I’m going to second Brad Plumer on this: compared to the historical screw job Herbert Hoover’s been tagged with, Carter got off easy. If we’re resuscitating reputations around here, there’s no better place to start than the best crisis administrator — both foreign and domestic — this country’s ever seen.

Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more.