Newt reflects on his personal memories of President Jimmy Carter, highlighting Carter's unique blend of characteristics as a South Georgia farmer, a nuclear engineer, and a reform-oriented politician. He describes Carter's rise from a one-term governor to the presidency, emphasizing his ability to connect with diverse voter groups and his commitment to big ideas. Despite Carter's initial success and notable achievements, such as the Camp David Accords, his presidency faced significant challenges, including the energy crisis and the Iranian hostage situation. Newt also discusses Carter's post-presidential contributions, particularly his work with Habitat for Humanity and The Atlanta Project. Newt provides a nuanced view of Carter as a dedicated and intelligent leader whose presidency was marked by both remarkable achievements and significant difficulties.
On this episode of News World, I want to spend some time today talking about President Jimmy Carter and my memories of him personally. I was a teacher at West Georgia College when he was governor. He was a very reform governor, and he was very open. I would go and visit him regularly and we talk about big ideas. He was very much an odd mixture of a South Georgia farmer, somebody who in the one hand could appeal to George Wallace segregationist voters, and on the other hand could appeal to modern integrationists and to the African American community. And he balanced all of that that. He was very committed to ideas. He was, after all, a nuclear engineer and a graduate the Academy, and he somehow blended all that. So I knew him. I watched him, and he had been visited by all the major Democratic candidates in nineteen seventy two and said to his staff, you know, if these guys can run for president, I might as well run. And when he did announce the Atlantic Constitution, headline was Jimmy Carter's running for what he was seen almost as a joke. He was this one term governor and he's going to go out now and win the Democratic nomination and maybe win the presidency. So I watched this evolving, and I can tell you I'd run for Congress in seventy four, got forty and a half percent in the middle of Watergate. Now I was going to run again in seventy six, and all of a sudden, here's James Earl Carter and he is going to run for president. And I know if he's head of the Democratic ticket, I got a big, big problem in Georgia. Well, I'll never forget. In April morning, I'm watching ABC News, Carter is coming from behind in Wisconsin, which is a very progressive state, to beat Mo Yudah, who was the progressive candidate. Because the rural vote, the Wisconsin dairy farmers identified with the peanut farmer side of Jimmy. I knew that morning he's going to win the nomination. He's going to carry Georgia by a huge margin. They were very proud of him, and they went from Jimmy Carter's running for what to being really proud. My younger daughter's in laws were campaigning as part of what was called the peanut Brigade in New Hampshire. They were totally committed to Carter. By the way's result, the husband ended up as the ambassador to Australia. So Carter beat me. In effect, I went from forty eight point five to forty eight point three percent. But then Carter couldn't perform as well. He was a remarkable candidate. He understand how to look you in the eye make you feel that he was totally sincere. Jimmy Carter had an amazing ability to convince you that he was on your side, whichever side your side was. And really it was at the right moment. We've been through Vietnam, We've been through Watergate, people were tired of Washington, and Carter came along saying, you know, we need a government as good as the American people. And he ended up winning the presidency. But when he began serving as president, it was a lot harder, a lot more complicated. Things weren't working as well, and so when I ran for the third time, Carter was not a big disadvantage anymore. The magic was sort of gone. So I won office and I had a funny experience when the president comes in to give the State of the Union, the leading senior person in each party from his home state escorts. He meant, well, I was a brand new freshman. I'd been there about two months, but I was by definition the senior Republican and the delegation because I was the only Republican in the delegation. And a friend of mine called me later on that night and said he fell off his couch because here I am in Washington two months and I am co leading the Georgia delegation escorting President Carter to give his State of the Union. Carter had a lot of different challenges. Carter brought a very loyal staff who had been remarkably good at the governorship, very good at winning the nomination in the election, but they didn't understand Washington. A classic example, and we're all living through this. They have the tickets for the inauguration. Tip O'Neill's family is not sitting in the front row. And as a famous story, Hamilton Jordan was the key person working for Carter and he gets this enraged call from Thomas P. O'Neal who says, is this Hannibal Jerkin? And he says, so, my name is Hamilton. He said, never mind, I just want to let you know that I am Thomas P. O'Neill, Speaker of the House, and if my family is not in the front row at the inauguration, you will get nothing through the House in the next two years. Nothing And he