Voters Say Carter Is Best of Living Ex-Presidents Say what? How could this be?

Of course it’s all in the details. The data relate to living ex-presidents and their performance since leaving the White House. It is not a referendum on their presidencies, although I am sure it will be reported as this by some. According to Rasmussen:

Democrats are much more supportive of the presidents from their party than Republicans are, although Clinton is the favorite of Democratic voters over Carter by a 48% to 41% margin. The two GOP presidents get single-digit support.

Among Republicans, 35% rate the first President Bush as best, while 20% feel that way about his son. But 22% like Carter best and 13% favor Clinton.

Voters not affiliated with either party rank the ex-presidents as follows: Carter (33%), George H.W. Bush (28%), Clinton (21%) and George W. Bush (4%).

So let’s see – Dems only have two, Republicans have two, and it’s no surprise that Dems prefer Clinton over Carter. I’m surprised that Republicans prefer Carter over Clinton, given Clinton’s recent North Korean hostage return success and Carter’s out-of-office behavior. As for independents, there’s still quite a bit of negative sentiment towards George W. Bush that probably skews the results.

So what has Carter done as an ex-president? Built houses with Habitat for Humanity? Ok, that’s a huge positive. Conducted his own foreign policy? Certified the election of his dictator buddy Hugo Chavez? Broken the unwritten rule about ex-Presidents criticizing current Oval Office holders? There’s three big negatives.

There’s one other positive though, which Doug Power’s post at MichelleMalkin.com sums up nicely:

The best thing that Jimmy Carter ever did for America was to leave office, and as such he’s not only the best living ex-president, but possibly the best ex-president ever.

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