Exaggeration, misinformation and myth have always infected politics, even before social media went to extremes.

Especially with American presidents there are misconceptions: sometimes in their favor, sometimes not. Some claims relate to policies, others to their biographies and personal characteristics.

That George Washington story about the cherry tree? apocryphal. And his teeth weren’t really made of wood. (At least some of his dentures were taken from the mouths of enslaved individuals.) There is no evidence that William Howard Taft ever got stuck in a bathtub. (He was, however, the heaviest president ever, at over 300 pounds.)

James Monroe was not the main force behind the Monroe Doctrine. (That would be secretary of

S

current and future president

,

John Quincy Adams.) And Richard Nixon wasn’t actually impeached. (He resigned before the full House could vote on the issue.)

As a former president

Jimmy

Carter receives home hospice care at age 98, misconceptions about his life also come to light. Most are rooted in some truth, but need more context:

MISCONCEPTANCE: Ronald Reagan has released the American hostages in Iran.

MORE PRECISELY: Carter and his administration negotiated their release, but Tehran would not release them until after Reagan’s inauguration on January 20, 1981.

THE DETAILS: Iranian revolutionaries stormed the US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. They would detain 52 US citizens for 444 days. From the start, Carter decided not to start a shooting war in response. He authorized a rescue mission in the spring of 1980, but mechanical problems forced the helicopter operation to be aborted and one crashed, killing eight servicemen.

Carter, a Democrat, continued diplomatic efforts but suffered politically from the intense coverage of the crisis. He lost to Republican Reagan in a landslide on November 4. A final round of negotiations then began in Algeria

the election

. The US delegation was led by Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Iran and the U

United States

final terms for the release of the hostages on Carter’s last full day in office, January 19, 1981, and Carter remained in the Oval Office the next morning, Inauguration Day, to work through the details. They were released shortly after Reagan was sworn in. Reagan then sent Carter to West Germany to greet the freed Americans.

MISCONCEPTION: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter founded Habitat for Humanity.

MORE PRECISELY: The Carters have been Habitat

for humanity

most famous endorsers and volunteers. But the organization was founded by wealthy businessman Millard Fuller and his wife, Linda, as an outgrowth

by

a municipality in Georgia where the

j

time spent in the sixties.

THE DETAILS: Habitat grew out of the housing ministry of Koinonia Farm, a multiracial commune in Carter’s native region that was outlawed during the time of Jim Crow segregation. In 1965, Fuller came to the farm for what he would later describe as spiritual renewal.

Carter biographer Jonathan Alter describes Martin Luther King Jr. befriended the white founder of Koinonia, Clarence Jordan, during the civil rights movement. But the not

–

a profit organization was accused in Georgia courts of being a communist front, and King’s inner circle viewed it as radical. Jordan was beaten on the streets of America, a short distance from Plains. Against this backdrop, Alter writes, Jimmy Carter kept his distance. Jordan’s cousin, Hamilton Jordan, would become Carter’s White House Chief of Staff. Alter records the younger Jordan, who died in 2008, saying his uncle viewed Carter as merely a politician.

Koinonia’s local housing programs were formalized in the late 1960s as the Fund for Humanity. Carter was running for governor at the time. The Fullers founded Habitat for Humanity in 1976, the year Carter won the presidency. The Carter’s first volunteer-built Habitat was in New York City in 1984. That became the annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, which would eventually build, renovate or repair 4,400 homes in 14 countries. The Carters worked with more than 104,000 volunteers

T

he is the Earl of Carter Center.

MISCONPLICATION: Jimmy Carter was an unabashed liberal.

MORE PRECISELY: Carter was a moderate politician, campaigned single-mindedly and, once in office, pursued policies that do not easily fit under one label.

THE DETAILS: Carter ran for president in 1976 as an outsider in a party largely controlled in Washington by New Deal liberals and Kennedy loyalists. Carter was a Southern Democrat who never got along with Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who challenged him in a damaging 1980 primary. Carter had described himself in Georgia as both conservative and progressive, depending on the issue, audience, and campaign. Sometimes he even used those words interchangeably.

He was a policy prodigy of good governance who devoted considerable political capital to reorganizing government in Atlanta and then Washington. He pushed windfalls (unsuccessfully) on major oil companies, but frustrated fellow Democrats over spending priorities and added little to the national debt compared to any of his successors (less than $300 billion in four years). The deregulatory era often associated with Reagan actually began with Carter relaxing regulations on airlines, trains, and freight.

Carter advocated for a national health program, but his health was top notch

health care bill failed because it did not go far enough for party liberals, including Kennedy. Carter became more openly progressive as a former president, voting for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential primary. But he also warned his party for 2020 not to go too far to the left if they hoped to defeat the then president.

Donald

Trump.

MISCONCEPTION: Jimmy Carter is married to RAHZ-lyn, and he was there when she was born.

MORE PRECISELY: It’s ROSE-lyn, and he met her as a newborn, but not right away.

THE DETAILS: Eleanor Rosalynn (again, ROSE-lyn) Smith was born in Plains on August 18, 1927. The nurse who gave birth to her was Lillian Carter, the mother of the future president. But Jimmy Carter, who was born on October 1. 1, 1924, was back on the family farm in nearby Archery, outside of Plains. Miss Lillian brought

here

her son returned to the Smiths’ house a few days later to see baby Rosalynn, who is now 95.

As for the pronunciation, remember the flower. The former president’s affectionate name for her might also help. He often calls her Rosie.