It's been insufferable to sit through countless condemnations of Jimmy Carter - who, a few days ago, said simply what everyone else in the country already believes - which all take the exact same shape: "Jimmy Carter, look in the mirror." "Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black?" "Carter belongs in peanut gallery."

In fact, Carter was a fine president, inasmuch as that means anything. That he is not considered one speaks volumes about what we consider "great" in our presidents.

Look at the usual reasons for consigning Carter to the dustbin.

"He was only elected to one term." So what? Grant was elected to two terms, and no one considers him a great president. And Lincoln, our greatest president, only served a month over four years. This means nothing.

"What about the economic situation?" FDR governed during a far worse economic crisis that lasted at least until his third term. In addition, the crisis began during Nixon's administration and continued through Reagan's first term.

"He didn't get anything accomplished." Carter, a Washington outsider, was deeply unpopular with his own party. Despite the fact that the Democrats controlled Congress, they refused to work with Carter and constantly belittled him to the press. It's telling that everyone remembers Carter's embarrassing "fight" with a rabbit, but no one remembers Reagan joking that he had outlawed Russia "forever," and "we begin bombing in five minutes." Despite these obstacles, he retained a relatively modest foreign policy and managed to secure a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt.

"He allowed the overthrow of the Shah." This convenient untruth allows us to blame Carter for the current Iran "crisis." The truth is, the Shah was a tyrant who was overwhelmingly unpopular in Iran. One doesn't have to approve of the Ayatollah Khomeini to believe that the U.S. had no more right to prevent his taking power than Iran would have the right to overthrow President Bush.

"What about the hostage crisis?" Well, what about it? What was he supposed to do, declare war on Iran? In fact, Carter handled the kidnapping with dignity, considering he was under assault from all sides for not starting a war.

Alas, this crisis probably sealed Carter's historical fate. Giuliani, in the first Republican debate this year, told a flat-out lie: “[Iranian President Ahmadinjad] has to look at an American President and he has to see Ronald Reagan. Remember, they looked in Ronald Reagan’s eyes, and in two minutes, they released the hostages.”

In fact, Carter had secured the release of the hostages by working nonstop on his last night in office. Unfortunately, their release coincided with Reagan's inauguration, leading many to believe, falsely, that the Iranians had been alarmed by the election of an old movie star whose biggest coup during the campaign had been to chuckle a harmless-old-codger laugh at Carter and quip, "There you go again!"

In fact, speaking of Ronald Reagan, who expanded the power of the president back to pre-Watergate days, hacked brutally at the welfare state and cast countless Americans into poverty and darkness, cracked down on civil liberties and popular government in a manner that even Nixon never dared, unnecessarily revived the receding Cold War and did his best to stave off its end (the myth that Reagan and Gorbachev share credit for the fall of the Soviet Union is just that - a myth; as one Gorbachev aide has said, the U.S.'s flailing show of fake-aggressiveness only gave ammunition to the hard-liners in the Kremlin), and finally sold weapons to Iran so he could illegally finance a private war in Nicaragua - compared to that, Carter was a bad president?

But perhaps it's true. Carter wasn't a great president. He is something much more important: He is a great citizen.

When Carter bid farewell to the Oval Office on January 14, 1981, he said this:

"In a few days, I will lay down my official responsibilities in this office -- to take up once more the only title in our democracy superior to that of president, the title of citizen."

In the years since 1981, Carter has been one of the most outspoken and honorable people to hold that honorable title. May he serve as an example for many years to come.