(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Losing re-election could have sent him running away from public service, but former President Jimmy Carter spent decades after the White House advocating for causes around the globe.
After losing re-election in 1980, Carter and his wife moved back to his native small town of Plains, Georgia to ponder his future.
“What was I going to do with 25 more years of my life? I had no idea. I didn't have a job. There were no job opportunities there.”
The former president was 74 when he talked with WBBM's Kris Kridel about his book “The Virtues of Aging.”
“After we have accumulated in a lifetime, you know, education and experience and knowledge of the world. What are we gonna do with all this treasure of potential wisdom?”
He also mentioned how the loss hurt the former First Lady more than him.
“I had to think of all the things that might be on the bright side of life. So I didn't suffer nearly as much as Rosalynn.”
“So it really took you out of yourself caring for her,” Kridel asked.
“It did. And although I didn't want to travel for a while, I had to pay a very large debt.”
Before his death, Carter spent decades working toward humanitarian causes. He wrote several books, taught and established the Carter Center where he advocated for democracy and public health across the globe.
“Well, looking back on it, it's obvious what Rosalynn and I shared after we left the White House, is shared with millions of Americans,” Carter said.
“I didn't intend to be retired from the White House when I was. I was involuntarily retired 4 years earlier than I had ever anticipated.”
Through the Carter Center, the former president worked to promote free and fair elections, eradicate disease and stop wars.
He told WBBM then that he was frustrated that then-President Clinton had not called on him to help in the Middle East after Carter led a peace deal between Egypt and Israel at Camp David 20 years earlier.
“Any major regrets?” Kridel asked.
“Well, other than not having a chance to pursue the Middle East peace process,” Carter started to say.
“But in the way you handled your presidency or or your reelection?”
“Not really. I've looked back and I've written a book and I've seen other books written about me, by people who served with me in administration and also by famous news reporters and by biographers, there's very little for which I could reasonably have any regret.”
Carter talked about his frustrations with campaign finance laws that he saw leading to a breakdown in political discourse.
“I was just watching some TV ads this morning on Chicago stations, and it's all negative. It's all how horrible a person my opponent is.”
Carter’s single term saw inflation and gasoline prices skyrocket amid an oil crisis. He brokered a Middle East peace deal and won the Nobel Peace Prize but was not always popular with his successors.
Both fellow Democrat and Republican presidents were at times made angry or uncomfortable by his outspokenness.
Carter died at the age of 100 on Sunday.
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