What we forget about Jimmy Carter's
legacy
Opinion by Julian Zelizer, CNN Political
Analyst
January 1, 2021
"Jimmy Carter:
Rock and Roll President," an engaging documentary that airs on CNN on
January 3, takes us back to when this largely unknown governor from Georgia --
mocked as "Jimmy Who?" -- ran for the highest office in the land and
defeated incumbent Gerald Ford.
Opinion:
What we forget about Jimmy Carter's legacy - CNN
Carter's
friendship with Willie Nelson one that has endured through several decades.
Nelson and singer Emmylou Harris visited Carter in the Oval Office in 1977.
Why
would the rock-and-roll set flock to a man who, as president, is remembered
today as being a micro-managing, straight-arrow engineer who failed to inspire
or understand leadership?
The
reason is that in his prime, Jimmy Carter was cool. He championed a kind of
political populism that was extremely attractive to Americans disillusioned
with Washington in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate.
What
we forget about Jimmy Carter’s legacy | Shechaim's News of the Day
(wordpress.com)
Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and
public affairs at Princeton University and author of the book, "Burning
Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New
Republican Party." Follow him on Twitter @julianzelizer. The views expressed in this commentary are his
own. Watch CNN Films' "Jimmy
Carter: Rock & Roll President" Sunday, January 3 at 9 p.m. ET. View more opinion at CNN.
