So it looks like Jimmy Carter is set to endorse Barack Obama. If I were Obama, I would tell the former President, “thanks, but no thanks.”

It’s not just that Carter has written a controversial (which is to say, bad) book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It’s that Carter was an abysmal President. At best, one might say of him, “nice guy–wrong job.”

Many things that Carter said and attempted to enact turned out to be prescient, particularly in the areas of energy and environmental policy. But that doesn’t detract from his lack of effectiveness as President. Jimmy Carter may be many things, but a reference for chief executive is not one of them.