hung up. Well magically a few minutes later, you know, Tip O'Neil's family was right in the front row. But it was that kind of minor stuff that may seem silly, but it's really important in Washington, even after they've been in office for a while. Their legislative staff was so confused that when they had the Italian president come for a state dinner, they invited Democratic Congressman from California, Norman Minetta. Well, Norman Manetta is Japanese American. He's not Italian, but because his name ended Navow, the Carter legislative team assumed he must be Italian. The following day, he got honorary admission to the Italian American Caucus and was sent a basket with a great number of Italian food by the Italian American Caucus because he was now an honorary member. That kind of stuff just eroded your whole sense of how whether they were competent at a most basic level, now, it was a little strange because Carter had a remarkable life. Let me start and just say I don't think he was a very good president. I think he was a remarkable candidate, and I think he was one of the most serious and dedicated post presidents we've ever had, and did a great deal to help people after he left the presidency. But this is a guy, after all, who's born in a different world. He was born on October first, nineteen twenty four, in Plains, Georgia. You have to understand how rural and how small Plains is. He grew up in the south that was extraordinarily poor during the Great Depression, and he worked very hard. By the time he was ten, he is stacking produce from his family's farm, putting it on a wagon, taking it into town and selling it. By the time he's thirteen, he saved enough money to buy five houses in Plains, Georgia, which was pretty cheap, but he then rented the homes to families there. And thirteen year old kid, he studies hard. He is very smart. Let me tell you he is very smart. He graduates in the os Naval Academy in nineteen forty six, and he applies for submarine duty, and he goes to work for Admiral Ricover, who was the creator of the modern nuclear Navy, an amazingly tough guy and somebody who really understood excellence and insisted on excellence. And Carter served with him and learned a great deal. Unfortunately, tragically, his father died in July of nineteen fifty three. Carter resigned from the Navy and returned to Georgia to manage the family farm. He was only discharged on October ninth, nineteen fifty three, transferred to the retired reserve list with the rank of lieutenant. He then serves for four years as a Georgia State senator. And he's a reformer, even though he's from deep South Georgia. He's a very modern person. After all, he had been in the nuclear Navy. He traveled, and so he wanted to modernize things. And he then runs for governor. Now he loses. He came in third, and he was this nice, pleasant reformer, but he wasn't capable of fighting his way in. He thought about it for a little while, and he criss crossed the state for four years, and he gradually built up a base across the whole state. And to be honest, he was a little deceptive in Atlanta. He was a very modern person. In South Georgia. He was a good friend of George Wallace, and so he managed to hold together a coalition that included Wallaside segregationists and included people in Atlanta who were very modern and very much oriented towards an integrated future.
When he won.
The truth is he was a very reform oriented governor, and he did a great deal to create what became called the Modern South. And he was clearly committed to integration, and he worked very hard in the black community. Now, when he first starts running, and this is partner merror, he's polling twelve when he starts, but he pounds away and pounds away and pounds away, and he wins. As the New York Times put it, Governor Carter's achievement as a result of political acuity and organizing skill, of keen intelligence and iron result. He knew what he had to do to win the nomination, and with courage, resourcefulness, and self discipline, plus the indispensable support of an amazingly efficient staff and quite a little bit of luck, he achieved his goal. That's pretty good, he becomes the nominee and makes an important speech. When he wins the nomination, listen to a load.
Our leaders have fought for every piece a progressive legislation, from RFD and RAA to social security and civil rights. In times of need, the Democrats were there. But in recent years our nation has seen a failure of leadership. We've been hurt and we've been disillusioned. We've seen a wall go up that separates us from our own government. We've lost some precious things that historically have bound our people and our government together. We feel that moral decayed has weakened our country, that it's crippled by a lack of goals and values, and that our public officials have lost faith in us. We've been a nation adrift too long. We've been without leadership too long. We've had divided in deadlocked government too long. We've been governed by veto too long. We've suffered enough at the hands of a tired and one out administration without new ideas, without youth or vitality, without vision, and without the confidence of the American people. There's a fear that our best years are behind us. But I say to you that our nation's best is still ahead. Our countries lived through a time of torment.
