In December of 1974, there was a major headline on the editorial page of the Atlanta Constitution

that said, Jimmy Carter is running for white. I'm running for president. I'm running the president.

You're listening to the political scene.

I'm Tyler Foggett, a senior editor at the New Yorker.

President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100.

You might think of him as a humanitarian, an evangelical Christian Democrat, a champion of civil rights and of solar energy. Or, you might think of him as a one-term president who struggled

to lead a country in crisis and the last Democratic president before the election of Ronald Reagan.

Jimmy Carter was unpopular when he left office in 1981. But more than any other

president, he saw his reputation shift in later years. What does the evolution of Carter's legacy

tell us about American politics and about ourselves? Lawrence Wright, a New Yorker staff writer,

has spent time with President Carter. He even

wrote a play about the Camp David Accords, the peace deal that Carter brokered between Israel and Egypt.

We spoke just as Carter entered hospice care, more than a year ago, when Carter was 98.

Thank you for taking the time to talk about Carter.

Yeah.

So you've actually met President Carter.

Can you talk a little bit about sort of when that was and what the occasion for it was?

Well, the first time I met him, he was governor of Georgia.

We were living in Atlanta.

So you go way back.

Well, my wife was a bookseller, and he came to autograph his book, Why Not the Best?

It was his campaign book. And at the time, he was a figure of curiosity and fun in Georgia.

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