| Nobel Peace Prize
|
October
2002 |
Carter Finally Gets His
Jimmy Carter gets to add "Nobel Laureate" to his resume now, and about time, too. It's hard to believe that he didn't get one for the Camp David deal while Arafat and Begin, murdering thugs both, got one, to say nothing of H. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho (who at least had the decency to decline the honor) for signing a peace treaty and continuing a war. Then again, perhaps not.
Carter was, of course, a failure as a president -- any prime minister who gave that "malaise" speech would have been voted out the next day. To be fair, the times were against him, and it is doubtful that Washington or Lincoln would have done better. Still, the peanut farmer left most of us aghast when he was surprised by the Soviets' invasion of Afghanistan, blew the Iranian revolution, and tried to run an ethical adminstration with the likes of Bert Lance in it.
True to form, Carter's galavanting around the world to resolve conflicts often appears naive, and often is. Yet he has invented a role for himself as elder statesmen that many future ex-Presidents (Clinton and Bush the Younger) would be hard pressed to improve. Whether it is observing elections in countries with little experience of them, or just talking to two sides of a conflict who won't talk to each other, Carter has used the ex-Presidency for something more than self-enrichment and ego trips.
Reagan can be excused on the grounds of illness, Bush the Elder perhaps by virtue of age, while Clinton has wasted almost two years. Carter has succeeded in remaining relevant in world politics, and for that alone, he merits a prize of some sort.