STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We are remembering Jimmy Carter this week, and we have a glimpse of the former president in defeat. Carter, you will recall, won the presidency in 1976, and then lost it in 1980. His defeat was seen as a rejection of him as much as an embrace of his opponent, Ronald Reagan. And for years afterwards, some Democrats running for office didn't even want to be seen with him. Carter eventually went on to a long and high-profile post-presidency, but first he had to dig himself out of a hole. In 2007, Carter came on this program and talked of that experience, starting when he left the White House and went home to Plains, Georgia.
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JIMMY CARTER: I was more than $1 million in debt. I didn't have a job. We had a business that had collapsed while I was in the White House.
INSKEEP: This was the famous peanut farm?
CARTER: That's right. Well, the peanut farm was still going. But I had a business that was a warehousing business where I bought peanuts and processed them for sale, and I had a cotton gin. And while I was in the White House, that business kind of went down the drain. So I was shocked after I lost the election to find out I was also - had lost my fortune and was deeply in debt. So I sold my business finally and wrote a book called "Keeping Faith," a biography of my life in the White House and eventually worked my way out of the hole. Then the Carter Center was born, and for the last 25 years, my life could not have been more expansive and unpredictable and adventurous and gratifying.
INSKEEP: Let me ask you about that work, which has taken you around the world. You've been involved in any number of diplomatic missions, official and unofficial, and visits to various countries and observing elections. People have often said of you - and I don't know if you take this as a compliment or perhaps a backhanded compliment. They'll say, well, Jimmy Carter has accomplished more since he left office than he ever did while he was in office. Do you agree with that statement?
CARTER: Well, I don't disagree with it. I tried to do the best I could in both cases. When I was in office, we kept our nation at peace. We protected our interest. We never were called upon to drop a bomb or to launch a missile or to fire a bullet at anyone else. We promoted peace for others, like between Israel and Egypt, a treaty that hasn't been violated in a single word now for going on 30 years. We did a lot of good things. But I have to say that the post-presidential years have been much more an opportunity for me and Rosalynn personally to become involved in the lives of other people around the world. And this has been completely a different kind of involvement.
INSKEEP: Don't you miss the power?
CARTER: Sometimes I wish I had the power, yes. But we've learned to do without it. We do more by enticements and by persuasion and trying to inspire other people, recruiting a lot of allies and friends and supporters who have the power or the money. So it's a much more complex way to build up influence than just to exert the power of a great nation. So I can't say that I prefer the power of a president. I think what we have now is in many ways superior.
INSKEEP: Former President Jimmy Carter speaking in 2007. He lies in state at the Capitol this week, and we will have live coverage of his funeral. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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