Today’s USA Today has an interview with Jimmy Carter, a reasonably puffy piece, where he suggests that Bush’s public stock will rise in the years to come.\u00c2\u00a0 The up-shot, such as it is, comes with Carter unwilling to say he’ll come up to Carter’s high estimation of Truman.<\/p>\n
But the best advice for Bush on raising his stock, I’ll suppose, comes with the Carter post-presidency resume:<\/p>\n
Won the Nobel Peace Prize, built houses with Habitat for Humanity, observed elections abroad, written almost 2 dozen books, and through the work of the Altanta-based Carter Center, worked to virtually eliminate the debilitating Guinea Worm disease in Africa.<\/em><\/p>\n Political sour-pusses on the right have written books calling Jimmy Carter “Our Worst Ex-President”, opinions that I’ve seen expressed in part by some figures on the Left (outside the political\u00c2\u00a0mainstream, as the case beggars).\u00c2\u00a0 But the title sticks for Carter “Best Ex-President” — notwithstanding some good competition from William Howard Taft and from John Quincy Adams.<\/p>\n Let’s allow for a marking off of his Nobel Peace Prize.\u00c2\u00a0 “Won by a Hater.\u00c2\u00a0 What a Surprise!\u00c2\u00a0 Hey… Arafat won that Award, you know?”\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em>Let’s mark off “observed elections abroad” — Hey, now — he lifted up a flimsy rationale against the continuation of Aristaide’s reign in Haiti — danged American Imperialism<\/a>!<\/p>\n That leaves us with — He Built Homes and he eliminated Guinea Worm disease.<\/em><\/p>\n So what Bush needs to do in order to increase his political stock and have a fruitful post-presidency is to build some homes and to eliminate a disease.\u00c2\u00a0 The question is… what disease should George W Bush eliminate?<\/p>\n