It's now time for healing.
We want to have faith again, we want to be proud again. We just want the truth again. It's time for the people to run the government and not.
The other way around.
Now there's a very tough campaign. Gerald Ford had lots of problems. He ended up in a very tough fight with Ronald Reagan. He barely got nominated. He was way behind, but every single day he gained ground. Carter was basically unknown, and so the Ford campaign worked to define Carter and came pretty round close. In the end, Carter carried twenty three states with two hundred and ninety seven electoral votes. Ford won twenty seven states, but with only two hundred and forty electoral votes, and therefore Carter, on November third, nineteen seventy six, accepts the presidency in a speech which is worth listening to.
Let me suggest a word to you. This, this tremendous crown at four o'clock in the morning represents hundreds of millions of American people who are now ready to see our nation unified. And I want to congratulate the toughest and most formidable opponent that anyone could possibly have. President Gerald Ford, as I've said many times throughout this nation, he's a good and decent man, and no one could have a campaign that had to be so thoroughly organized heart fault, and which has marshaled so much cooperation from hundreds of thousands of people around this country who've had confidence in me. And I pray that I can live up to your confidence and ever disappoint you.
We have.
We have a great nation, as you know, and sometimes in the past we've been disappointed at our own government. But I think it's time to tap the tremendous strength and vitality and idealism and hope and patriotism and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood in this country to unified nation to make it great once again.
It's not.
It's not going to be easy for any of us. I don't claim to know all the answers, but I have said many times in my campaign around all fifty states that I'm not afraid to take on the responsibilities of President of the United States because my strength and my courage, and my advice and my counsel and my criticism comes from you. And if I can tap the greatness that's in you and in the American people. We can make our nations government great and a source of pride once again. Are you proud of our nation? Do you think we can help it, unify it and bring it back together. Do you think we can put our people back to work? So do I and I'll do the best I can. I'll do the best I can during this transition period from now until next January, to continue to learn how to be a good president. And I've learned in the last twenty two months, I believe as well as any human being could have learned what our people are, what we have been in the past, and what we can be. And I believe that this next four years that we will have a sense of purpose, a sense of the government belongs to us, a sense that we participated in this campaign. And now I welcome all of those in the United States, whether they like you, supporting me or supporting mister Ford to someone else. It's time for us to get together, to correct our mistakes, to answer difficult questions, and to make our nation right.
I want to.
Clank all of you. I love everybody here.
You've been great to me. Thank you very much.
I would say that the high water mark of Carter's achievements, and really a remarkable achievement, was getting Egyptian President Anwar saddd and Israeli Prime Minister of Monacolm began to come to Camp David and to sit down and to work and work and work. They went from September fifth to September seventeenth, nineteen seventy eight, and I'll think about that day after day Carter kept extending, staying there until they finally got it worked out. In it was historic moment because it's the moment where Saddan on behalf of Egypt recognizes the right of Israel to exist and where they sign what does an effect a peace treaty. Nothing can ever take this away from Carter, but it's worth listening to what he said at the signing of the Camp David records.
When we first arrived at Camp David, the first thing upon which we agreed was to ask the people of the world to pray that our negotiations would be successful. Those prayers have been answered far beyond any expectations. We are privileged to witness tonight a significant achievement in the cause of peace. An achievement none thought possible a year ago or even a month ago, an achievement that reflects the courage and wisdom of these two leaders. Through thirteen long days that David, we have seen them display determination and vision and flexibility which was needed to make this agreement come to pass. All of us owe them our gratitude and respect. They know that they will always have my personal admiration. There are still great difficulties.
That remain.
