You know how I feel about obit cartoons. You know I try to only draw them for people of great significance. Yes, this is one. When people are making comments about Jimmy Carter on my Trump/Musk cartoon and blog, I knew I had to draw a cartoon about him.
I talked to a colleague in 2023 about drawing an obit cartoon about Carter. He said he already had one in the can. That means he had drawn his obit cartoon on Carter and would publish it upon his death. Today, he published three. Another colleague published his Carter obit cartoon tonight that he had drawn two years ago. I’ve already seen a few others and I wonder if any of those were drawn two years ago. I’m not good at that.
I hate drawing ahead. I once had an editor ask me to draw a few evergreen cartoons for slow news days, and I refused. “Evergreen” means cartoons that are based on nothing. Unlike Seinfeld which is a show about nothing, evergreen cartoons suck. Also, my style changes by the month. If I had drawn an obit cartoon for Carter two years ago to publish today, I’d hate it. I like to jump on the issues as they happen.
I do have ideas for the future and I put them in my idea folder, but I don’t draw them. And when events unfold for me to use those ideas, I usually trash them and come up with something new.
Most of the ideas I’ve seen on Carter had him building houses in Heaven. I don’t blame those cartoonists because that’s the most obvious concept and editors are going to love them. And while he is America’s best former president, I wanted to focus on his accomplishments as president. What’s a greater accomplishment than the Camp David Accords?
A lot of people say Carter was our best former president. While that’s true, it’s not entirely fair. For years, people have been saying Carter was a bad president but a great former president and it’s been said so much, that most people who do say it can’t say what made him a bad president. In case you haven’t noticed, America forgot Donald Trump is our worst president and just returned him to the White House (sic). Our collective memory is shit.
In 2022, Sienna College Research Institute surveyed historians, political scientists, and presidential scholars to rank presidents from first to worst. President Jimmy Carter is among the middle, coming in at 24. Presidents from the same era below him are Gerald Ford, George W. Bush, and Richard Nixon. Yes, Trump is among the worst, coming in at 43, with only James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson below him.
Jimmy Carter got a bad rap he did not deserve. He wasn’t just a good president or a good former president, he was a great man. Great men are sorely lacking in today’s politics. Carter’s legacy is greater than most.
Oh yeah: I shook Jimmy Carter’s hand many years ago. It was while I lived in Americus, Georgia which is in the same county as Plains, Carter’s home. I was in the 7th grade and he came home during his 1980 campaign and while walking through the massive crowd, he bumped into me and shook my hand. My step-cousins at that time (I don’t remember their names) and I was featured on the front page of the Macon Telegraph. I don’t remember why. Naturally, after shaking his hand and living in his home county, I wanted him to win the election. I think my mom did too. My stepdad voted for Reagan. I still loved him. A few years later, Amy Carter was a classmate of mine.
Update: One of my diligent readers, Ron Williams, did a little digging and I’m impressed. He found the news clipping from the Macon Telegraph of my step-cousins and I meeting Jimmy Carter.
This must be from 1980. Ah, Kurk and Barbara. I’m sorry I forgot their names. I’m the one on the left holding the Confederate flag? Why am I holding a Confederate flag? I don’t know. Maybe someone in the crowd handed it to me. I definitely didn’t think about the significance of it. Let’s blame the Dukes of Hazard. I don’t remember that shirt either. I hope Barbara and Kurk are doing well. I think the photographer, Linda Gillis, was also the reporter. I was a stupid kid back then but I remember thinking Kurk was pretty smart.
Creative note: This is my first cartoon dated for 2025. I was planning on a New Year’s Day cartoon and I was going to draw that tomorrow, but now I don’t care. I started drawing this around 9 P.M.
Drawn in 30 seconds:
Timelapse:
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I cried when Carter was not re-elected. I was 17 years old, in college and studying to be an environmental scientist. I told my mom that American's would live to regret doing that. Carter's life after his presidency is that of a model citizen and statesman. Because of him I value democracy, fair elections, the work of Habitat for Humanity. I have used the moral fiber of President Carter as the standard to judge every president after him. They all have a long way to go in their lifetimes and some will never get within light-years of Carter's stature as a human being and the President of the United States of America. His memory will always be a blessing for me and many others.
I think it's perfect. Great toon. R.I.P. to a truly great man.