Britain fell in love with Jimmy Carter with just 3 words – what a shame it took world longer to appreciate his greatness
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ALL it took was three words: “Howay the lads!” for Britain to fall in love with President Jimmy Carter. He was in Newcastle when he won over a crowd of 20,000 with the Toon Army’s most famous chant. But it took the rest of the world many more years to appreciate the greatness of the longest-living US leader ever, who has died aged 100.
![[Britain fell in love with President Jimmy Carter]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/former-president-jimmy-carter-speaks-5341043.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
In the wake of the Watergate scandal which saw Republican President Richard Nixon resign from office in disgrace, Carter the Democrat candidate was expected to narrowly win against Tricky Dicky’s replacement former Vice President Gerald Ford. But in an attempt to portray himself as a Washington outsider and man of the people Carter gave an interview to soft-porn magazine, Playboy, where he admitted that he had “committed adultery in his heart many times.”.
![[The longest-living US leader ever has died aged 100]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/james-earl-jimmy-carter-39th-454338699.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Carter’s reference to sex became all anyone could talk about. The interview shifted the entire dynamic of the election — and helped get the Republicans back on track. Many evangelical Christians in Carter’s southern heartland turned against him. Despite the setback, Carter won the 1976 election to become 39th United States President at the age of 52.
![[The late President with his wife and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/first-lady-rosalynn-carter-redropped-960466315.jpg?strip=all&w=495)
In his inaugural address the following January he told the American people: “Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes. But his one term in the White House was notorious for fiascos ranging from a self-inflicted 444-day hostage crisis to an incident when he managed to get attacked in a pond by a swimming rabbit.
![[Jimmy Carter vowed to stay alive so that Rosalynn would never have to live alone]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/president-jimmy-carter-rosalynn-carter-960462012.jpg?strip=all&w=894)
