Day 1981, [[LetNoCrisisGoToWaste almost immediately after Reagan had taken the oath]].) Carter's term also saw the Soviets deploy better [[UsefulNotes/FromRussiaWithNukes nuclear weapons]] and [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan invade Afghanistan]], resulting in the SALT II arms control treaty not being put before the Democratic-controlled Senate. And, again emblematically, Carter withdrew the USA from the 1980 Olympics.

* The man himself appears (as StockFootage) in the GainaxEnding to Season 3 of ''Series/TheHeartSheHoller.'' Everyone who hasn't been KilledOffForReal (and their {{Doppelganger}}s) sit down to watch his [[WorldOfCardboardSpeech "Crisis of Confidence" speech.]] He says his entire speech, [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs while weird things happen to the audience.]] [[NoEnding And then it just sort of ends.]] Despite being StockFootage, [[BillingDisplacement his name appears first in the credits.]]

'''James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr.''' (October 1, 1924-) was 39th President of the United States, following UsefulNotes/GeraldFord and preceding UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, and lasting from [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventies 1977 to 1981]].

* As of October 2019, Jimmy Carter (at 96 years of age) is America’s longest lived President, having surpassed UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush. His post-presidential longevity of 39 years and counting has long since surpassed UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover, whose post-presidential career spanned 31 years after leaving office, and lived to the age of 90.

* He is currently the only living former US President eligible for reelection, as the other three (Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama) fulfilled the Constitutionally-imposed maximum of two terms. Granted, it's unlikely that Carter will try to run again, given his advanced age. [[note]]When Trump leaves office in January 2021, he will also be eligible for reelection.[[/note]]

* CrapsackWorld: Carter's presidency is commonly remembered as a time of "malaise", with a bad economy, a never-ending string of crisis[[note]]The explosion of Mount St. Helens, the Three Mile Island nuclear explosion, the Love Canal crisis, the 1979 energy crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan which lead to the Salt II treaty never being ratified and a significant rise in tensions between the two powers and the Iranian Hostage Crisis, just to name a few...[[/note]] and a general feeling that the American public was losing faith in their own country and government. This has influenced Carter's portrayals in fiction, especially after he left office. Republicans like to play up this trope to help portray successor UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan in a more favorable light.

* BeamMeUpScotty: It's widely remembered that Carter filed an official UFO report while he was the Governor of Georgia in 1973. It has been played up over the years to suggest that Carter believes in aliens or that he at least believed that he spotted an actual alien spacecraft. However, all he ever reported was that [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin he spotted a strange object in the sky that couldn't easily be identified]]. ''The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe'' podcast in 2016 and 2020 theorized that Carter spotted a barium cloud emerging from the adjacent air force base.

* He is currently the only living former US President eligible for reelection, as the other three (Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama) fulfilled the Constitutionally-imposed maximum of two terms. Granted, it's unlikely that Carter will try to run again, given his advanced age.