What the Editorials Are Saying About Jimmy Carter

A sampling of editorials on the death of Jimmy Carters in major newspapers on Monday:

• Wall Street Journal: "Carter brought good intentions and admirable character to the White House, but he was unable to address the main problems of his time," write the editors. "Democrats nominated him as a fresh face in a center-right era of American politics, but he was ground down by the left and his Presidency paved the way for the great Reagan restoration." Read the full editorial.

• New York Times: "America Needs More Jimmy Carters," reads the headline of the editorial. Carter "has been judged to be a middle-of-the-pack president, his one term in office remembered for circumstances and events that simply overwhelmed him: the seizure in Iran of 52 American hostages, the bungled attempt to rescue them, the gasoline lines, inflation, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan," it reads. "Yet he is also considered one of America's greatest ex-presidents, for using the residual star power of his office to help his successors and his country as a peacemaker, backstage diplomat, human rights champion, monitor of free elections and advocate for the homeless while finding time to write poetry and, by his own example, providing the best possible case for traditional religious values." Read the full editorial.
• Washington Post: "In truth, portraying a great divide between Mr. Carter's presidency and his post-presidency is a bit simplistic," the editors write. "He was a complicated man, but consistent in his principles, which were guided, perhaps more than those of any other modern American president, by his religious beliefs." Read the full editorial.

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "In many ways, Jimmy Carter was the Best American," writes Bert Roughton for the editorial board of Carter's home-state newspaper. "Consider the traits that describe the best of what it is to be an American: independence, tenacity, generosity, frugality, competence, honesty, fidelity, ambition, courage. All resided deeply in Carter." Read the full piece.
• USA Today: "He was perhaps the most unimperial of all U.S. presidents when in power, starting the tradition of walking part of the inaugural parade route and favoring the fireside chat over the Oval Office address," reads the piece, which is not technically an editorial but an assessment by the opinion-page staff. "As an ex-president, he lived the life of an unassuming man whom you might bump into waiting to board a flight." A takeaway point: "It is time to recognize him for what he was—a better president than the caricatures of time gave him credit for, and perhaps the best former president ever." Read the full piece.

(More Jimmy Carter stories.)