I guess he was just "white trash" also? Look at what he has done since leaving the Presidency. Making MILLIONS? I am an Agnostic, but if any human being deserves to be called "Christian and religious", Mr. Carter certainly does.

I am 65 years old and only a Democrat for about 20 of all those years. I would rank Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter as my top 2 Presidents in my lifetime, simply because they cared about the 99% of America.

He did leave the Presidency quite poor but he was not poor when he was elected to it, nor was his family poor when he grew up.

Due to the rightwing hate machine.

They may be allowed some credit, but not much. Lawyer would cut them loose first, at least in my experiences.

No they do not. They would only allow rich people that sort of consideration. This is a statement of fact.

They only allow rich people to rack up that kind of debt. They do this knowing that the rich person will inevitably be rolling in the dough in the near future.

Did he have to pay for a mortgage, food, clothing, groceries for their dinners?

If you take away all the normal expenses the serfs have to deal with, 35K was an amazing salary. That is not poor. It's just not filthy rich like they are now.

He could have made much more in the private sector, even in Arkansas.

And, yes, he did have to pay for his food, clothing, and groceries (as he also did as President).The housing came with the job.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/20681/who-pays-obama-familys-food

President Obama may have his own executive chef now, but when his family and personal guests eat what's coming out of the kitchen, he'll have to foot the bill himself. Luckily for him, though, the government picks up the tab if he's having a state function at the White House, which could get pricey since the White House's website touts that its five chefs can crank out dinner for 140 or hors d'oeuvres for over a thousand people.

Does someone really keep track? Apparently, the White House functions like a luxury hotel in this regard. At the end of each month, the president receives a bill for his food and incidental expenses. Nancy Reagan was famously taken aback by this practice when an usher presented her first bill in 1981, saying, "Nobody ever told us the president and his wife are charged for every meal, as well as incidentals like dry cleaning, toothpaste, and other toiletries." (Once they got used to the bills, though, the Reagans loved the White House; President Reagan often joked that all the amenities made it like living in an eight-star hotel.)

The president and his family get to pick what snacks they want, what brand of toothpaste they use, and what menu they want the chef to prepare for them, but it can still get a bit pricier than new commanders in chief expect. In a fascinating article in this month's National Geographic, former White House chief usher Gary Walters said that he couldn't remember any first families not complaining about the high prices of the food. Walters added that Rosalynn Carter was particularly miffed by the high-priced fare, which must have been a bit more expensive than what she'd been getting in Georgia.

About the food.

I mean Governors entertain a lot, having dinners and drinks for their varied guests - Bill and Hillary had to get that money out of their own pockets?

does NOT have to pay for official state dinners. I'm sure the same thing was true for Clinton when he was governor.

But they did have to pay when friends and relatives visited, because those would have been personal costs.

Also, I just found a site that said, with inflation, 35K in 1992 would be worth about $59K today -- not really an amazing amount for a Governor with a law degree from Harvard.

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com

turns out that law would have made the Clinton's far poorer than politics tho.

But what we also don't know is how much of their wealth is going into the foundation.

and the Walmart board?

Because he had a pretty good idea of how people live

minus the Mcthingamajigs.