And many hard issues to be settled. The questions that have brought warfare and bitterness to the Middle East for the last thirty years will not be settled overnight, but we should all recognize the substantial achievements that have been made. One of the agreements that President Sadat and Prime Minister Began are signing tonight is entitled a Framework for Peace in the Middle East. This framework concerns the principles and some specifics in the most substantive way which will govern a comprehensive peace settlement. It deals specifically with the future of the West Bank and Gaza and the need to resolve the Palestinian problem in all its aspects. The Framework document proposes a five year transitional period in the West Bank and Gaza, during which the Israeli military government will be withdrawn and a self governing authority will be elected with full autonomy. It also provides for Israeli forces to remain in specified locations during this period to protect Israel's security. The Palestinians will have the right to participate in the determination of their own future in negotiations which will resolve the final status of the West Bank and Gaza and then to produce an Israeli Jordanian peace treaty. These negotiations will be based on all the provisions and all the principles of the United States of United Nations Security Council Resolution two forty two, and that Israel may live in peace within secure and recognized borders. And this great aspiration of Israel has been certified without constraint with the greatest degree of enthusiasm by President Sadat, the leader of one of the greatest.
Nations on Earth.
The other document is entitled Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty.
Between Egypt and Israel.
It provides for the full exercise of Egyptian sovereignty over the Sinaid. It calls for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Sinai and after an interim withdrawal, which will be accomplished very quickly, the establishment of normal peaceful relations between the two countries, including diplomatic relations. Together with accompanying letters which we will make public tomorrow, these two Camp David agreements provide the basis for progress and peace throughout the Middle East. There is one issue on which agreement has not been reached. Egypt states that the agreement to remove Israeli settlements from Egyptian territory is a prerequisite to a peace treaty. Israel states that the issue of the Israeli settlements should be resolved during the peace negotiations. That's a substantial difference. Within the next two weeks, the Kinnasset will decide on the issue of these settlements. Tomorrow night, I will go before the Congress to explain these agreements more fully and to talk about their implications for the United States and for the world. For the moment, and in closing, I want to speak more personally about my admiration for all of those who have taken part in this process and my hope that the promise of this moment will be fulfilled. During the last two weeks, the members of all three delegations have spent endless hours day and night, talking, negotiating, grappling with problems that have divided their people for thirty years. Whenever there was a danger that human energy would fail, or patience would be exhausted, or goodwill would run out, and there were many such moments, these two leaders and the able advisers in all delegations found the resources within them to keep the chances for peace a lie.
Well.
The long days the Camp David are over, but many months of difficult negotiations still lie ahead. I hope that the foresight and the wisdom that have made this session a success would guide these leaders and the leaders of all nations as they can you the progress toward peace. Thank you very much.
Now, However, having had this great high moment, things got worse and worse. They got worse because the energy crisis was terrible. The liberal policies of Carter made the energy crisis worse. And so he finally recognizes there's a huge crisis, and on July fifteenth, nineteen seventy nine, he gives what is called the Crisis of Confidence speech. Later on it would be called by others. The Malays speech. Everyone actually uses the word in Malays, but a Harvard professor had written a book that described the situation and used Malays. But listen for a couple months to this speech where Carter's floundering. He doesn't know.
What to do.
