
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 10, 1990                   TAG: 9004100558
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OUR FOUR LIVING EX-PRESIDENTS

HERBERT HOOVER had it right: The best revenge for an ex-president is to "outlive the bastards." Hoover outlived his tormentor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and went on to elder statesmanship and blue-ribbon commissionerships. By the time he went to the Oval Office in the Sky, much of the bitterness over the Depression had mellowed.

What happened to Hoover happens to most exes, provided they live long enough. Richard Nixon is the latest example. The only chief executive ever to resign in disgrace, he is now a voluble oracle on foreign affairs. His tomes take up more than a foot on the bookshelf. He is back.

Also on the comeback trail is Jimmy Carter, peace-facilitator extraordinary, who was instrumental in forcing the Sandinistas to acknowledge that they lost an election they considered a shoo-in. Carter's on-the-site condemnation of the stolen election in Panama and his labors in mediating the Ethiopia-Eritrea and Arab-Israel conflicts have carved out a distinctive new role. Ridiculed by his successor, he now outranks Reagan in the opinion polls.

In contrast, Reagan is botching his ex-presidency. His $2 million fee for a speaking engagement in Tokyo produced an impression that he was cashing in exorbitantly on his public service. Then came his embarrassing testimony in the John Poindexter trial, where 154 can't-remember replies etched an unflattering portrait.

Not surprisingly, Gerald Ford turns out to be the least memorable of our current ex-presidents. Although he has been Carter's sidekick on some do-gooder missions, his public image is linked to the golf circuit and the mashed-potato circuit.

All of the above suggests that ex-presidencies are really extensions of presidencies, only truer to the personality of the individual involved: Nixon - ever striving, ever forbidding and austere; Ford - always the nice guy drawn to the locker room and the board room; Carter - his penchant for righteousness, a flaw on active duty, gives luster to his presidential afterlife; Reagan - the prince of glitz and greed, yet eternally amiable.

Every president deserves the ex-presidency he fashions for himself. Teddy Roosevelt remained in national politics, even launching a third party. William Howard Taft went on to be chief justice. Woodrow Wilson was a spent force. Calvin Coolidge was no force at all. Harry Truman an irascible icon loved even by Republicans. Dwight Eisenhower respected - and elusive.

Today, our four living ex-presidents, the most since 1861, enrich the national scene because they are freer than ever to be what they want to be and do what they want to do. It's good to have them around.

by CNB