Copyright 1975, 1977 by Broadman Press
Copyright 1996 by Jimmy Carter
Reprinted with permission of Broadman Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 5 4 3
Designed by Ellen Beeler
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carter, Jimmy, 1924
Why not the best? : the first fifty years / Jimmy Carter : with an introduction by Doug Brinkley.
p. cm.
Originally published: Nashville : Broadman Press, 1975.
ISBN 1-55728-418-0 (p : alk. paper)
1. Carter, Jimmy, 1924 . 2. GovernorsGeorgiaBiography. 3. PresidentsUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
E873.A3 1996
973.926'092dc20
[B]
96-17579
CIP
Acknowledgment is made for use of quoted material on page ix.
From The Hand That Signed the Paper. Copyright 1939. From The Poems of Dylan Thomas. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
From Song to Woody, Words and Music by Bob Dylan. Copyright 1962, 1965, by Duchess Music Corporation, 445 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10022. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Photographs are from the Charles M. Rafshoon Photographs Collection in the Special Collections Department, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University. They include reproductions of Carter family photos as well as other photos taken by Mr. Rafshoon and used with his permission.
ISBN-13: 978-1-61075-460-6 (electronic)
Introduction
Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are.
Jos Ortega Gassett
In late 1974 when Georgia governor Jimmy Carters presidential ambitions were not taken seriously by the national media, he began writing a campaign autobiography that was instrumental in helping him capture the White House. With nearly one million copies eventually sold, Why Not the Best? convinced many skeptics that this eighth-generation Georgian was the best candidate to lead America into its third century. To a public still coming to terms with the Vietnam War and Watergate, Carters soothing memoir was a welcome affirmation of one candidates bedrock faith in old-fashioned public service based on duty, honor, competence, and honesty. Anyone who read Carters personal history could not fail to be moved by the images he painted of his idyllic childhood in remote Plains, his hazing incident at Annapolis for refusing to sing Marching through Georgia, his near-death experience aboard a Pacific-fleet submarine and his born-again religious experience, the compassionate humor of his mother, Miss Lillian, and the stern taskmaster ethics of his father, Mr. Earl. In compelling yet humble language, Why Not the Best? introduced the world to the remarkable talents and ambitious humanity of Jimmy Carter.
The idea of writing a campaign autobiography was first presented to Jimmy Carter by his twenty-seven-year-old political strategist Hamilton Jordan in a prophetic seventy-page memorandum dated November 4, 1972, the day before Richard Nixons landslide victory over George McGovern in the presidential election. The memo, Carters game plan to win the presidential nomination in 1976, included the arduous task of writing a memoir to introduce himself to the voters. It seems not to have occurred to him that most candidates let others celebrate them, Gary Wills wrote about the book in an otherwise favorable Atlantic profile. But Jimmy Carter was not like most candidatesit was his unorthodox approach to politics that made him so appealing in the first place.
Unlike other presidential autobiographies, Why Not the Best? was written entirely by Carter, with some editorial assistance provided by Hal Gulliver, the associate editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Carter had read James David Barbers book Presidential Character (1972), from which he learned that a politicians style and purpose are expressed most truthfully in the early chapters of an autobiography: the lessons retained from youth. Carter knew that in this regard his rural Plains upbringing, peanut-farmer existence, distinguished naval career, and New South business perspective could set him apart from the Washington-style Democratic contenders. He was the rare politician, one without a single skeleton in his closet. So what if he was the proverbial outsider, never having fought in the political trenches along with other national Democrats in the great battles of the erathe Vietnam War, Medicaid and Medicare, civil-rights legislation, Nixons Supreme Court appointments, Watergate. This could be an asset, not a liability. The best politics is to do the best job yourself, Carter would note. And I put my best foot forward when writing Why Not the Best?
Throughout the late summer of 1974 Governor Carter shopped his book idea around to publishing firms to no avail. Unsure of how next to proceed he asked Hal Gulliver for tactical help. A short (1100 pg.) well-written book that you obviously wrote is worth much more (both to you and a publisher) than will be some extensive book that sounds like it was written by staff or other writers, Gulliver advised. With still no bites, Carter used his considerable pull as a member of the Southern Baptists Brotherhood Commission to cut a deal with Broadman Press in Nashville, with whom he had planned to write an evangelical tract. (Broadman Press was an inspirational literature house, dealing strictly in books, audiovisuals, and music celebrating the life of Jesus Christ.)
A straightforward autobiography about Jimmy Carters multifaceted life, Gulliver insisted, was what the voting public would want to read. A religious book marketed solely to Americas twenty million Baptists would not have a broad enough appeal for a serious presidential candidate, especially one with low name recognition. Eventually abandoning the notion of writing both books at once, Carter went with Gullivers editorial instinct and began the autobiography. He made it clear from the outset, however, that spiritual themes would pervade his memoir, since praying was, as he once put it, like breathing to me. Broadman Press assigned Joe Jackson to be Carters editor, a born-again book novice who would eventually sign his correspondence to the one-term governor with All the BEST to you and Rosalynn.
Hal Gulliver, writing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, had heard dozens of Jimmy Carter yarns over the years as he covered the self-assured peanut farmers meteoric political rise from the Sumter County Board of Education to the governors mansion. The Admiral Hyman Rickover Why Not the Best? storywhich Carter had recently used to great effect at the National Press Club where on December 12, 1974, he had formally announced his presidential candidacystood out in his mind as the most memorable, and he urged Carter to consider using it as both the title and the introduction.
Carter conceded to Gulliver on the Rickover opening and, of course, did call his book Why Not the Best?