The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes it the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives, and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb and a dusty book that we read just on the fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else, public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We've always believed in something called progress. We've always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. Our people are losing that faith, not only in government itself, but in the ability as citizens to serve as ultimate rulers and shapers off our democracy. As a people, we know our past, and we are proud of it. Our progress has been part of a living history of America, even the world. We always believed that we were part of a great movement of humanity itself called democracy, involved in the search for freedom, and that belief has always strengthened us in our purpose. But just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close knit communities, and our faith in God. Too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot feel the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose. The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country, a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world. As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government, and for churches, and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
So in the middle of all that, Carter faced a huge crisis. The Iranian regime suddenly became a very tutulitarian religious regime. It had been an increasingly modernizing, increasingly secular regime under the Shaw, but the Shaw had been corrupt, The Shaw had had secret police, and the Shaw had threatened all of the Mullahs, the Muslim priests around the country, and they felt that he was a mortal threat to their power and their authority and their income. And they had had a man sitting in exile in the suburbs of Paris, and Homoni was seen as the religious leader of Iran, and using modern technology, they would send out cassette tapes of his speeches and they covered the country. Suddenly, the Iranian dictatorship of the Shaw collapsed and was not replaced by democracy. It was replaced almost immediately by a theocratic organization dominated by Homani. I was told an insider story by Bob Gates, who had been almost thinking in Secretary of Defense, been head of the CIA, but early in his career he was the deputy de svigny of Brazinski, who was the national security advisor to Carter. And we were talking one day in the Defense Policy Board and Gates said, you know, I went with Brashinski in seventy nine to talk with the leaders of the Iranian revolution. We met in Algiers and we said, you know, we really want to be allies. We accept the fact that we're different, we accept the fact that you are a religious dictatorship, but we still want to find a way to work together. We'll honor our commitments, we will deliver the things you have ordered. We'd like to help you and everything they offered. The answer from the Harmonia regime was the only thing we want is the Shaw. You're protecting the Shaw. We want him turned over to us. We're going to take him and kill him, and we want to execute him in Tehran in public, and then we'll feel better. And Brzhinski would say, well, you know, we really can't do that, but here are things I can do, and they go through this rounde and they'd come back and say, no, we don't care. The only thing we want is the show. And Gates said, anytime people tell him there are moderates in the regime in Iran, he thinks they're crazy because he saw him up close. Now, interestingly, two weeks after that meeting, when we had refused to turn over the Shah, the Iranian revolutionary seized the American embassy, which was a clear violation of international law, and put the American diplomats as hostages and kept them for four hundred and forty four days. There was an effort by the US government to rescue them, which melted down in the sands of the Iranian desert in a place called Desert One, and several terrible things happened. The whole thing collapsed. Now we looked like we were incompetent. All of this is coming in on Carter and day after day. ABC actually invented Nightline, which would have day two hundred and twelve of the hostage crisis. And this stuff just got beaten into people's heads. So they were unhappy with the energy crisis which had led to for example, you could only buy gasoline every other day if you had an odd number on your license plate. There were certain days you could buy it if you had an even number.
There were days.
I had a good friend whose job was twelve years old. His job was to switch license plates to make sure that the car which needed to get gasoline had the right number. But Americans didn't like waiting and lying to get gasoline. They didn't like being told that there was going to have life with limits. They didn't want to be told that they ought to wear a sweater. In fact, Carter made a speech he was ridiculed for because he's wearing a sweater while sitting in front of a fireplace while telling the rest of us, so we should worry about lowering the temperature, and it was goofy, it wasn't the real world. Then he ended up with the great problem, which was Teddy Kennedy ran against him. People thought early on that Teddy would beat him for the nomination, but in a very famous interview when I asked why are you running, Kennedy just collapsed and had no coherent explanation for his campaign. Once that happened, and people tend to forget this, I mean, Carter beat Teddy Kennedy inside the Democratic Party by a substantial margin. So even as weakened does he'd become even as obvious as it was that his administration was not competent, he could still politically beat the person who had been sort of the heir apparent in the Democratic Party. Then, unfortunately for Carter, he ran into one of the great politicians of our time, and Ronald Reagan defeated him decisively, and at that point Carter leaves town. But it's a fascinating situation. Here's a guy who's