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Jonathan Yardley Engineer of his own defeat
WHITE HOUSE DIARY By Jimmy Carter Farrar Straus Giroux. 570 pp. $30
JIMMY CARTER By Julian E. Zelizer Times. 183 pp. $23
Carter— in addition to the two reviewed here, there is “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: The Georgia Years 1924-1974,” by E. Stanly Godbold Jr. (Oxford Univ., $29.95) — is unclear, but an outpouring it most certainly is, though how many readers will welcome it is uncertain. This is because the principal effect of Carter’s diary of his four White House years and Julian E. Zelizer’s brief assessment of them is to remind us that it was a difficult time for the country and that Carter, for all his strengths, was not the right man for the time.
P
It has been three decades since American voters decided, by a thumping margin, that they’d rather take their chances with Ronald Reagan than give another term to Carter, and during those years Carter has done much to refurbish his reputation. Inspired by what appears to be a combination of genuine altruism and calculated public relations, at the age of 85 he has transformed himself into one of the world’s elder statesmen, won widespread respect for his efforts on behalf of various worthy causes and been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Perhaps it is for these three decades, not for his four years in the presidency, that history will remember him. He and his admirers can only hope so. Little of the blame for what happened between
Carter’s inauguration in 1977 and his involuntary return to Georgia in January 1981 can be laid directly at his feet. Much of any president’s time is spent reacting to events caused by others rather than initiating ones of his own — viz., the first two years of the Obama administration — and Carter was no exception. Though he did establish the Department of Energy, push through ratification of the treaties turning over the Panama Canal to Panama and preside over the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, he was bedeviled over and over by such
recisely whom we must thank for this sudden outpouring of books by and about Jimmy
matters as the effects at home (gas lines, inflation) of the OPEC decision to raise oil prices, the taking of American hostages in Iran and the predictable run of scandals and contretemps among his appointees and associates. Zelizer, who teaches at Princeton and seems to publish almost as often as his fellow Princetonian Joyce Carol Oates, acknowledges in this latest volume in “The American Presidents” series of mini-biographies that Carter suffered a reputation as “incompetent, weak, and unable to lead” while in the White House, but says in rebuttal that he “was an exceptionally smart man” who “was unafraid to innovate, willing to take risks by experimenting with new policy ideas and challenging the orthodoxies of both political parties.” This is true, as is also Zelizer’s argument that Carter’s training “as an engineer helped to shape [his] approach to tackling issues.”He “developed a technical and managerial, as well as a nonideological, mind-set to problem solving that would inform him throughout his career.” But as the presidency of Herbert
Hoover nearly a half-century earlier had demonstrated, the engineer’s “mind-set” is not necessarily ideally suited to the challenges the presidency poses. Carter was exceptionally skilled at analyzing issues and proposing solutions, as his essential role in the Camp David negotiations made clear, but his overweening confidence in his own brilliance and rectitude made him impatient with those he considered his inferiors — just about all of us — and did nothing to improve his relations with Congress. In an afterword to his diaries, he admits that “sometimes I was not adequately concerned with how my proposals affected the views of the voters on whom [Congress] relied for reelection” and that “a somewhat less rigid approach to these sensitive issues could have paid rich dividends.” The key word there is “rigid.” As Zelizer puts it,
“Through most of his presidency, Carter was unable to nurture strong relations with congressional Democrats or core Democratic constituencies, as too often he was unwilling to engage in the kind of deal making and compromises that were expected from the White House.” Stubborn and willful, he was more comfortable being holier than thou than with the back-slapping and horse-trading that are so important in executive-legislative relationships. The irony is that he occupied the White House at a time when bipartisanship was still in flower, and he was able to work closely with congressional Republicans, especially the Senate minority leader —“I met with Howard Baker, which is always a pleasant experience and constructive,” he says in one diary entry — yet he couldn’t work with his own party. Early in 1978 he told his diary, “I feel
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more at home with the conservative Democratic and Republican members of Congress than I do the others, although the liberals vote with me more often.” Mostly, though, they did so holding their noses, and as Edward Kennedy began to move toward his unsuccessful campaign for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination, the split between Carter and the left wing of his party became so wide, and feelings so acrimonious, that his presidency effectively fell apart. He had run in 1976 as an outsider, capitalizing with great skill on the public reaction to Watergate and the suspicions about Washington it had engendered, but in office he proved unable to strike a balance between his maverick image and the need to work with the Washington establishment. The trouble with running against Washington is that although it may play well out there on the hustings, it ignores the reality that any successful candidate will have to deal with Washington as it is rather than as others wish it were. Carter was simply too rigid and self-righteous to accept this unfortunate reality and work with it, and he paid the price. Still, in comparison with his relations with the news media, Carter and Congress had a four-year love-in. From one of his first diary entries on the subject (“as always, the reporters are searching for some signs of discord or disharmony, and when a slight incident does occur and is quickly resolved, it’s greatly exaggerated in the news media”) to one of the last (“The irresponsibility of the news media is almost nauseating”), Carter rarely rises above a self-pitying whine. As one who has spent half a century in newspaper work, I think I know a good deal more about
the press than Carter does, and some of my judgments of it are considerably harsher than his. But his endless rants in these diaries strike me as having more to do with his own psychology than with the business, the positive aspects of which completely escape his notice as he zeroes in on its vanity, shallowness and stupidity. Interestingly, these are among the few moments in these stupendously dull diaries when Carter permits his emotions to rise to the surface. For the most part he is dry, mechanical, literal-minded, petulant and utterly humorless. What, exactly, are we to say about the mind and heart of a man who can write (and then choose to publish for all to read) a passage such as this: “So far I don’t feel isolated from the rest of the country since I’ve been in the White House. Reverend James Baker from South Carolina, immediately after he talked to me, called his sister-in-law and was so excited that he died, unfortunately. I called his wife to express my regrets.” That must have made her day.
