This wasn't the only factor, of course, but I thought at the time that it was a big one, along with that enormous lurch to the right.

But I was reading an essay today by a man who was a young staffer in the Carter White House in the 1970s, and who kept up with the former president in the years since. He wrote that nothing ticked off Carter more than the idea that his administration was lack-luster, a failure, or undistinguished compared to the Carter Center's achievements and building all those houses.

Primarily, we tend to forget the Camp David Accords, which led to a permanent peace between Israel and one of its strongest and most dangerous enemies, Egypt. Carter did that himself, not his State Department or National Security Adviser.

Not to get into a list-making mode, but Carter also solved the Panama Canal problem, which was a festering guerilla war in the making; he made 'Human Rights' a priority in US diplomacy, in strong contrast to the previous few Cold-War "human rights? what is that?" administrations of the postwar era; he established the Departments of Energy and of Education; and he normalized relations with "Communist China", exchanging ambassadors for the first time.

And yes, I know of all of his failings and flubs as well, leading as you note to his crushing defeat by Reagan in 1980. But I think this week is a good one to remember all his positive achievements, both as president and former president.