energetic, engaged, really wants to be involved, and really wants to do good things for people. And the nice thing about him I have to say is that Carter stayed active. I worked with him on several habitat houses. We built one with the House Republicans here in Washington, d C. We built one in San Diego. During the Republican National Convention, I went with Carter to Kentucky and we built some He was always this very pleasant, down to earth, serious guy who was trying to be helpful to people. I would have to say, as a Georgian who knew him back when he was governor, who watched him as a candidate, who worked with him when he was president, this was a very honorable, very hard working man who was very smart. Some things didn't quite work in some ways. He didn't quite understand how the world operated. But I had two great post presidential experiences with Carter. I went to this Presidential Library in Atlanta, and they were working on corruption around the world, and I participated in some fascinating conversations about different countries, different problems, how to solve them. It was really quite remarkable. You can find out more about the Presidential Library museum in Atlanta to go to the Jimmy Carterlibrary dot gov. But in addition, Carter launched what was called the Atlanta Project, and he was deeply engaged in trying to help poor people. Again, it's a very idealistic guy. Many of his ideas didn't work. Much of his philosophy was impossible, but he meant well, and so I went and spent some time working with him on the Atlanta project, trying to understand how do you take the poorest neighborhoods. And I'll just give you one example of how hard this is. Carter wanted to vaccinate every poor child in Atlanta, and they had a very large vaccination program, but they ran into the following reality. There were places where parents would say, what are you going to pay us? And they would say, well, we're offering to vaccinate your child for free. And the parent would say, well, I don't care about that. You care about that, so what's it worth it to you to be allowed to vaccinate my child? And it was a real introduction to me of how much of the problem we're dealing with this cultural and involves levels of change we haven't even begun thinking about. But Carter was there and he was trying, and he did his best, and sometimes you can't ask for a a lot more than that. And I look back and think, you know, this was a guy worth knowing that. It's a long way since I first knew him as a teacher at West Georgia College, but he was a very remarkable man. He did a tremendous job trying to help America at every level, and I think we have to honor him and respect him for that. Interestingly, he developed after he left office a good relationship with former President Gerald Ford, who he had defeated, and they talked regularly by phone, and Ford asked Carter if he would deliver the eulogy at his funeral. Carter agreed only a Ford would agree to deliver the eulogy at Carter's general Ford died in two thousand and six, so Stephen Ford, the youngest son of President Gerald Ford, had to read his father's posthumous elogy at Carter's funeral. It's important as you listen to this to remember this is Gerald Ford having written this while he was still alive, giving it to his son and saying, when Jimmy Carter passes, I want you to deliver eulogy from me for President Carter. It's really very touching. I think you'll agree. Just listen to it.
In the twilight of my dad's life, Dad and President Carter spoke by phone and Dad asked President Carter.
If he would do a eulogy at Dad's funeral. President Carter graciously agreed, and then he also asked if Dad would deliver eulogy at.
President Carter's funeral.
Now, Dad was thrilled to agree. After that call, as you can imagine, both of them got off the phone had a pretty good chuckle considering which one of them would return in person to deliver that second eulogy. As you know, Dad died in two thousand and six, and President Carter's eulogy continues to bring comfort, smile, laughter, joy, pride to our family.
And thus on behalf of my dad.
It's an honor to share Dad's eulogy to his old friend. I can just see my Dad getting his his yellow legal pad out with his pen and writing this for his beloved friend. By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals, but for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us. As no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It is said that President adams last words were Thomas.
Jefferson still survives.
Now, since Jimmy has a good decade on me, I'm hedging my bets by entrusting my remembrances of Jimmy to my son Steve.
According to a map, it's a.
Long way between Grand Rapids, Michigan and Plains, Georgia. But distances have a way of vanished when measured in values rather than miles. And it was because of our shared values that Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries even before we cherished one another as dear friends. Now this is not to say that Jimmy never got under my skin, but has there ever been a group of politicians that didn't do that to one another?
During our nineteen seventy.
Six contests, Jimmy knew my political vulnerabilities, and he successfully.
Pointed them out.
Now, I didn't like it, but little could I know that the outcome of that nineteen seventy six would bring about one of my deepest and most enduring friendships. In the summer of nineteen eighty one, the two of us found ourselves to go together again, this time aboard Air Force One, bound for the funeral of the great Peacemaker, Anwar Sadat. There's an old line to the effect that two presidents in a room is one too many. Frankly, I wondered how awkward that long flight might be to Cairo, and it was a long flight, but.
The return trip was not nearly long enough. For it was somewhere over the Atlantic.
That Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics. We immediately decided to exercise one of the privileges of a former president, forgetting that either one of us had ever said any harsh words about the other one in the heat of battle.
