LeftOut

by Daryl Moore

THE NOBEL FOR A NOBLE EX-PRESIDENT

Jimmy Carter receives the Peace Prize for suffering people around the world

Twenty-two years after leaving the Oval Office a landslide-loser to Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter will now forever be remembered as a winner. Having finally won the Nobel Peace Prize last month after being nominated more than 10 times, Carter responded when he was called at 4 a.m. and told of his selection, "I thought it was a joke."

Ironic that Carter would use those words. After all, when he ran for the presidency in 1976, he was considered a joke. He was, after all, a peanut farmer-turned-governor from a Southern state. He was such a straight arrow that he thought "lusting in his mind" was just as wrong as a "sin of the flesh." (If only another president from a Southern state would have had the same moral code.)

When Carter became president, he had never served in Congress or the U.S. Senate. He arrived a blank slate, with no experience in the Washington insider's game. Once in Washington, he refused to become an insider. As a result, his presidency was largely considered a failure by almost everyone. Marred by high inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis, Carter lost in a landslide and quietly left town.

Two years later, he re-emerged and founded the Carter Center, a research group that seeks to "promote peace and human rights, resolve conflicts, foster democracy, and fight hunger and disease." In that endeavor, Carter has been tireless.

He has been building houses for Habitat for Humanity for 20 years. He has monitored elections around the globe to ensure that true democracy prevails. He has mediated crises from Haiti to North Korea.

He has rescinded his membership in the Southern Baptist Convention for its refusal to accept gays and lesbians. And he has traveled to Cuba to denounce Castro in his own back yard. While his focus has been broad, his acts contain the common thread of equality for everyone.

Unlike his fellow ex-presidents, Carter has never joined corporate boards for pay. He has never gone on the lecture circuit to make speeches for profit. In short, he has refused to cash in on the presidency for personal gain, choosing instead to use his status as a former president to advance the cause of "suffering people around the world," on whose behalf he accepted the Nobel Prize.

He joins Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson as the only other American presidents to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. And it is hard to imagine he will be joined by any other American president, current or former, in the foreseeable future.

Carter is 78. He predicts the end of his active life in "the next few months or years." Who will pick up his mantle?

Bill Clinton? It is hard to imagine him doing anything other than making money and continuing to play in politics. Does anyone really picture Bill Clinton building a house for Habitat or traveling the world to speak for free on behalf of the "suffering people around the world"?

George W. Bush? It is even harder to imagine him doing anything after leaving the White House other than playing golf or cutting down trees on his Crawford ranch. Does anyone really foresee the man who benefited from the Florida election debacle traveling the world to monitor elections, ensure democracy, and "wage peace."

Jimmy Carter is a Nobel winner. And he is likely the best ex-president we will ever see. Not bad for a peanut farmer from Georgia.

Writing from the liberal end of the spectrum, Houston attorney Daryl Moore has a general practice and is board certified in civil and appellate law. He can be reached at DarylMoore@outsmartmagazine.com.