Speaking to a sold-out Smithsonian Associates event at the Lincoln Theater this week, President Jimmy Carter was relaxed and forthright talking about his newest book, White House Diary, and other things in a conversation with PBS' Ray Suarez.
Never one to shun praise, President Carter talked about his failures candidly and without shame. He looked and acted chipper, much younger than his 86 years.
He called the year-long Iranian hostage crisis "a shadow" on his presidency. Fifty-two Americans were captured and held for more than a year in Iran beginning November 4, 1979. They were released immediately after Ronald Reagan, who beat Carter on November 4, 1980, took office on January 20, 1981.
The reasons he lost the 1980 race, Carter said, were the hostage situation, high interest rates and the price of oil. "I've had a good life since then," he said to audience approval, and his appearance and demeanor were proof that he has.
He said he had never prayed more in his life than he did about the hostages. "God says sometimes yes...sometimes no," and sometimes, to much crowd laughter, "'you gotta be kidding.'"
He admitted it was a mistake to treat the Democratic Party "in a secondary manner" like he did when he was president. His competitor, Ted Kennedy, capitalized on Carter's neglect, and the party split, another contributing factor to his 1980 defeat, he said.
He said his famous "malaise" speech was "my best speech" and the word "malaise" was never used in it, but his old nemesis, Senator Kennedy, stuck that on the speech where it has remained.
"Books have been written about that one speech," Carter said. In it he called upon Americans to abandon their "addiction to consumption" but Americans had (have) an "aversion to efficiency."
During his presidency "we kept the world at peace...we never dropped a bomb...we never lost a missile, we had some successes."
Much of the conversation centered on recent events, unresolved from the time President Carter sat in the White House 30 years ago (1976-1980) which he listed: the Middle East, energy, human rights, the environment, "the Koreas," China, Iran.
The biggest difference between now and then, he said, is polarization on Capitol Hill, fed by constant news, media competition, and news cycles. News and headlines today are frequently "contrived and false."
He praised members of the U.S. Senate for "the most courageous vote of any action the Senate has ever taken" when it voted in 1978 for the Panama Canal Treaty which was heavily criticized then and helped defeat some of the senators who voted for it. Carter mentioned several times during the evening the cooperation enjoyed between Democrats and Republicans during his term: "I had good support."
Things have changed a wee bit.
Republicans have been "completely irresponsible" in the first 18 months of President Barack Obama's term, trying to block everything the president does, and President Carter faults the "enormous influx" of lobbyists' money and the U.S. Supreme Court decision opening money gates to all things possible. The crowd cheered lustily.
Candidates in the mid-1970s and early 1980s relied upon federal funding for their campaigns, the "$2 checkoff" from taxpayers, and that was it, he noted. Now the goal is "to try to destroy your opponent."
When Suarez tried to draw critical remarks from Carter about President Obama, Carter refused to cooperate: "I'm not going to criticize President Obama."
America's war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is "a hopeless case...Since the Middle Ages anyone who's ever invaded Afghanistan has come out the loser." He called Afghanistan's leadership, the "corrupt government in Kabul."
Carter thinks that by lowering expectations, the U.S. can exit without total embarrassment. "My hope and prayer is that we will prevail."
He said "the greatest challenge" the world faces is the "growing chasm" between rich and poor which affects almost all nations.
During the evening no mention was made of Carter's Nobel Peace Prize and only a passing nod to his wife, Rosalynn, from a reference in the book to a gift for her.
President Carter was originally scheduled to speak to Smithsonian members on September 29 but was sidelined by sudden illness.
The audience of several hundred, mostly middle-aged Caucasians, greeted the president with a standing ovation, gave him another at the end of his talk, and then Carter signed books on stage while the people lined up.
He said the book represents about 20 percent of more than 20 volumes of notes he made dictating to a tape recorder about seven or eight times daily while he was in office, and he will release the remaining contents later.
(Hmmm, you think President Obama is keeping a diary?)
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