Then we got on too much more enjoyable subjects.
Discussing our families, our faith, and sharing our experiences and discovering that there is indeed.
Life after the White House.
We commiserate over the high cost of building presidential libraries and the even more regrettable fact that most of that fundraising for these otherwise admirable institutions fell to us personally. On the spot, we agreed to participate in programs at each other's library, beginning with a series of conferences on arms control.
And if that wasn't.
Newsworthy enough, we told reporters on the plane that a lasting Middle East piece would require the United States to make tough decisions like confronting the Palestinian issue directly there on the work to which President Sadot had literally given his life. It was the first time, but by no means the last time, that our unlikely partnership ruffled feathers in the Washington establishment.
Now, honesty and truth telling were synonymous with the name Jimmy Carter.
Yeah, those traits were instilled in him by his loving parents, Lilian and Earl Carter, and the strength of his honesty was reinforced by his upbringing and the rule sal poised on the brink of social transformation. He displayed that honesty throughout out his life as a naval officer, state legislator, governor, president, and world leader.
For Jimmy Carter, honesty was not a aspirational goal. It was part of his very soul.
Now, I think Jimmy wrote more books than any former president. Once asked if he really enjoyed writing, he replied with that familiar twinkle in his eye, it beats picking cotton. But I think he enjoyed writing for another reason. As an author, he was under no pressure to tailor his opinions to some political constituency or potential contributor.
Now, both of us.
Had experienced the harsh reality that defeat at the polls can be painful, But we also came to know more important consequence, political defeat and writing.
Can also be liberating.
If it frees you to discuss topics that aren't necessarily consistent with short term political popularity. Now, Jimmy learned early on that it was not enough merely to bear witness and a few on a Sunday morning.
Inspired by his faith.
He pursued brotherhood across boundaries of nationhood, across boundaries of tradition, across.
Boundaries of cash.
In America's urban neighborhoods and in rural villages around the world, he reminded us that Christ had been a carpenter, and in.
Third world villages he successfully campaigned not for votes, but for the.
Eradication of diseases that shame the developed world as they ravage the undeveloped one. Now, of course, not all of Jimmy's time was spent building houses, eradicating disease, brokering ceasefires, monitoring elections. While Jimmy is probably the only former president to conduct.
A weekly Bible class, I know for certain.
He is the only former president to perform a duet of on the Road Again with Willie Nelson.
Georgia wasn't just on Jimmy's mind. It was in his blood.
However far he traveled, he never forgot where he came home to, or where now in the end he would finally come home to.
Of the many things Jimmy and I had in common, the most important is.
This we both married way above ourselves, way above with Jimmy every step of the way.
Was his first lady.
From playing rich with blessings, none was greater for Jimmy than his love he shared with Rosalind, and the love of the two of them shared with their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. Like Jimmy, Rosalind was and is a symbol of American compassion like no other first lady in our history. Rosalind Carter is indeed a true citizen of the world, and she became a beloved friend to my wife, Betty, and me, and to all the Ford family.
While the.
Carter and Ford men were decidedly mixed record when it came to lobby in Congress, Rosalind and Betty were unbeatable in their advocacy for millions of people whom they brought out of the shadows of despair and shame. Now is time to say goodbye, are grief comforted with the joy and the thanksgiving of knowing this man, this beloved man, this very special man. He was given the gift of years, and the American people and.
The people of the world.
Will be forever blessed by his decades of good works.
Jimmy Carter's legacy of peace.
And compassion will remain unique as it is timeless. The entire Ford family, we extend our love to you, and we add our prayers to the prayers of tens of millions of people around the world. May God bless and watch over this good man. May He grant peace to the Carter family as they say goodbye to a man whose life was lived to the fullest, with the faith demonstrated and countless good works, with a mission richly fulfilled, and a soul rewarded with everlasting life. As for myself, Jimmy, I'm looking forward to our reunion. We had much to catch up on. Thank you, mister President. Welcome home, old old friend.
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