“They say a good man can’t get elected President. I don’t believe that. Do you?”

The quote in the title of this post is from the West Wing episode “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen”, the second season premiere, in which the present-day Bartlet White House is reeling from the assassination attempt on the President, coupled with flashbacks to the early days of the campaign. In one of the flashbacks, Leo McGarry says those words to then-Governor Bartlet, who is the good man who has not entirely signed onto the whole idea of running for President in the first place.

Jimmy Carter was absolutely a good man who got elected President. He chose his moment with incredible vision: when the country was still recovering from the excesses of Richard Nixon. It might have been the only time someone like Carter could come out of nowhere and become President of the United States.

Much as been written about Carter’s great humanitarian work after he left the White House; I won’t rehash that here. It’s been pretty much an accepted view that Carter was, at best, a lackluster President, but I’ve seen some interesting reappraisals of his time in office–here’s a good one–and honestly, he was followed by some of the most stupendously awful Presidents in American history, so he looks good by comparison to them, too.

Carter is also, to this day, the only President I’ve ever seen in person. I was seven years old when we were living in Elkins, WV, and Carter came to appear in the town’s annual fall festival, whatever it was called at the time. I remember going out, all our family, to sit in the stands and wait for the parade to start and for the sighting of the President. This was mumbly-mumble years ago, so I don’t really recall details at all…but I remember the moment he was there, right down there on the street, walking and waving and grinning that famous grin of his. Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States. The photo above is from that very day; just after he passed where we were, on foot, he got in the limo and popped up through the sun roof. The other man is Senator Jennings Randolph.

Jimmy Carter was a great man, and his commitment to humility and to service should be a model to everyone. Perhaps, one day, he will be.

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