Happy birthday, Mr. President

Former President Jimmy Carter celebrates his 100th birthday today and the nation marks a milestone. Though a few retired presidents have reached a 90th birthday, Carter is the first former chief executive and commander in chief to reach the magical century mark. The entire nation should pause to wish our 39th president a very happy birthday.

Those who know Jimmy Carter well speak of his nearly indomitable will. Medical announcements now stretching more than three years warned of his imminent death. He went into hospice care well over a year ago, and few then thought he would reach his 100th birthday. He proved them wrong. His wife, Rosalynn, stood so long at his side, and she did so until her death last year on Nov. 19 at age 96. President Carter attended her memorial service in a wheelchair, looking quite frail. Few then thought he could make it to 100. Today he proved them wrong.

The same pattern was evident when Carter first told close associates and family members he was planning to run for president. His mother was said to have asked, “Of what?” Carter was then the governor of Georgia, and no politician from the Deep South had reached the White House in decades. Furthermore, there was no shortage of credible candidates for the 1976 Democratic Party nomination. Sens. Frank Church of Idaho, Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington, Birch Bayh of Indiana, and Walter Mondale of Minnesota all saw themselves as presidential contenders. So did other Democratic figures like 1972 vice presidential nominee Sargent Shriver and Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona. Eventually, no less than 17 Democrats joined the battle for the nomination. Carter won it, and he won it decisively. How?

Once again, we come back to his determination, but that strength of will was matched by two other factors. One was a team of campaign strategists and managers who mastered the party’s newly revised nomination rules and used them to their advantage. The other factor was provided by history: President Richard M. Nixon had resigned the office in disgrace in the wake of the Watergate scandal in August 1974. We now know that by that time, Carter had already decided on a run for the White House. Nixon’s fall provided Carter with a way to win. He would run as the consummate political outsider—the very opposite of the creatures from the Washington swamp.

He did run, and he ran hard. He worked voters like a machine. He knocked on doors in states like Iowa, stood in the snow, and simply said, “Hi, I’m Jimmy Carter and I’m running for president.” His run seemed implausible until it seemed inevitable. At the end of the day, Carter won the nomination and then went on to win the White House, defeating Nixon’s successor, President Gerald R. Ford, in a narrowly decided contest.

Carter meant to send signals of a humbler and more populist presidency. The newly inaugurated president, joined by his wife, got out of the presidential limousine and walked a bit in the inaugural parade. With the nation facing an energy crisis, he famously advised Americans to set the thermostat lower in winter and wear a sweater indoors. To the consternation of White House staff, he set an example by wearing a sweater and lowering the thermostat in the Executive Mansion. He attempted to set an example as a common man in an uncommon office, much like Harry Truman decades before.

All this laid bare a simple but unbending truth. Americans may say they want a common man as their president, but they lie. In truth, they want their president to provide effective leadership on the national stage and around the globe. They want someone who runs humbly and leads audaciously. They want to feel secure in the world and at home.

That’s where Carter fell short. He is not remembered as a colossal figure on the world scene. He did achieve the historic Camp David Accords that brought peace between Israel and Egypt—a peace that has held through the decades to the present, we should add. But in terms of the great challenges posed by Soviet communism and the rise of militant Islam, Carter fell short. The humiliation of the hostage crisis in Iran certainly added momentum to his landslide loss in the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan.

In terms of domestic policy, Carter was something of an oddity. He wanted a big federal government but did not want a government takeover of the entire economy. In the end, his domestic policies ran into entirely predictable opposition. He displeased both conservatives and liberals. As his reelection bid approached, he found himself facing a very hurtful challenge from within his own party when Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts ran against him, seeking a return to what he saw as the Democratic Party’s rightful leadership. Kennedy fell short, but it was Carter who lost the White House to Reagan, and by historic proportions. Today, most Americans now alive were born after President Carter left office.

As recounted by close associates, Carter seethed against Reagan and the voters, and he left office a bitter man. But that’s when his story took a different turn. Carter decided to reinvent the post-presidency. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded the Carter Center, based in Atlanta, and used it as a platform for good works around the world. An example of the good done by the Carter Center is the eradication of some worm-based diseases in the developing world. His successors in office from both parties fumed when he delved into foreign policy statements, but Carter pressed on.

Now, he has reached what no other U.S. president has reached: his 100th birthday. President Carter was very critical of me, for reasons I will explain at another time. But in my engagement with him, I found that, as much as we disagreed on huge issues, I could not help feeling affection for him. So, in that light, I call on all Americans of goodwill to offer sincere congratulations to former President Jimmy Carter on his historic 100th birthday.