Cheers for Carter from Plains to Oslo

Four presidents have won a Nobel Prize for Peace: Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama. It is not an honor that comes easily or often to American presidents.

It was awarded to Jimmy Carter in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

Jimmy Carter is one of the famous people who have met me. The first time, he was governor of a some southern state seeking support for a run for president, The second time, about 30 years later, at a retrospective on Walter Mondale’s career, he didn’t seem to remember our earlier conversation.

We first met in an oblong office I shared with Frank Mankiewicz. Frank had been Bobby Kennedy’s press secretary and was still a power in D.C. One morning, Frank told me a guy named Jimmy Carter who intended to run for president was coming in to see him and Frank invited me to join them. I said, “Who the hell wants to meet a peanut farmer from Georgia?” I learned much later that I was not alone in my skepticism. When Carter told his mother, Lillian, that he intended to run for president, she asked seriously, ‘President of what?”

Despite my indifference, Frank brought Carter over for a hello. Carter was gracious, but I could still smell peanuts. Somehow, he became president of the United States without my help and apparently to his mother’s surprise.

Among the first things he did as president that got my attention was moving his Vice President, Walter Mondale, into the West Wing, where no vice president had been before. Mondale easily saw President Carter daily to discuss serious matters. Political scientists talk today of the new vice presidency, one of involvement and responsibility that began with that move.

Jimmy Carter may not have been a great president, but seemed always interested in doing good things, notably in the Middle East. He has, as former president, worked successfully for decades at making our world a better and more peaceful place.

His talent for peacemaking shone clearly in his success in bringing the leaders of Egypt and Israel together, enemies led from the West Bank conflict to Camp David cooperation.

Who among the Republican presidential contenders today might do as Carter has done, who might merit a Nobel Prize if they were to win: Donald Trump? Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Ted Cruz? Only Nikki Haley has shown any interest or understanding of what it may take to make peace possible. She is at 5 percent in polls of Republican seeking the presidency.

Teddy Roosevelt will certainly remain the only Republican president to be chosen., unless the prize is altered to recognize beating up politically lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people. How many countries are encouraged to ban books?

Jimmy Carters mother, Lillian, would certainly ask, “President of what?” about any of them.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary, and authored a memoir “From Nowhere to Somewhere.”