yardleyj@washpost.com
LITERARY CALENDAR SEPT. 27-OCT. 3, 2010
27 MONDAY | 6:30 P.M. Political
cartoonist, graphic novelist and columnist Ted Rall discusses and signs his new book, “The Anti-American Manifesto,” at Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St. NW, 202-387-7638. 7 P.M. Journalist Fatima Bhutto discusses “Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir,” a look at one of Pakistan’s most influential political dynasties, at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-364-1919.
28 TUESDAY | 7 P.M. Historian James Swanson, author of the best-selling
“Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer,” reads from and discusses his new book, “Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse,” at the National Archives, William G. McGowan Theater, 700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 202-357-5000. He will also speak on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 202-364-1919, and again on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at the Newseum, Knight TV Studio, Level 3, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. A book signing follows. This event is part of the museum’s “Inside Media” series; 888-639-7386 or visit
www.newseum.org. 7P.M. The Maryland Humanities Council
launches its third annual One Maryland, One Book program with a reading and discussion with Warren St. John, the author of this year’s reading selection, “Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference,” at Montgomery College (Takoma Park Campus), Cultural Arts Center, 7995 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, Md. A reception and book signing follows. For complete details, call 240-567-7417 or visit
www.onemarylandonebook.org. 7P.M. Marc Cenedella, the founder and chief of the job-search site TheLadders, discusses and signs his new book, “You’re Better Than Your Job Search” (written with Matthew Rothenberg), at Borders Books-White Flint, 11301 Rockville Pike, Kensington, Md., 301-816-1067. 7P.M. Journalist Jeff Sharlet discusses and signs his new book, “C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy,” at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 202-364-1919.
29 WEDNESDAY | Noon. Philip Dray discusses his new book, “There Is Power in aUnion: The Epic Story of Labor in America,” as part of the U.S. Capitol
Historical Society’s reading series at the VFW Building, Ketchum Hall, 200 Maryland Ave. NE. Call 202-543-8919, ext. 38, or e-mail
uschs@uschs.org to RSVP. 1P.M. Anglican priest Michael Ward, chaplain of Peterhouse at the University of Cambridge, discusses and signs “Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis” at the Library of Congress, James Madison Bldg., West Dining Room, 101 Independence Ave. SE, 202-707-2138. 5:30 P.M. Edmund de Waal, a potter and curator of ceramics at the Victoria & Albert Museum, discusses his new book, “The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss,” his chronicle of the family of Charles Ephrussi and their collection of Japanese ivory carvings, at the Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St. NW. Ephrussi is depicted in Renoir’s iconic painting “Luncheon of the Boating Party.” For details and to RSVP, call 202-387-2151 or visit
www.phillipscollection.org. 6:30 P.M. Tucker Max, author of the best-selling “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell,” reads from and discusses his new book of irreverent essays, “Assholes Finish First,” at Borders Books-Downtown, 18th & L Sts. NW, 202-466-4999.
30 THURSDAY | Noon. Emil Draitser,a former journalist in the Soviet Union and now a professor of Russian at Hunter College, discusses and signs his new book, “Stalin’s Romeo Spy: The Remarkable Rise and Fall of the KGB’s Most Daring Operative,” at the International Spy Museum, 800 F St. NW, 202-393-7798.
3SUNDAY | 1 P.M. Mark N. Ozer discusses and signs his new illustrated book, “Massachusetts Avenue in the Gilded Age: Palaces & Privilege,” at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 202-364-1919.
SPECIAL NOTICE |Washington Writers’ Publishing House, a collective literary
press created in 1973, announces an
open call for its annual fiction and poetry prize contests from residents living within 60 driving miles of the Capitol (Baltimore region included). Book-length manuscripts should be submitted by Nov. 1. There is a fee of $20 for poetry, $25 for fiction. For complete guidelines, visit
www.washingtonwriters.org.
For more literary events, go to
washingtonpost.com/gog/ and search “book event.”
