By making character a key factor in presidential elections, Carter forced Americans to consider how much it mattered to them. As it turns out, not much

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President Jimmy Carter, dead at age 100, lived long enough to glimpse history’s verdict upon him. It was not as bad as the universally applied “failed presidency” when he lost to Ronald Reagan in 1980, and it universally praised him as a good man doing good works as the “best ex-president” ever.

The 2002 Nobel Peace Prize cemented the latter designation, though the prestige of the prize diminished when it was later awarded to Al Gore (2007) and Barack Obama (2009). Three Democrat presidential candidates in seven years seemed a touch partisan.

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The impact of Carter’s presidency was more significant than the Camp David Accords and the deregulation that would later be associated with the Reagan revolution. A relatively unknown figure when he announced his presidential candidacy in late 1974, Carter presented himself to the American people as something of what he would become after leaving office, the good man who would do good works. In 1976 the emphasis was on being........

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