Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Even at the time he left office, when his popularity was at its lowest, the general consensus was that he was a nice man who just wasn't built to be President. He was elected because he was the opposite of Nixon -- an honest, decent guy who seemed to earnestly want to do what was right.
Unfortunately, he was the opposite of Nixon in all ways -- and not all good. While Nixon was a talented politician who was good at foreign policy, Carter was the opposite of that. Carter also had no idea what to do about the stagflation issue which was rapidly worsening -- something we're seeing currently with another President who isn't quite so nice like Carter was.
Fortunately for Carter, he lived a very long time, and was able to do enough good things after his Presidency to where much of that will define him, rather than the pretty bad 1977-1981 years when he presided over the United States.