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2010
WASHINGTON BESTSELLERS PAPERBACK
FICTION 1 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
2 THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE 3 TRUE BLUE (Vision, $9.99) 65
(Vintage, $14.95). By Stieg Larsson. First book in the late Swede’s “Millennium Trilogy”; basis of new film.
26
(Vintage, $15.95). By Stieg Larsson. Sex trafficking between Sweden and Eastern Europe is exposed.
4
By David Baldacci. A cop (her sister is the D.C. chief of police) aims to resurrect her career and solve a murder.
4 THE SCARPETTA FACTOR (Berkley, $9.99) 3
By Patricia Cornwell. Scarpetta, wary of accepting a program offer from CNN, tackles yet another crime.
5 FORD COUNTY (Bantam, $15; Dell, $7.99) 6 PURSUIT OF HONOR (Pocket, $9.99) 4
By John Grisham. A debut batch of short fiction set in the same Mississippi community as “A Time to Kill.”
3
By Vince Flynn. A shocking al-Qaeda attack in D.C. summons Mitch Rapp and his team to action.
7 1022 EVERGREEN PLACE (Mira, $7.99) 8 LITTLE BEE (Simon & Schuster, $14) 3
By Debbie Macomber. This new Cedar Cove tale finds a single mom smitten with the man next door.
30
By Chris Cleave. This wry second novel from a British journalist explores the state of war and refugees.
9 SPARTAN GOLD (Berkley, $9.99). By Clive Cussler 10 HALF BROKE HORSES (Scribner, $15) 3
with Grant Blackwood. Twelve bottles of rare wine hold the key to an ancient, long-lost treasure.
2
By Jeanette Walls. A novel drawn from the real-life exploits of the author’s Texan grandmother.
NONFICTION/GENERAL 1 EAT PRAY LOVE: ONE WOMAN’S SEARCH FOR
146
EVERYTHING ACROSS ITALY, INDIA AND INDONESIA (Penguin, $15). By Elizabeth Gilbert. New feature film.
2 THE OFFICIAL SAT STUDY GUIDE (SECOND EDITION) 3 THE 5 LOVE LANGUAGES: THE SECRET TO LOVE 4 THREE CUPS OF TEA: ONE MAN’S MISSION
TO PROMOTE PEACE (Griffin, $19.95) By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
5 NIGHT (FSG, $9). By Elie Wiesel 68
The terrifying account of his experiences in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
6 CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS: TOOLS FOR TALKING 3
WHEN STAKES ARE HIGH (McGraw-Hill, $16.95) By Kerry Patterson et al. For all aspects of your life.
7 MENNONITE IN A LITTLE BLACK DRESS: A MEMOIR 8 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SPANISH-ENGLISH
ENGLISH-SPANISH DICTIONARY (Simon & Schuster, $5.99). Fifth edition.
9 THE GLASS CASTLE (Scribner, $14) THINKING (Back Bay, $15.99) 118
By Jeannette Walls. A daughter’s memoir of her eccentric parents and unorthodox upbringing.
10 BLINK: THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT By Malcolm Gladwell. Behind our snap decisions.
77
Rankings reflect sales for the week ended Sept. 19, 2010. The charts may not be reproduced without permission from Nielsen BookScan. Copyright © 2010 by Nielsen BookScan. (The right-hand column of numbers represents weeks on this list, which premiered in Book World on Jan. 11, 2004. The bestseller lists in print alternate between hardcover and paperback; the complete list can be found online.)
6
Hardback Bestsellers at
voices.washingtonpost.com/political-bookworm
22
OF GOING HOME (Holt, $14). By Rhoda Janzen Coping, all at once, with a stray husband and car crash.
1 42
(College Board, $21.99). This revised manual offers 10 practice tests and loads of tips.
2
THAT LASTS (Northfield, $14.99). By Gary D. Chapman Understanding the needs of that someone special.
175
Friday IN STYLE: Joyce Maynard
WILLIAM MORROW
BOOK WORLD THIS WEEK
COMING IN STYLE MONDAY | A North Korean spy receives long-delayed
instructions in Young-ha Kim’s novel Your Republic Is Calling You.
TUESDAY | A Geography of Secrets, a new novel by Frederick Reuss, uncovers the lives of two Washington-area intelligence workers.
WEDNESDAY | In Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, an old murder is reenacted 25 years later. Could a
beast from another dimension be causing trouble in
Scarlett Thomas’s Our Tragic Universe? And New in Paperback.
THURSDAY | The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy, translated by Cathy Porter, sheds new light on her own life and Leo’s.
FRIDAY | The Good Daughters of Joyce Maynard’s new novel should ask their parents some tough questions.
SATURDAY | Can a half-human, half-ape girl find happiness in Laurence Gonzales’s biotech thriller, Lucy?
voices.washingtonpost.com/political-bookworm
Join us as we debate the issues and authors making news today.
6
Read our blog, Political Bookworm, which focuses on books that stir the national political conversation.
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