Maybe like Shrub, and even Obama to a lesser extent, Carter would have done better if the Presidency had come to him later in life. In any case, I don't know if we've had a President redeem himself to the public after a less than positively viewed presidency to the degree Jimmy Carter has. Most ex-presidents who leave office less than at peace with their tenure become crotchety old guys like Hoover, or like Nixon insist on trying to regain some kind of relevancy that the public has no interest in bestowing. Carter as President was sort of an immodest, small minded, self-righteous jerk. But he mellowed out and found a better self in his retirement.