Jimmy Carter: Bush Will Make a Good Ex-President

Posted on Oct 25, 2007

Jimmy Carter told the new Web site Guardian America that, compared to the Bush presidency at least, George W. Bush will make a “very good” ex-president. Carter also said of Hillary Clinton’s seemingly insurmountable lead in the polls: “One thing I know is that, this far ahead of time in the past, it’s been impossible to predict the outcome of the election.”

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Guardian:

What kind of ex-president do you think current President Bush will make?

Compared to his presidency? Very good. I don’t know what his plans are. I’ve never discussed it with him. But all of the presidents who have left office since I did, including Reagan and Bush Sr and Clinton, have sent delegations down to the Carter Center, so they could decide whether to emulate what I was doing or do something different. I presume that George Bush Jr, George W Bush, will do the same thing. And he’ll be welcome.

There’ve been reports that President Bush wants to establish a center down in Texas to promote such issues as democracy and human rights. Do you think he’s in a good position to do that, after his presidency?

That would be a good project for him to undertake. I have no quarrels with that. I think it’s a good idea. I hadn’t heard that before, but I think it would be perfectly all right.

How do you think President Bush is viewed around the world?

Well, all I know is what major public opinion polls have shown, like the Pew Foundation and others. Our government under President Bush is very unpopular, even within countries that have always been staunch friends of ours, like Jordan and Egypt. I saw one Pew poll that showed that public approbation of this administration in Washington was less than 5%. And in previous years, we could count on 75% or 85% approval from people in Jordan, for instance.

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